Executive Vice Presidents' Report

 

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT REPORT

November 3, 2015

Today I have submitted my resignation effective Friday November 6, 2015 as Executive Vice President of Local 7019.  As many of you may know I have accepted a Staff Representative position in District 7 with CWA.  I will be working out of the Phoenix Area office supporting several locals in Arizona and Utah.

I have had the pleasure of being an officer of Local 7019 for the past 13 years.   During that time I’ve served as Area Vice President, Vice President, President, and Executive Vice President of our Local.  I’ve also been able to serve as Chair of the CWA State Council, Chair of the Maricopa Area Labor Federation, Executive Committee of the Arizona AFL-CIO and represent District 7 on the CWA National Committee on Civil Rights and Equity.

Like most of our members; I was just a union member, I paid my dues and showed up to a membership/unit meetings every once in a while but that was about it.  Unlike many of our members today I came from a union family my Dad, Grandfather, Aunt and Uncles were all members of various unions.  I wasn’t involved or active within our local for the first few years, that all changed when someone asked me to step up and get involved.  The challenge we face today in Labor is that most of our members have no union background.  It is up to us to educate them as they come into the workplace, we need to explain why we have the pay, benefits and working conditions we have today.  It’s because of those that came before us; we owe it to them to pass along that knowledge. If you’ve never been asked, consider this your invitation to get involved in YOUR LOCAL!

I know there will be many challenges the local will face going forward and I have full confidence that President Robles and the Executive Board are ready to face those challenges head on and continue the long tradition our local has of being a leader within AZ, District 7 and CWA Nationally.

I want to thank the members of Local 7019, the many union officers and activists that helped me over the last 13 years and allowed me the privilege of serving the local.

Thank you to the Executive Board for their support even at times when they may not have totally agreed with my ideas and position on some issues. 

Finally thank you to President Robles for supporting me as the Executive Vice President and allowing me to pursue some of the controversial issues we have taken on.

In Unity,

Paul C. Castañeda
Executive Vice President
CWA Local 7019

 

April 11, 2014

We currently have several surpluses going on across the region and a couple that are affecting our local. 

On February 26 the repair call handling center in Phoenix was notified that the center was being closed.  As a result of that closure 48 screening consultants were affective.  As of today just about all of them have chosen to follow their work, offered other jobs in other centers here in Phoenix, or decided to take VSPP/ISPP, we are still working on resolving a couple. 

On April 2, we were informed of a surplus of 107 Net Techs and COEIT across the Network Services Local Planning, Engineering and Construction West Organization, 11 of which are out of our local and another 9 in other locals in Arizona.  We will be assisting in trying to find jobs for those affective by this surplus in a couple of different ways. 

One of the ways is the Expanded Voluntary Separation Payment Program, which takes place 45 days after the surplus notice. This process would allow someone to take the VSPP package and allow the individual that is in surplus status to take the job of someone that wants to leave the company. 

For members that have been waiting for a package to leave in departments that have not received ZIPP VSPP offers over the last couple of years this would be an opportunity for you to get a packager if you are looking to retire.  If you are interested in doing a EVSPP you can fill out the Expanded VSPP Expression of Interest Application

Have your manager sign it and fax it back to the number on the form so when the time come you can be considered for a match.

As I said last week we are continuing to push back on CenturyLink’s safety toe boot policy.  If you work in an area that is predominantly buried plant and rarely/occasionally take your extension ladder off your vehicle or you don’t have an extension ladder on your vehicle please let your AVP know so that we can address your specific case.

In Unity

Paul Castañeda

 

 

March 10, 2014

 

Brothers & Sisters,

 I want to take a moment to update everyone on a couple of issues that we have been dealing with. 

The first is the payment of Double-Time when an employee is forced to work mandatory overtime between the 49th-55th hour.   Although there’s not normally that much overtime in the centers and some of the workgroups in the field, it does have the potential to affect all of us.  

Since ratification of the contract we have people that we believe were entitled to Double-Time Pay for being forced to work mandatory overtime between the 49th and 55th hour not receive proper payment.  We have gathered several examples that have been provided to the district office, in each of them the members were indeed shorted on their pay. 

“The district office has had discussions with the company and they are very aware of the issues.  The company has indicated that SAP has not been properly programmed to account for the changes that occurred from bargaining but they are working on the problems.  Once SAP is properly setup they will do an audit to be sure folks are paid properly.”

 That was communicated with us almost two months ago, as of last week I was told that the CenturyLink’s labor and payroll departments have not even attempted to correct the problem.  We filed a grievance on behalf of the local and will be meeting with the AZ Wage and Hour department about filing complaints with them as well. 

