May, 27 2016, 03:45pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Bob Master, (917) 657-6483, rmaster@cwa-union.org
Candice Johnson, (202) 434-1347, cjohnson@cwa-union.org
Eliza Bates, (646) 285-8491 or Rob Duffey, (646) 463-3267, CWAverizon@berlinrosen.com
Striking Verizon Workers Win Big Gains
Union to take down pickets; company agrees to add good union jobs on the East Coast
WASHINGTON
Nearly 40,000 Verizon workers who have been on strike since April 13 are celebrating big gains after coming to an agreement in principle with the company. After 44 days of the largest strike in recent history, striking CWA members have achieved our major goals of improving working families' standard of living, creating good union jobs in our communities and achieving a first contract for wireless retail store workers.
"CWA appreciates the persistence and dedication of Secretary Perez, Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service Director Allison Beck and their entire teams. The addition of new, middle-class jobs at Verizon is a huge win not just for striking workers, but for our communities and our country as a whole. The agreement in principle at Verizon is a victory for working families across the country and an affirmation of the power of working people," said Chris Shelton, President of the Communications Workers of America. "This proves that when we stand together we can raise up working families, improve our communities and protect the American middle class."
Communication Workers of America (CWA) is America's largest communications & media union. CWA members work in telecommunications and information technology, the airline industry, news media, broadcast and cable television, education, health care, public service and education, law enforcement, manufacturing and other fields.
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Sanders Slams 'Big Money Interests' and Consultants That Control Democratic Party After Loss to Trump
"While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change," said the Vermont Independent. "And they're right."
Nov 06, 2024
Shortly before Vice President Kamala Harris delivered her concession speech on Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders forcefully called out Democratic Party leadership for losing the White House and at least one chamber of Congress to Republicans.
"It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working-class people would find that the working class has abandoned them," Sanders (I-Vt.) said in a statement. "First, it was the white working class, and now it is Latino and Black workers as well."
"While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change," said the senator, who decisively won reelection on Tuesday as Republicans reclaimed the upper chamber. "And they're right."
After seeking the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020, Sanders spent this cycle campaigning for Harris, warning of Republican President-elect Donald Trump's return, blasting billionaire involvement in U.S. politics, and urging Democrats to better serve working people.
"Will the big money interests and well-paid consultants who control the Democratic Party learn any real lessons from this disastrous campaign? ...Probably not."
In Sanders' new statement, he highlighted U.S. income and wealth inequality, worker concerns about artificial intelligence, and the federal government's failure to provide paid leave and universal healthcare while pouring billions of dollars into Israel's war on the Gaza Strip.
"Will the big money interests and well-paid consultants who control the Democratic Party learn any real lessons from this disastrous campaign? Will they understand the pain and political alienation that tens of millions of Americans are experiencing? Do they have any ideas as to how we can take on the increasingly powerful oligarchy which has so much economic and political power?" he asked. "Probably not."
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Progressives—who have responded to Trump's Electoral College and popular vote win by criticizing billionaires who backed him and promising "unprecedented resistance" during his second term—echoed Sanders' remarks.
Sharing Sanders' statement on X—the social media platform owned by billionaire Trump backer Elon Musk—United Auto Workers (UAW) communications director Jonah Furman said: "The task has been clear for a decade. The question is only whether and when we will rise to the task."
Separately, the union's president, Shawn Fain, said in a Wednesday statement that "UAW members around the country clocked in today under the same threat they faced yesterday: unchecked corporate greed destroying our lives, our families, and our communities."
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"Will our government stand with the working class, or keep doing the bidding of the billionaires?"
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Historian Harvey J. Kaye, professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, took aim at the Democratic Party on social media Wednesday, noting failures to stand up to billionaires, raise the minimum wage, and pass the Richard L. Trumka Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act.
Morris Pearl, chair of the Patriotic Millionaires and a former managing director at BlackRock, said in a Wednesday statement that "a self-avowed authoritarian successfully wielded the economic frustrations of millions to win the most consequential election of our nation's history. The Democratic establishment has only itself to blame."
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While many critics of U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris opposed the Democratic presidential nominee due to the Biden-Harris administration's nearly unconditional support for Israel's annihilation of Gaza, peace advocates on Wednesday warned that Republican President-elect Donald Trump could lift the few guardrails the Democrats had placed on Israel and unleash the key ally to seize all of Palestine.
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"We face an extremely dangerous situation worldwide."
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David Friedman, who served as U.S. ambassador to Israel during Trump's first term, recently released a book advocating Israel's annexation of all of Palestine, a policy "based first and foremost on biblical prophecies and values," according to the author. Friedman envisions a situation in Palestine akin to the U.S. conquest and rule of Puerto Rico, in which Palestinians don't have voting rights but are granted limited autonomy so long as they act in accordance with Israeli law.
Powerful Trump backers also support annexation. Republican megadonor Miriam Adelson's wish list for the president-elect's second term includes Israeli annexation of the West Bank and U.S. recognition of the move.
During Trump's first term, then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ended a 30-year State Department policy under which Israeli settler colonies in the occupied West Bank were viewed as inconsistent with international law. Pompeo later explained that as an evangelical Christian, his position was based on the biblical belief that Israel is God's "promised land" for his "chosen people," the Jews.
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Government watchdogs on Wednesday said they are "not going anywhere" and will continue pushing for U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to face accountability for his 34 felony counts and other alleged crimes, even as the Republican and his allies threatened the special counsel who has been prosecuting him.
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said Robert Weissman and Lisa Gilbert, co-presidents of consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, which spent Trump's first term exposing corruption and unethical profiteering in his administration.
The group pledged to "mobilize Americans to resist Trump's agenda of cruelty and corruption" as it was reported that Special Counsel Jack Smith, who was appointed by the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate Trump's alleged mishandling of classified documents and his role in the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, was in talks with the DOJ to wind down the federal prosecutions.
Under DOJ policy, a sitting president cannot face prosecution while in office.
Smith filed charges against Trump over the allegations, but the cases were thrown into uncertainty by the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in July that held presidents have legal immunity for "official acts" while in office.
In legal filings that were unsealed last month, Smith argued Trump should not be entitled to immunity from prosecution because he "resorted to crimes" when he attempted to overturn the 2020 election results.
Trump said in recent weeks that he would fire Smith "within two seconds" if he won the presidency.
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saying Wednesday that the election results proved American voters want federal and state officials in to "immediately terminate the politically motivated prosecutions of President Donald Trump."
Graham wrote on the social media platform X on Wednesday, addressing Smith and his team, that "it is time to look forward to a new chapter in your legal careers as these politically motivated charges against President Trump hit a wall."
Trump was convicted of 34 state felony counts in New York for falsifying business records related to a hush-money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels. He is currently scheduled to be sentenced on November 26, but his lawyers are likely to ask for an indefinite delay.
There's also state case in Georgia stemming from Trump's attempts to reverse his 2020 loss.
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Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) said Trump's victory "is making the urgency of accountability and checks on the presidency clearer than ever before."
"We're going to keep standing up against corruption and authoritarianism," said CREW, "as we have been for years."
Public Citizen was among more than 200 groups that announced a virtual event called "Making Meaning of the Moment," planned for November 7 at 8:00 pm. More than 20,000 people had registered as of Wednesday evening.
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