Hooker

Jun 302014
 
Union Scholarship

Union Scholarship

We are pleased to announce that a random drawing chose the winners of the Robert D. Johnson Memorial Scholarship, and the recipients for the 2014-2015 academic year are:

Zachary M. Smith, sponsored by Craig Smith of CWA Local 4622.

Tyler Sorey, sponsored by Holly Sorey of CWA Local 4202.

Shane G. Tennyson, sponsored by Gregory Tennyson of CWA Local 4603.

Congratulations to all of our winners, and good luck to them as they pursue their studies with support from the Communications Workers of America – District 4.

The Robert D. Johnson Memorial Scholarship fund was established by a unanimous vote at the 1999 CWA District 4 Meeting in memory of District 4 Vice President Emeritus Robert D. Johnson. A random drawing is used to select the scholarship awards.

 Posted by at 3:33 pm
Dec 132013
 

verigreedyAfter more than two years, justice has finally been served for Douglas LaLima, a lineman and member of CWA Local 1109, who was tragically electrocuted while placing strand in Brooklyn.

Verizon has been found guilty of multiple violations of the OSHA Telecommunications Standard and fined $147,000 for repeat violations of not ensuring that linemen used insulating rubber gloves while placing strand on joint use poles and not making certain that the strand is temporarily grounded while being placed. Verizon also faces one serious violation for not providing adequate training.

The company now must provide enhanced electrical safety training and other safeguards to its New York field technicians who install suspension strand on utility poles that carry power lines. This landmark stipulated settlement agreement covers Verizon New York and affects all line personnel and line garages in the state.

“It is not the amount of the fines, which are limited by law, which is ultimately important. No amount of money can ever make up for the loss of a person’s life. What is important is that Verizon is being held accountable for their negligence and they must now take specific actions to provide for a safer work environment,” CWA District 1 Vice President Chris Shelton told CWA Locals. “While it is sad and unconscionable that this is what it took for the company to do what they should have been doing all along, this is a positive and much needed step toward preventing another death of this kind in the future.”

Verizon poured resources into fighting all of their OSHA citations, but could not make a case. Because of its two repeat violations – based on the death of Jarrod Lyon, a lineman from CWA Local 1126, in 2002 – Verizon is now on the OSHA Severe Violator list and will be subject to additional oversight.

“While no settlement can bring this worker back to his family, co-workers and friends, this agreement can help prevent similar and needless tragedies in the future,” said Robert Kulick, OSHA’s regional administrator in New York. “It commits Verizon New York to provide enhanced and specific training for its field technicians on the hazards involved with installing suspension strand on utility poles carrying power lines. Such training will also reinforce management’s commitment to safe practices.”

 Posted by at 9:09 am
Apr 102013
 

whistleblower_wtext

“Reporting a work injury or illness is a core employee right and retaliating against a worker for reporting an injury or illness is illegal discrimination.”

In March, 2012, OSHA issued a memorandum “Employer Safety Incentive and Disincentive Policies and Practices.” This memorandum outlines OSHA’s position regarding employer policies and practices that discourage workers from reporting job injuries and illnesses. It explains workers’ legal protections for reporting injuries and illnesses under Section 11(c) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, other whistleblower programs (such as the Federal Railway Safety Act) and under OSHA’s Recordkeeping Rule (29 CFR 1904).

 Which Employer Polices and Practices Could Be Illegal?

The memorandum gives examples of four types of employer policies and practices that might violate OSHA’s Section 11(c) and other whistleblower protections and could also result in violations of OSHA’s recordkeeping requirements:

  • Injury Discipline:
    Where employers have a policy or practice of disciplining workers who report injuries or illnesses, regardless of the circumstances surrounding the injury. This would violate Section 11(c) and might also violate an employer’s obligation to establish a way for employees to report injuries as required by OSHA’s record-keeping rule.
  • Discipline for “Untimely” Reporting of Injuries or for Not Reporting Injuries in the Way Required by the Employer:
    Where employers have rules requiring that all injuries be reported immediately, and workers are disciplined even in cases where they do not immediately realize that an injury or illness has occurred or that an injury or illness was serious enough to be reported; or where the employer’s reporting requirements are unreasonable, unduly burdensome or enforced with unjustifiably harsh penalties.
  • Discipline for Violating a Safety Rule:
    When employers use violating a safety rule as an excuse for disciplining workers who report job injuries or illnesses; or when employers have vague rules like a requirement that employees “maintain situational awareness” or “work carefully” and then only discipline workers for violating those rules when they report injuries or illnesses. Enforcing such rules more harshly against injured/ill employees than non-injured/ill employees may suggest that the rule is a pretext for discrimination against an injured/ill employee in violation of Section 11(c).
  • Safety Incentive Programs:
    Where employees are disqualified from rewards and prizes because injuries and illnesses are reported. Incentive programs that unintentionally or intentionally provide employees an incentive to not report injuries/illnesses can be a violation of Section 11(c).