If you believe you were entitled to double-time pay and did not receive it you will need to provide a copy of your weekly time sheet (see attached example) and paystub to your Area Vice President. 

The second issue that we have been dealing with for the last two months is the requirements of safety-toe protective footwear.  After we received some calls about the requirement we brought the issue up in our leadership meeting, at that time local management said it was a requirement for all techs.  We notified the district office and were provided the letter from the company along with the safety matrix that supervisors and managers were to use to assess and compare the work tasks identified with those tasks performed by their employees.

 It was the Unions understanding from the discussions at the table, that a requirement that employees wear steel or composite toe boots would be based on an assessment of the specific technician groups to determine if this type of boot were required based on their job responsibilities.

 In discussions with the Company, they agree that the requirement to wear foot protection is not based on an employee’s job title but rather the specific work which is performed and the associated hazard(s) to that work. It is the activities the employees perform and the environment in which they perform that work which are what is to be evaluated to determine if a foot hazard exists. If it is determined that a hazard is present, then the protective footwear must be worn.

 Supervisors and managers who may have communicated a blanket requirement by job title or work group without assessing the tasks being performed by their employees and whether those tasks are listed on the hazard assessment matrix have been directed to review that again.

Based on the frequency, those employees who have exposure to the hazard will be informed whether they can utilize the safety toe overshoes for occasional use or in cases of frequent use where protective safety footwear is required to be worn during their work day. The Company is also planning to have supervisors and managers focus on this area during their April meetings. In light of this, the Company will use the month of April to clarify the requirement and understanding and will push off compliance until May 1, 2014.

 There will be additional discussions in regards to the personal protective equipment requirement.  There is at least one state in the legacy Qwest footprint that it appears the employer may be required to reimburse employees who are required to purchase such items.

As we get new information on these issues we will communicate updates to you.

 Last week I attended the CWA T&T conference which was held here in Phoenix, during the conference I was able to talk to a lot of officers that have locals in the Legacy CenturyLink.  I believe that this company now plans to use us the Legacy Qwest employees as “contractors” to do the work of Legacy CenturyLink employees wherever and however they can.  We are seeing Legacy CenturyLink centers closed and the work from home people let go and then we are getting letters of agreements allowing us to do non-bargained for work on a regular basis.  Several of the smaller Legacy CenturyLink locals are currently in bargaining or getting ready to go into bargaining and are asking for our support, many of them wished they could migrate into our contract.    


 In Unity,


Paul Castañeda
Executive Vice President
CWA Local 7019

 

 

October 6, 2013

I’ve been struggling the last week with how to start or even write this message, because like a lot of you I’m not happy with this contract as well.  However my anger is with the company not our bargaining team.  I’m angry because CenturyLink doesn’t respect what we do, they don’t respect what we have fought for year after year after year, I’m angry that the only two things they seemed to care about during bargaining was taking money away from us and putting it in their pockets and trying to make us look like the mom and pop phone companies they had been buying up in the past instead of bringing those companies to the same level as a ROBC! 

I know each member of our bargaining team and NONE of them went to the table to “sell us out” as I’ve been hearing from some members.  I saw every one of them in Minneapolis and saw the disappointment and anger in their eyes with the first TA, and I can’t imagine they were any happier with the 2nd TA.  They spent over 11 months bargaining with a company that didn’t want to bargain and were presented with a last best offer from the company.  We can debate whether we should have gone on strike or put it out to a vote but it doesn’t change anything at this point.  The members had the final decision on what to do and 60% voted to approve this contract.  

The questions now is what do we do going forward?

 I’ve heard some say decertify and “get a stronger union” in here.  I sit on the Executive Council of the AZ AFL-CIO and am the Chair of the Maricopa Area Labor Federation, I work with the “the stronger unions” and can tell you we are all facing the same problems during bargaining.  Every one of them have given something up and had to make concessions at the bargaining table that they aren’t happy about.  Why?  Because our union density is dwindling year after year, this has a direct result of our union power at the bargaining table.  We as union members have been made to be the villains because union wages are higher, we have pension, and lower health care cost.  Instead of wanting what we have non-union workers would rather see us lose what we have and come down to their level while corporations are making more and more profits and CEO’s are making record salaries.         

I’ve also heard that we should split the centers and the techs into separate bargaining units.  That weakens our bargaining power by having smaller bargaining units; it would make it easier for the company to get rid of the centers.  In my opinion Centurylink would like nothing more than to have a company of nothing but premise techs and contract out every other piece of work they could, because that would allow them to put more money in their pockets.

