January 2020 Newsletter #16

Local 3204

Local 3204 hosted the MLK March Committee meetings this year as we have done for over the past ten years. Members of our Executive Board and stewards joined the committee and help plan and coordinate the March and Rally. Our members and there families joined with other Unions and marched thru the streets of downtown Atlanta to the King Center. Our Metro Atlanta Rapid Transportation Authority (MARTA) provided us with a bus to transport members to and from the March. We also invited members of our communities to ride with us.

January 20, 2020 MLK March in Atlanta GA.

MLK Prayer Breakfast January 17, 2020 in Atlanta GA. From left to right President Ed Barlow, RMC 30901 President Rita Scott, AFA-CWA President Sara Nelson, GA House Rep 56 District Able Mable Thomas, GA Afl-Cio Secretary Treasurer Yvonne Brooks, VP Richard Honeycutt,

We also have a trip planned to Selma Alabama, on March 1, 2020 to visit the Edmund Pettis Bridge, Civil Rights Museum, and Brown Chapel AME Church. This will be the 55th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday Commemoration.

We have a host of events coming up this year to include a Car & Bike Show, and our annual golf tournament.

Our RMC members of 30901 have partnered with us to being the first Union to host an event for our members and the community to test out Georgia’s new voting machines. The new machines will be at the February RMC 30901 and Local 3204 Union meetings. Our members can test them out prior to going to the polls on March 24. Together with RMC 30901 we will do voter registration drives on the job and at our February Union meetings.

Our Legislative Committee is also partnering with with our RMC to finalize our 2020 legislative agenda. The committee has plans to lobby and interview candidates seeking various offices in the state of Georgia. We invite members to join our Legislative committee or any committees in the local.

Local 3204 will be participating in the First Annual District 3 Golf Tournament. We look forward to beating the other locals and bringing the trophy home to Hotlanta.

Our mission statement this year is as follows: Don’t just be on the Team, be active and get in the Game!!!

Ed Barlow
President
CWA Local 3204
Atlanta, GA

AFA-CWA

Sara Nelson President of the AFA-CWA was the keynote speaker at the 17th Annual MLK Human Rights Prayer Breakfast held in Atlanta. Also in attendance were other AFA members and flight attendants from Delta, which is based out of Atlanta. Sara is leading a campaign to organize Delta flight attendants.

CWA Retirees

As your newly re-elected CWA Retiree Representatives for CWA District 3 , Gwen Parker and I , Dusty Winters , are here to assist , inform , and represent all of our CWA retirees in District 3. Our goal is to unify our CWA retirees here in our district and provide them with the best communication and representation possible. In addition to working with our CWA retiree chapters here in our district , we will also work with the District 3 office and our active locals in the district to provide assistance and information at their request and to help them start new CWA-RMC Chapters. Remember , our strength is in our unity and we must all , retiree and active member alike , stay informed and involved for our survival. Gwen and I look forward to seeing and talking with everyone at our upcoming 'CWA District 3 meeting at Biloxi , Miss. in March. ---------------- THANK YOU for your past , current , and future support ------------- Dusty Winters , CWA - RMC District 3 President and Gwen Parker , CWA - RMC District 3 Vice - President

Women’s March 2020 in Johnson City, TN.

NLRB WAGES WAR ON WORKERS AND UNIONS

Late December the NLRB issued a series of decisions in what is just the latest battle in the management-dominated Board’s war on Unions and on worker’s rights. The NLRB also published revisions to the rules governing NLRB elections that remove many of the improvements adopted by the previous Board. The timing relates to the end of the term of Board Member Lauren McFerran, who was the only member of the NLRB with ties to organized labor. With her departure, the NLRB is down to three members, all of whom come from a management background. The current administration has no plans to appoint additional members to the fill the two vacant Board positions, leaving the NLRB completely in the hands of the Chamber of Commerce and National Right to Work for less Committee.

This latest round of NLRB decisions is being referred to as the “December Dump” on workers and organized labor.  All of the decisions overturn existing NLRB law, with the effect of handing significant power to management and weakening Union rights, both in organizing and in contract enforcement.  The decisions include:

*Reversal of a 2014 decision finding that employees have the right to use of company e-mail to communicate about protected, concerted activity. Under the new ruling employers can ban use of company e-mail for nonbusiness purposes.

*Limiting the right of employees to wear Union buttons and other insignia in the workplace. The Board upheld an employer rule barring “customer-facing” employees from wearing union buttons unless the buttons are “small and non-distracting”, as long as the employer can offer some justification for the rule.

*Reversal of a 2015 ruling that dues checkoff is a term and condition that survives contract expiration.  Going forward, dues checkoff does not survive contract expiration.    CWA has already been advised in some bargaining units that are working without a contract that dues check is being discontinued immediately.

*Reversal of a 2015 decision that required employers to provide information about workplace investigations. Under the new ruling an employer’s assertion of a need for confidentiality during the course of the investigation will control.

*Reversal of a 2011 decision that required employers to provide information about customer complaints if requested by the Union.  Under the new standard a Union must first prove that the requested customer complaint information lead directly to discipline or the denial of a merit wage increase or bonus.

*The revised NLRB elction rules have the effewct of lengthening the period between filing an election petition and the date of election.  The rules take effect April 15.    Dates and deadlines in the pre-election process have been extended, and additional procedural requirements have been imposed on a party filing for an election.  The result of the Board’s announced revisions will be to lengthen the pre-election process and delay elections, during which time management will have additional time to run anti-union campaigns.

Unfortunately these decisions are the trend, not the exception.  The trend will continue, furthermore, until politicians who care more about working class Americans than corporate power and greed are in charge in Washington.

CWA District 3 General Counsel

Robert Weaver

CWA DISTRICT 3 2020 GOLF TOURNAMENT FUNDRAISER

2020_CWA_Golf_Tournament.docx