News | Page 2 | CWA Local 7019

President Trump Should Keep His Promise to Keep Airline Workers Employed
The grants for the airline industry in the coronavirus relief act that Congress passed last week are supposed to fund paychecks and benefits for two million hourly workers, including CWA members who are airport agents, reservation agents, and Flight Attendants. Instead, President Trump's Treasury Secretary, Steve Mnuchin, is threatening to attach stock warrants to the grants, which add debt to the airlines' balance sheets, increase the risk of bankruptcy, and make it more difficult for them to accept the grants. Congress did not intend for the grants to work this way. Tell President Trump to make sure the grants are used to save jobs, paychecks, and healthcare by signing the petition at https://cwa-union.org/keep-airline-workers-employed. — Apr 2
CWA Healthcare Workers on the Front Lines of the COVID-19 Crisis
CWA's 24,000 healthcare workers are on the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis. Hospitalizations are soaring, and facilities are suffering from extreme shortages of protective equipment, ventilators, tests, and healthcare staff. They face the highest probability of repeat exposure to the virus that causes COVID-19 and their lives are at risk. On Saturday, CWA Local 1104's Lavita Thompson Payton and CWA Local 1168's Sarah Buckley gave intense, moving interviews on CNN and MSNBC about the desperate shortage of protective equipment for healthcare workers, and the need for the President Trump to use the full force of the National Defense Production Act to get equipment produced now. Watch the video by clicking the above image. CWA healthcare workers are also speaking out on videos that explain the urgent need for more equipment. Watch the entire series of videos and share at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrVc3mWU1IO8uB7uDFCBH3arsY0v7_atF. Take action. Sign the petition to tell President Trump that he must use the full force of the Defense Production Act now! — Apr 2
In Memoriam – April 2, 2020
CWA has established a memorial page for members who have lost their lives to COVID-19. This week we honor the memory of Alan Finder, a member of TNG-CWA Local 31003 who worked at The New York Times; Rolondo "Sonny" Aravena, a member of CWA Local 1101 who worked at Verizon; Karisma Dargan, a member of CWA Local 1182 who worked for the New York City Police Department Traffic Enforcement District; José Vázquez, a member of CWA Local 4299 who worked at Envoy Air; and Priscilla Carrow, a member of CWA Local 1180 who worked at Elmhurst Hospital. — Apr 2
Premature T-Mobile Merger Closing is an End Run Around the California Public Utility Commission
T-Mobile is trying to do an end run around the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) approval process, declaring victory on their website for the proposed T-Mobile/Sprint merger before the Commission completes its process. T-Mobile’s management is putting their artificial timetable for closing the deal ahead of public interest concerns at a time when the company’s focus should be on its employees and its customers. In a letter to the Commission, T-Mobile cites the risk that the COVID-19 pandemic poses for financial markets as a reason for accelerating the close of the merger. Meanwhile, essential T-Mobile employees in California are putting themselves at risk every day to support and maintain critical communications services while facing the prospect that the proposed T-Mobile/Sprint merger would eliminate thousands of California jobs, combine two companies with long histories of labor and employment violations, and increase wireless employers’ power to unilaterally set wages. The COVID-19 crisis does not change the basic, underlying problems with the merger: there are no merger-specific, verifiable public interest benefits, and the merger remains anti-competitive. In comments filed yesterday, CWA is calling for the CPUC’s Proposed Decision to be revised to include conditions to mitigate the merger’s negative effects on employees, including requiring that no T-Mobile or Sprint employee (including those of dealers and contractors) loses a job or wages as a result of the transaction, and to ensure the complete protection of employees’ right to form a union of their own choosing free from any interference by the New T-Mobile. — Apr 2
NewsGuild: Life-saving News Needs a Stimulus
The NewsGuild-CWA is urging Congress to adopt provisions in its next stimulus package that will protect life-saving news operations from devastation. As businesses close due to COVID-19 restrictions, advertising revenue has plummeted, threatening news outlets with extinction. To address the crisis, The NewsGuild Executive Council unanimously approved a resolution calling for federal, state, and local governments to provide public funds and incentives to sustain news operations. “Journalists are working on never-ending deadlines and risking their own health to provide life-saving information to a nation sheltering in place,” NewsGuild President Jon Schleuss said. “News is an essential service and our country can’t afford to lose it during this pandemic.” Even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, many newsrooms had been reduced to skeletal staffs and some had disappeared altogether, due to declining ad revenue, corporate consolidations and asset-stripping by vulture capitalists. On Monday, Gannett, the country’s biggest newspaper chain, announced plans to furlough employees for one week each month, which would immediately reduce reporting capacity by 25 percent in communities across the country. Lee Enterprises, another large news chain, followed suit on Tuesday, announcing furloughs and pay cuts. Several alt-weeklies have suspended operations, and many publications are laying off workers. “We cannot stand by and let news organizations in our communities die,” Schleuss said. “Public stimulus funds are the only way to ensure the long-term viability of the newsorganizations people rely on.” The Guild’s recommendations include acknowledgement that accurate, reliable journalism is an essential service, public financing; job protections such as a prohibition against layoffs, furloughs, pay cuts and buyouts so that journalists can report the news, and no-interest loans from the Small Business Administration for news start-ups, including nonprofits and employee-owned co-ops. SEE THE NEWSGUILD’S DEMANDS HERE: https://newsguild.org/life-saving-news-needs-a-stimulus/ Under the NewsGuild’s proposal, public support for news-gathering operations would come with strings attached: Publications would be required to remain independent from partisan influence; they would be required to demonstrate financial need, and would be prohibited from using public money for executive bonuses, dividends, stock buybacks or golden parachutes. “We depend on journalists to cover press conferences, walk our streets, tell us where the testing centers are, report on hospital capacity and how many of our neighbors have already died,” Schleuss said. “They’re face to face with our communities to tell their stories during this news story: the largest of our lifetime.” NewsGuild-CWA also launched a petition for community support for the recommendations. SEE THE PETITION HERE: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/life-saving-news-needs-a-stimulus/ “Our country needs a strong free and independent press to provide reliable information and hold our leaders accountable,” Schleuss continued. “It’s urgent that we take action to protect it.” — Apr 2