 The answer to me is we regroup, look at ways to strengthen OUR UNION on a local, district and national level as well as the labor movement as a whole.  I’ve already been having some of those conversations with several members that have some good ideas and suggestions.  At the next eboard I will be taking a suggestion to the officers of the local to form a committee of our members to work on suggestions and ideas that will strengthen OUR UNION. 

In Unity
Paul Castañeda
Executive Vice President

 

 

May 13, 2013

 

Well as we are all aware not much has changed with our CenturyLink contract, it is still being extended.  The bargaining teams have been at the table for almost ten months and although it may seem that not much is happening, while attending the Convention in Pittsburgh last month, the CWA bargaining team reported that there has been some progress made.  The big issues are still contracting of our work, health care, and protecting our current jobs.  The bargaining team is thankful for the support they have received.  They also assured us they are prepared to be there one day longer than the company is willing to be, to get CWA members a fair contract.  Late Friday we were informed that both sides have agreed to bringing in a Federal Mediator, the role of the mediator is not to settle the contract but to help both sides move forward with productive dialogue that will hopefully result in reaching a fair contract.  One of the conditions of mediation is that there will be a media and social media blackout while the parties are in mediation.  There will not be another bargaining report or another bargaining call until the use of the mediator is completed. 

 

There are a number of legislative issues that I would like to share with you at this time.  On a State level the Arizona Unity Table along with Arizona AFL-CIO has been able to keep the anti-labor bills from progressing in the State Legislature.  Nationally, CWA is currently focused on three major issues; the National Labor Relations Board appointments, Trans-Pacific Partnership, and Comprehensive Immigration Reform.  I’m going to address Comprehensive Immigration Reform in this report and will address the NLRB appointments and the Trans-Pacific Partnership in future reports. 

 

As I stated on the floor of the CWA 74th Convention, I know how controversial and divisive Comprehensive Immigration Reform is within our membership.  I am often asked, why organized labor and specifically why CWA cares about CIR?  The answer is simple; it is about the economy, workers’ rights, and most importantly Human Rights!   However a lot of people as well as a lot of our members don’t see it that way.

 

Why do immigrant workers come to this country?  Most come with the goal of being able to provide for their families, looking for better paying jobs, and a better way of life.  This is no different than why I joined CWA.  They arrive with few resources and often find themselves confined to the bottom of the labor market, where wages are low, working conditions are poor, benefits and opportunities for promotion are limited or nonexistent.

 

It is difficult to imagine any scenario in which low-wage immigrants, including those who presently lack legal status, cease to be a significant element in the U.S. labor market. Even among advocates of immigration restriction, few are proposing a wholesale expulsion of the estimated 12 million who currently lack legal status.

 

People often believe the myths of undocumented immigrants:

They take our jobs - There has not been a single serious study that could prove this myth to be reality.

Undocumented immigrants do not want to study English – Data from the last census shows only 2.5 percent of Spanish speaking residents do not speak English.

A fence along the border with Mexico will solve the problem – Even the far right understands that a wall is simply an obstacle, not a deterrent.  Improving worker rights and protections in Mexico will keep far more from crossing the border than any wall will.

Undocumented immigrants take advantage of benefits – Undocumented immigrants pay exactly the same taxes as everyone else does: sales, income, social security, property taxes.  Undocumented immigrants bring almost $50 billion annually to the American economy without receiving anything in return.

CWA President Larry Cohen invited Daniel Rivera a member of CWA Local 7019 to the National Convention to share his story of how his family immigrated to the United States.  This speech is posted on our webpage www.cwa7019.org  I would encourage everyone to take a few minutes to watch and listen to his story.

 

The US Senate “Gang of Eight” Immigration Bill is moving thru the senate after being introduced April 17th.  This bill is currently going through markup in the Senate Judiciary Committee.  This process is expected to last 5-6 weeks where numerous amendments are expected to be made before it heads to the floor of the Senate for an expected vote around mid-July.  For additional information on Comprehensive Immigration Reform and other current Legislative issues we have added a new “Legislative Issues” tab on the left side of our local webpage.

 

As I said before I know this issue is controversial but there is no denying that there is a problem.   Undocumented workers are exploited every day by employers and labor needs to play a part in fixing the problem.   We fight for all workers in this country whether they are organized or un-organized, documented or un-documented.  We may not agree on the solution and disagreeing is ok but we can’t ignore it and hope it just goes away.  

