We Blocked One Touch Make Ready to Protect our Jobs!

Thank you to the hundreds of Local 1101 members and retirees who responded to our call to action these past two weeks to block One Touch Make Ready and protect union jobs. WE WON! Did your emails make a difference? THEY DID!

As the NYS legislative session closed, the NYS Assembly voted unanimously to pass our bill to protect our jobs and stop dangerous One Touch Make Ready regulations! Since the State Senate already passed the bill a few weeks ago, it now goes to the Governor’s desk to be signed into law. CWA members sent over 2,200 emails in the past two weeks alone to tell legislators that they must pass this legislation to stop One Touch Make Ready. We also traveled to the State Capitol in Albany on May 17th to speak with Assembly members about the dangers of One Touch Make Ready to good union jobs and to our communities.

One Touch Make Ready would have destroyed good jobs by allowing unskilled contractors to do the work that should be done by career employees who know the condition of the equipment and poles and have been professionally trained. New York is one of the few states that doesn’t allow One Touch Make Ready - and thanks to our members’ hard work this year, we will continue to protect good union jobs and prevent One Touch Make Ready! In case you missed it, we had a number of victories in the NYS Budget back in early April as well. CWA members fought hard to win protections for our jobs.

We sent nearly 2,000 emails to legislators about the $1.6 Billion in Federal and State funding for broadband buildout, and had dozens of meetings with legislators. When all was said and done, the NYS Budget included the labor standards, fiber preference, prequalification, and prevailing wage regulations that we were looking for. The NYS Legislative Session is wrapping up for this year, and our victories this year have shown us once again that whether it’s a contract fight, a picket line, or a fight for pro-worker legislation, we have power when we stand together!