In addition, the Agency’s memorandum states, “OSHA has also observed that the potential for unlawful discrimination under all of these policies may increase when management or supervisory bonuses are linked to lower reported injury rates.” OSHA highlights in the memorandum:

“If employees do not feel free to report injuries or illnesses, the employer’s entire workforce is put at risk. Employers do not learn of and correct dangerous conditions that have resulted in injuries, and injured employees may not receive the proper medical attention, or the workers’ compensation benefits to which they are entitled. Ensuring that employees can report injuries and illnesses without fear of retaliation is, therefore, crucial to protecting workers’ health and safety.”

If you have been injured on the job, let your steward know right away. If a manager, tells you that reporting it could lead to discipline, this is illegal! Let us know right away!

 Posted by at 7:13 am
Feb 122013
 
Icicle Danger

Do not work under this!

Here in West Michigan, the winter weather can take many twists and turns on its way to spring. In just days, the weather can go from 50 degrees to 5 degrees and this creates extra hazards for outside craft folks. One of the most dangerous is icicles. The freeze and thaw cycle during weather-swings can cause these to both grow rapidly and weaken to the point where any disturbance, such as opening a network interface device (NID) on the side of a house can cause it to come crashing down – on you! Continue reading »

 Posted by at 10:00 am
Jan 232013
 

Today CWA 4034 Administrative Assistant Brian Hooker filed an unfair labor practice (ULP) against the Grand Rapids Uverse management team in Grand Rapids. As many will recall, back in October of last year hundreds of Premise Technicians in Michigan participated in a spontaneous work-stoppage to protest what they perceived to be bad-faith bargaining on the part of AT&T.

walking Continue reading »

Jan 232013
 
[Editor’s note: Below is an editorial written by then Uverse Chief Steward Brian Hooker for the Local newsletter back in June of 2010. It becomes timely again as we fight to defend Prem Techs from unfair labor practices]

planet-of-apesIt has become evident that, since ratification of our contract, we have entered a sort of time-warp. Not the fun kind we see in the movies, where Bill and Ted have an excellent adventure; but, a movie more like Planet of the Apes, where the protagonist wakes up to find a world over-run by mutant monkeys with a penchant for biting the hand that fed them. (Spoiler alert!) In the movie, the protagonist discovers that the apes, who can talk, are in control and are divided into a strict class system. Humans, who cannot talk, are considered feral vermin and are hunted and either killed outright (terminated), enslaved for manual labor (no explanation needed) or used for scientific experimentation (MSOC).

Do I need to say who the monkeys are and the humans are? Continue reading »

Dec 122012
 

From The “Elections Have Consequences” Department

Q: What is a so called “Right-to-Work” Law?

A: It is a loophole created under Section 14(b) of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) that allows a state to enact a law prohibiting union security clauses in union contracts. It was enacted as part of the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act, a major anti-worker overhaul of Federal labor law pushed through by the 80th Congress despite a veto by President Harry Truman. It is worth noting that this was the first Republican controlled Congress since 1932.

Q: What is a union security clause?

A: A union security clause requires all workers who receive the benefits of a collective bargaining agreement (also called a union contract) to share the costs of the administration of that agreement. A so-called “Right-to-Work” law prohibits a union security clause thus creating a “Right-to-Freeload” law. Continue reading »

 Posted by at 9:47 am
Oct 182012
 
As many of know, about two weeks ago on October 4, Prem Techs in Michigan rose up in a spontaneous job action and walked off the job to protest the Company’s slow and brazenly disrespectful implementation of seniority scheduling in Uverse. As all of you know, seniority scheduling in Uverse was one of the top bargaining demands during this year’s stormy bargaining; and, many of our members lead, and/or participated in, several mobilizations to get it. Continue reading »
 Posted by at 12:41 am
Oct 052012
 

In 2008, Uverse was formed in Michigan. The Prem Techs were there to do a job, a job which they performed well. Like all of us, they were scheduled by seniority; the Prem Tech with the most seniority picked his schedule from a list of available tours provided by the Company. All was well with this system, which was mutually agreed to by the Union and the Company. The Company’s needs of the business were served and the employees were able to put some predictability in their lives. We know this as “work-life balance.”

