“Fall COPE DRIVE 2007”
There are only three weeks to go in District 7’s Fall COPE Drive however this drive will continue for the rest of this year. This year’s theme is “8 in 08” which means we need to ask our new members that sign up for COPE to voluntarily contribute $8.00 a month now and in the year 2008. We are also asking our existing members to voluntarily increase their voluntarily contribution up to $8.00 a month now and for the year 2008. CWA-COPE gives you the power to shape the policies that affect your life and your future. Invest in your future. Sigh up for CWA-COPE today. It’s the best investment you’ll ever make.
Our Jobs. Our Paychecks. Our Quality of Life. That’s what’s at stake in the political process. It’s a simple reality: Everything we win at the bargaining table can be taken away by the state legislature, an act of Congress or the stroke of the President’s pen. Wealthy, powerful special interests are spending hundreds of millions of dollars trying to do just that… and silence the voice of working families in our nation.
That’s why we’ve got to use our voice and demand our seat at the table where political decisions are made that affect our lives.
CWA-COPE gives you a voice – a voice to make a difference in America.
Your voluntary contribution to CWA-COPE – $8.00 a month – will make sure that your voice is heard. It is the best investment in your future you will ever make. CWA-COPE helps us elect friends of working families. It ensures that public officials listen and respond to our needs. In short, CWA-COPE makes a difference in the quality of our lives. Politics is not a spectator sport. If we sit on the sidelines, we lose. But this is no game. The consequences involve everything that matters to us – our jobs, our standard of living, our health insurance, our children’s education, our retirement security, and so much more.
In politics, money matters. Like it or not, campaign contributions are critical to electing friends of working families. As union members, we will never have the money to match Corporate America. But we have a resource the wealthy special interests can never match – people.
COPE CWA-is the political action committee of the Communications Workers of America. Your voluntary contribution - $8.00 a month – combined with the thousands of other CWA members, makes us a powerful voice from the state house to the White House, from the state legislature to Congress.
CWA-COPE gives you the power to shape the policies that affect your life and your future. If we don’t fight back – through CWA COPE – we can lose everything that matters. Do the math, through your voluntary contribution you’re investing in keeping your job, increasing your paycheck, preserving your health benefits, strengthening your retirement security, protecting your safety, and raising your quality of life. What could possibly give you a better return?
The PROBLEM: Employers Silence Workers Who Attempt To Form Unions
Employees who attempt to form unions and bargain for better wages and working conditions are being being silenced by employers using a combination of legal and illegal methods. In today’s tainted environment, 25 percent of employers fire at least one pro-union worker; 51 percent threaten to close a worksite if the union prevails; and 91 percent force employees to attend one-on-one anti-union meetings with their supervisors.
In addition, the system designed to protect workers is severely broken. Many employers find the punishment for breaking the law a bargain if firing a pro-union employee scares others from supporting the union.
The IMPACT: Economic Opportunity Stolen from America’s Working Families
Protecting the right to form unions is about maintaining the American Middle class. It’s no coincidence that as union membership numbers fall there are growing numbers of jobs with low pay, poor benefits, and little to no security. More than half of U.S. workers – 60 million – say they would join a union right now if they could. Why? They know that coming together to bargain with employers over wages, benefits, and working conditions is the best vehicle to getting ahead. Workers who belong to unions earn 30 percent more than non-union workers, and are 63 percent more likely to have employer-provided health care. Without labor law reform, economic opportunity for America’s working families will continue to erode.
The SOLUTION: Labor Law Reform That Gives Workers a Free Choice and a Fair Chance
A growing, bipartisan coalition of policymakers supports the Employee Free Choice Act, proposed legislation that would ensure that workers have a free choice and a fair chance to form union. The Employee Free Choice Act would level the playing field by strengthening penalties against offending employers; requiring mediation and arbitration to help employers and employees reach a first contract in a reasonable period of time; and, permitting workers to form a union through “majority sign-up,” a process in which workers present signed authorization cards as demonstration of their choice to belong to a union.
The RESULTS: Employer/Employee Partnerships Are Working At Top U.S. Companies
The provisions of the Employee Free Choice Act mirror successful strategies already in use by industry-leading employers such as Cingular Wireless and Kaiser Permanente. These companies have replaced adversarial relationships pitting employers against workers’ unions with cooperative labor relations models that include voluntary recognition of unions through majority sign-up and fair contracts. At Cingular, for example, over 17,000 employees chose to join the Communications Workers of America in less that a year when the company and union agreed to remain neutral during the organizing drive. The nation’s top wireless carrier and Wall Street darling continues to boost profits and advance a positive labor relations model enabling its union employees to grow.
While many companies would lead us to believe that cutting jobs, slashing wages and benefits, employing temporary and cheap labor, and busting unions are necessary to remain profitable in the global economy, Cingular and others have found another way that works for their bottom lines, their employees and their valued customers.
This is Why We Need the “Employee Free Choice Act”