American unionism is in crisis.
Part of the problem is a crisis in confidence.
Do American workers believe we can win?
Do American workers believe we can make the hard choices, take the right chances, fight
hard, stand strong, stay tough, and win?
Brothers and sisters, we've got to show we can win raises, beat the cutbacks, stop the
outsourcing, and lift our standards in the face of ruthless, greedy corporate CEO's.
In the run-up to our last contract with Verizon, which was banking a billion and a half dollars
a month in profit, the leadership of CWA put our heads together and this is what we talked
about.
We knew what those greedy executives wanted to force on us.
And we knew to fight back was a monster risk.
But if we didn't fight, we would lose what we had fought for, for so long and so hard.
We're talking about 40,000 members but it's more than that, probably another 120,000 family
members.
These are good paying jobs.
But our members aren't rich.
The stakes were high but we had to make a stand.
Even though we knew we could fight back, lose, and find ourselves in worse shape.
My brothers and sisters throughout our union deserve credit because, from the beginning,
we saw this cause as an international one.
The CWA is deeply committed and actively involved with our international partners in organizing
and bargaining fights through our global union federations.
We refuse to go along with a race to the bottom.
We're going to lift standards up across the world.
As many of us know, a strike vote is not easy.
It requires thousands of conversations to prepare people to talk about what's at stake
and why we must sacrifice.
On April 13th, 40,000 workers went to work but they didn't go in.
We formed lines, we held signs, we chanted, and sang.
American unionism was on parade for the world to see in a strike that was an order of magnitude
larger than anything our nation had seen in decades.
We were never alone.
Our IBEW brothers and sisters at Verizon were an integral part of the strike and dozens
of unions supported us with money and stood with us on the picket lines.
Picketing happening at all hours at stores and garages.
CWA strikers followed Verizon corporate leaders protesting at speaking engagements.
CWA strikers reached out to the public in the areas that we serve gathering hundreds
of commitment cards all across the eastern seaboard.
The picket lines enjoyed strong community support.
People spontaneously brought pizzas, coffee, and water to the strikers.
I'm proud to say that we stood strong.
The longer we lasted, the stronger we stood.
When work was funneled, thank you, when work was funneled, during our strike, to call centers
in the Philippines, we talked to those workers and we sent a delegation of strikers to meet
with our brothers and sisters there.
In the end, Verizon offered a nearly 11% raise, better pension benefits, stopped the outsourcing,
and added 1,400 new union jobs in the United States of America!
The company scaled back subcontracting and withdrew a plan to relocate employees for
extended assignments away from home.
In the CWA, we have a saying, "When we fight, we win."
When all of us fight together, all of us win together.
And on this one, all of us fought together, and all of us, everyone in this room, won.
Thank you brothers and sisters for all you did for my members, for all you did for the
labor movement!
Thank you!
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