In the summer of 2010, the Company informed the Union that seniority scheduling “was not fair.” So, since the Company was all about “fairness” (insert gagging noise here), it was going to start scheduling Prem Techs using the Computerized Scheduling Group, or CSG. In order to solve a problem that no one knew existed, “schedule fairness,” CSG would randomly assign the Prem Techs to a schedule that would rotate every week; thus, it was assured that no technician could predict their lives ever again. This, coupled with management’s proclivity for changing a worker’s schedule with a mere 48 hours’ notice, only added to the horror. Even field managers could not understand this system, or even explain what the rotation was or how someone could predict what tour they would end up with from month to month.

Naturally, our Union immediately began grieving this issue. Unfortunately, management refused to address our concerns using this process and we were forced to bring it to the bargaining table. This we did and were successful in bringing back contractual language inserting seniority-scheduling in Appendix F of our new collective bargaining agreement. Weeks passed. Weeks of Prem Techs and the Union asking, “Where is our seniority scheduling?” Management murmured a few pleas asking for more time because, “It was very difficult, the Midwest is the only contract in the nation where Prem Techs have seniority-scheduling!” They also, wearing looks of polite boredom, met with locals across the Midwest to “..seek our input..” on how seniority-scheduling should be implemented. After receiving our input and listening to our concerns, they immediately set about ignoring everything we told them.

Today, Uverse management rolled out their plan: a schedule 15 weeks in length that when printed out and posted on the wall measures more than four feet long. Each person’s schedule comprises 15-separate tours with never the same weekly schedule two weeks in a row. The 15-week nightmare is a mix of day and night tours with different off-days scattered throughout. The holiday weeks are completely blacked out because management doesn’t know what days in those weeks Uverse will be open. This means that no matter what 15-week schedule you “pick by seniority,” you still can’t be sure if you’ll be able to go see family over Thanksgiving. Or, if they come see you, you might be working while they wait for you to come home. On top of all this, management still reserves the right to change any of your weekly tours when they so desire.

We at the Union immediately set about protesting through the normal channels. After all, we have ratified a new contract and grievance strikes are no longer on the table. But the Prem Techs did not get the memo! They had become tired of AT&T’s butter-won’t-melt-in-our-mouth sanctimonious BS about how much they “value” their employees. It was clear from the utter disdain and casual disregard the Company showed toward the lives of their employees and those employees’ families that something else was needed besides the lengthy grievance process.

So, today the Prem Techs in Michigan finished servicing their customers’ needs on their first job this morning. They then returned to their garages, parked their trucks and told management, “We aren’t going to take this. We are refusing to pick up another job today until management commits to hearing, and fixing, our issue!”

Management. Freaked. Out.

They immediately threatened the Prem Techs with termination. They tried guilt-tripping Prem Techs about “customer service.” Bribes were offered and lies were told. All to no avail. Managers began to quote of Article 5 of the contract, the “no-strike” clause. Sadly, the managers forgot to read it because if they had, they would have known to call the Union hall and tell the president that he was required to tell the Prem Techs to go back to work. This cooperation, required by the contract, may have averted the problem. Instead, none of the local presidents were called! In some garages, this situation went on for hours before management thought to involve the Union.

Once the Union became involved, we were required to tell the Prem Techs that the contract required them to go back to work. They said no. Actually, they said, “Hell, no!”  So, we took their answer back to management. Management then offered to schedule an immediate conference on the scheduling issues that had so infuriated the Prem Techs. In every garage, manager went to the Prem Techs and asked them to go back to work, stating that if they did so the Prem Techs would not be disciplined. At that point, the Prem Techs got in their trucks and went back to work. Except…

In Grand Rapids and Holland, the Prem Techs had a question: What if we don’t? The answer: They were all put on a verbal warning for insubordination and given 10 minutes to be out working. When management came in 10 minutes later, the Prem Techs were still there. They were then put on written warning and given 10 minutes to get back to work. The Prem Techs stayed. When management came back, all 30+ Prem Techs were still at the garage and all 30+ suspended for the day. They received their suspensions and went home to their families.

These Union brothers and sisters felt a stronger message needed to be sent. They felt the Company needed to know just how important this issue was to ordinary working people. Work-schedules are so important that they were willing to sacrifice to drive home the point. Important not just to them, but to the people who depend on them. Their spouses. Their children.Their churches, school teams, bowling teams; it doesn’t matter. These Prem Techs don’t want to be “valued.” Things are “valued.” Commodities such as cattle, sheep and hogs are “valued.” They, and all of us, want to be respected.

I think they earned it today.

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