Letter to our members from CWA District 1 Vice President Dennis Trainor

Let me begin by saying that I sincerely hope that all of you and your families are safe and healthy, and that you are managing the extraordinary challenges posed by the crisis we are currently living through.  It is no exaggeration to say that none of us have experienced anything like this before.  Not only is a fearful disease spreading through the population, we are now also facing an economic crisis that is literally on the scale of the Great Depression. 

Already, we have had several reports about CWA members who have died because of Covid-19:  a NJ DMV worker, a Verizon splicer from Manhattan, a Parking Production Assistant in NYC, a NABET technician working for NBC, and an 1180 member who worked at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens.  Our hearts go out to their families.   It seems unavoidable that there will be many more sad reports like this in the future.

As always, however, our job as CWA trade unionists remains the same:  fight like hell to protect the wages, working conditions and rights of our members.  We must ensure that our members’ jobs and incomes are protected, and that they are kept as safe as possible in this dangerous new environment.  We must also do everything we can to pressure local, state and federal governments to do everything they can to protect working people in this crisis.

I want to bring you up to date on a few of the critical issues we are dealing with as a result of the Covid-19 Pandemic.

The last two weeks have been dominated by non-stop efforts to negotiate protections and accommodations for all of our members who continue to go to work every day.  Our Area Directors and Staff Reps have been working on policies on refusing unsafe work, sick leave, child care, and other protections.  Our employers are not responding in a uniform way.  We have been able to win some generous provisions from larger, wealthier employers like Verizon and AT&T.  Struggling employers like Frontier have been more difficult.  Health care facilities are obviously a special situation, as our nurses and other health care workers are working under life-threatening conditions on a daily basis.  In the public sector, in New York City, and in State, County and Local Government in New Jersey, where many of our members have been declared “essential”, we are struggling to force social distancing and get necessary safety equipment. Please be in touch with your Staff Reps to get any details you need.

Our second top priority has been working to ensure that all of our members have the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) they need to be safe on the job.  This is obviously the most pressing concern for our 15,000 District One health care workers, who are treating sick and dying patients every day, and doing so while suffering from severe shortages of respirators, surgical masks, protective gowns and other gear they need to keep themselves and their families safe.  In addition to dealing with the hospital employers directly on this, we have launched a national petition campaign demanding that President Trump invoke the National Defense Production Act (DPA) to force large manufacturers to produce the PPE our members desperately need.

However, the lack of PPE affects not only health care workers.  Other workers, like telecommunications workers, some of them working in wireless retail stories, child protective and social services workers, motor vehicles workers, and Traffic Agents and Supervisors, are regularly interacting with the public as well. We are fighting to make sure they get the PPE they need as well.

A third major issue that we are dealing with is educating members who are losing their jobs as a result of the crisis about their access to Unemployment Insurance and other benefits.  Already, a number of NYC-based interconnect companies, and Aclara, a subcontractor to Con Ed that was installing smart meters, have shut down.  

in NY, NJ, CT and MA, as well as how the federal stimulus package will supplement those benefits.

In closing, let me say how much I appreciate all of your hard work and support over the last several weeks.  I am confident that no union will do more than CWA to fight for our members during this crisis.  I have never been prouder of our members, our local officers, our staff and our District and National Leadership.  From the shop floor on up, all of us are working around the clock to fight for what our members need and deserve.  Together, I am confident that we will overcome this terrible crisis.  Thank you again.

Dennis Trainor, CWA District 1 Vice President

NY, NJ, CT and MA.