 

In Unity


Paul Castaneda
Executive Vice President

 

 

JANUARY 28, 2013

Well it’s a new year but not much has changed, our contract with CenturyLink is still being extended day-to-day, the contract was due to originally expire on October 12, 2012. The bargaining teams have been at the table for over 5 months now and from the reports that are being posted and the weekly conference calls it doesn’t appear that there has been any real movement and a settlement doesn’t seem to be coming anytime soon. 

I’ll sum up what appears to be happening at the bargaining table as simple as possible. CenturyLink wants to lower the top pay for all new hires in every one of our current job titles by creating new titles and paying them $10-$15 less an hour and putting them on the non-represented healthcare plan.  That would result in them making just barely over minimum wage for doing the exact same jobs we are doing today.  The company has classified all 60 of their remaining proposals as priorities and only appears to be interested in a contract on the terms they dictate.  There’s not much difference if you look back over their bargaining with other bargaining units over the last 3-4 years.  At this point the company has been unable to give the Union definitive cost regarding the impact of their proposals.  A conservative estimate is about $90 million per year in take back from our current contract. 

To say that our bargaining team has their hands full at the bargaining table would be an understatement.  However I have complete confidence in the people sitting at the table representing CWA.  I can’t say the same for the company’s side.  Last week you may have received an email from Glen Post about the status of negotiations, which resulted in numerous calls to the hall.  I would ask you to keep in mind when you look at that report or any others that come from the company that it is their side and they are trying to take money away from you at every turn of the negations.  The companies email referenced their contingency plans which upset a lot of you.  Just as the company has contingency plans the Union has our own contingency plans in place for whatever happens next at the bargaining table. 

On the political front it’s a new year and some new faces in our state legislature, however not much has changed there either.  We have already seen several anti-labor bills drop at the state capitol. 

H2026 Local government’s union dues deductions: Would require any city, town council, county board of supervisors and fire districts to vote on allowing authorized payroll deductions from their employees for payment of union dues.  This is something that is already addressed during negotiations and voted on in each of those levels when they vote on the contract. 

H2438, S1142 & S1182 Paycheck deduction bills:  A “public employer” is prohibited from deducting any third party payments from any employee’s paycheck unless the employee annually provides advance express written or electronic authorization.  Once again this already takes place, remember we are a “right to work” state so a member of a union has to sign up and authorize dues to be deducted to begin with and they can opt out whenever they choose.

H2330 public employees bargaining open meeting:  Any meeting of one or more agents or officers of a public body with any agent or officer of any employee organization involving negotiations regarding the salaries or benefits of public employees or any other employment related matter are required to comply with open meeting laws.  This would make bargaining, grievance meetings, or any meeting between any representative of the company and the union open to the public. 

H2343 public employees compensation union activities: employment contracts for public employees are prohibited from including compensation for union activities. This would make it illegal for a public employer to compensate a union representative for representing their members in a meeting with the company. 

Currently these bills are directed only at public unions, but as we have seen in the past anything they can pass to go after the public union will comeback in the future to attack private unions as well.  So we must stand up and fight with our brothers and sisters in the public unions to stop these bills now.  If you would like to join the legislative committee or find out more, our first Legislative meeting of 2013 will be on February 13th at the hall at 6:30 pm.

We are underway with planning the upcoming 13th Annual Day of Sunshine Golf Tournament and our 11th Annual Local Convention.  If you are interested in helping in the planning of either event please email or call me at the hall.  

In Unity,

Paul Castaneda
 Executive Vice President

 

NOVEMBER 13, 2012

Well the elections are over, at least for most of the country, in Arizona there are still about 360,000 ballots that are still uncounted a week after Election Day.  Unless some dramatic shifts in the trends of the uncounted ballots change we have a pretty good idea who the eventual winners will be.  As of today it appears there will be a 5-4 split Democrats to Republicans in the US House from AZ and both Senators will be Republican.  On a State level, both the House and Senate will be more balanced then they have been the last two years.  Hopefully that will lead to us not seeing the same kind of attacks on labor that we have seen the last few Legislative sessions.  We are starting to work on our plans for the upcoming Legislative session, which include rebuilding our Locals Legislative committee.  If you are interested in politics or learning more about the political process please contact me to sign up for our Legislative committee or come to one of our upcoming meetings, they will be listed on our calendar on the local’s webpage. 

Bargaining with Centurylink is ongoing and we are currently working on a day to day extension, which means our old contract is still in place and nothing has changed.  You can get updates from the District webpage if you haven’t already you can get the username and password by contacting your AVP or calling the hall.  There are ongoing conference calls with the Bargaining committee every Thursday those calls are currently taken at the hall for all members to listen to at 6:30pm.   A recording of the calls are also available via the District webpage, these calls are generally posted late morning the next day.   The Mobilization committee is also meeting after each conference call if you are interested in joining the committee or have ideas for Mobilization activities. 

Canvassing for next year’s entitlement time is currently taking place and we are also preparing to work on local agreements for next year as well.  If you have any suggestions of changes that you’d like to see to the local agreements please contact your AVP or myself with your suggestions.  In the field the big issue right now is the use of contractors we have addressed them with the company in every meeting, their quality of work or lack of and following the safety practices have come up time and time again.  The company seems to feel like it is just part of the cost of doing business.  If you run across a contractor not following the same safety practices that you are required to follow please take a picture and send it to your AVP or myself, we must hold them to the same standards we follow. 

 

 

JULY 16, 2012

I’m sorry it’s taken so long to get my report completed; to say things have been a little busy since coming back into office would be an understatement.   We are gearing up for bargaining with CenturyLink, mobilization structures are complete and we have already had several mobilization activities.  As we get closer to contract expiration you will see mobilization activities ramp up and be more aggressive.  If you are interested in getting involved with the mobilization please contact your AVP. 

We are seeing what I believe is an orchestrated two sided plan by bringing in contractors in just about every work group/job functions.  In the field they have brought in contractors to do cable repair and will soon be seeing contractors doing broadband work, I would suspect it’s just a matter of time before they bring some in to do construction and I&M work.  According to the company they have too much work for the amount of Techs that they currently have and don’t have the budget to hire permanent workers.  We have offered a number of alternatives to the contractors everything from incidentals, seasonal part time, and term employees and they are unwilling to do so.  We have been asked why the local isn’t doing anything about the contractors; the reality of the situation is that NO ONE has been forced off payroll.  The only way we can stop them from bringing in or using contractors is if there was a hard surplus.  As long as our members continue to voluntarily leave by taking VSPP’s we don’t have language in the contract to stop them from bringing in contractors.  As we head into bargaining each local was allowed to send in its top 5 bargaining proposals for consideration to be presented at the bargaining table.  As a local we submitted two proposals that deal directly with the contracting issues. 

The second part of the plan I believe is to send a very distinct message and to scare our members prior to bargaining.  What’s that message?  Go ahead go on strike we don’t need you we have contractors that can do your work.  You are seeing that with the company bringing in contractors to do dispatch, assignments and buried service wire work.   We are seeing the company continue to offer VSPP’s because of as they describe a loss of work volumes, but then turn around and bring in contractors to do the work they supposedly loss. 

In the last week I have conducted a bargaining presentation in Cottonwood, Prescott & Tucson, as well as Flagstaff a couple of months ago.  We will be having a bargaining meeting on Thursday July 19th at the National Association of Letter Carriers hall at 3720 W. Greenway for the west side of town at 7:00pm.  I am working on securing a date and location on the eastside of town in the next few weeks.  I would encourage you to do whatever you can to be at one of these meetings.  We will be talking about what we expect to see during bargaining.  Some of the language that is in other CenturyLink contracts is:  All hours worked in excess of fifty-five (55) in a week shall be paid at the rate of two (2) times the employee’s straight time rate of pay.  In year two seventy (70) hours and in year three seventy-five (75) hours, Tools and equipment that are lost, stolen, or damaged due to negligence, shall be replaced at the employee’s own expense except when the loss results from causes beyond the employee’s control.  Please attend one of the upcoming meetings to find out more about what other languages and issues we can expect to see during the bargaining process.  Just as the company has a plan in place CWA has a plan in place come and find out what the plan is.

On the political side during the last legislative session we were able to stop 4 anti-labor bills that were introduced during the session.  Unfortunately we were not able to stop the Personal Reform Bill, which made all state employees unprotected and they can now be fired for any reason or no reason at all without any explanation.  We have developed the Arizona State Political plan and have just completed our 2012 Political Kickoff training.  I’ve heard numerous times why do we participate in politics, the answer is simple if we don’t we can expect to see a return of the same anti-labor bills that we saw during the last legislative session return.  These bills attack your rights as union members and will have a direct impact on your pay, healthcare, pensions and your ability to be a union member.   As we head into bargaining we must remember every negotiation takes place in its own political and economic environment.

 

In Unity
Paul Castaneda
Executive Vice President
CWA Local 7019




 

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