IUE-CWA Newsletter , May 2004
read at The April Membership Meeting

JOINT DELEGATE REPORT
Special IUE-CWA Industrial Division Conference
Orlando Florida

Delegates from 123 local unions attended the 2004 IUE-CWA Industrial Division Conference on March 5th and 6th in Orlando Florida. There was a total of 238 delegates in attendance, including our own local 717 delegates: Chariman Don Arbogast, President Gary Reiser, Patty Baker, Jim Martin Jr, Ray Placer, Donna Wiliams, Johnny Hughley Jr, Christ Brown, Chris Wade, and Clyde Wilson. The Division conference functions as a national union meeting and also serves as an instrumental forum for IUE Union Members all across the United stes; frm North Carolina all the way to Anaheim California.

Region 7 Meeting

The Region 7 Meeting was held on Friday, March 5th. Region 7 is essentially District 7, however, the name was changed Region 7 so that it would not be confused with CWA district 7. (717 belongs to CWA District 4) Director, Kermit Dorsey reported that the Intellicao plant in Massachusettes, the Bartech Delphi Plant, and the Friends of Children Headstart Center were recently organized. Organizing non-union shops was a highly stressed issue on the agenda of both the Region 7 Meeting and The Division conference. Assistant to the President, Denny Thomas read the following proposed resolutions to amend the IUE-CWA Division Rules:

• Resolution to change the CWA Convention from once a year to every three years.
• Resolution to change the IUE -CWA Governing Procedure and Executive Council structure to substitute the 3 appointed Regional Directors to replace 3 of 6 elected executive council positions, and add the 2 conference board chairmen.

Local 717 spoke out against this resolution, however, the motion to recommend was passed by a majority vote.

Division Conference

Sat March 6th

There were 284 members in attendance at The Divison Conference, including 46 guests, of which 2 were from our own local: Brian Lutz and Linda Marchese attended the conference at their own expense and should be recognized for their dedication. President Mike Bindas reported that the ongoing feasibility study to reverse the IUE-CWA Merger indicates that it would not be possible at this time. President Bindas recognized George Cole, Assistand to CWA President Morty Bahr, and encouraged the delegation to make him aware of the problems with receiving dues money on time. President Bindas talked quite a bit about how important it was to replace George W. Bush with John Kerry, a friend of working families. Later that day we had the privelege to listen to a very powerful speaker, also an Ex-Senator and Vietna Veteran by the name of Max Cleeland. Mr. Cleeland outlined the damage that Presdient Bush has doine to the country and made a very convincing case about how he believed John Kerry can return America back to the America we once were.

Conference Motions

• Motion to go on record in support of amending the CWA Constitution to require conventions every three years. Be it further resolved that all other constitutional provisions be amended to conform to the change to tri-annual conbentions. Motion passed.
• Motion to adopt the amendments to the IUE-CWA Division Rule, Article V, Sectin D, Article XIV, Section M, ARticle XV, Section F, G, H, I , J. Motion passed.

Summary of Changes

The Council would be composed of the Division President, the Chair of the Trustees, the three Regional Directors, the two Conference Board Chairpersons, and three members at- large. The proposed changed would redude the number of at-large members from 6 to 3, and substitute the three Regional Directors and two Conference Board Chairs. This change would reduce the at-large delegates to one from each of the former districts and District 8, which continues until December 31st, 2004. The exact word for word changes are available upon request. The motion passed, despiite our local unanimously standing against it.

Each local will receive a list of candidates 45 days prior to the conference designated for the elections of the 3 executive council seats. The term for executive council will be three years. Nominations and elections will be at the Industrial Division Conference in Anaheim California, on August 28th, 2004.

Bad News

Since 2001, IUE-CWA has lost over 38,000 members. The CWA has lost over 100,000, Ohio has lost 183,000 Jobs, and acc ording to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, America has lost 2.9 million jobs since George W. Bush was "elected" President. We were shown a few videos about the anti-union movement and the recent gross civil rights violations that took place at a Free Trade protest in Miami Florida last year. Hopefully, we can get copies of those videos to show at one of our local meetings.

Good News

Yuasa/Exide, Loca 175 after being locked our for 6 years received an award of 7.5 Million Dollars, as a result of a law suit filed by IUE. Members of UFCW, employed by Ralphs Safeway, and Kroeger, after losing their helath care and living off of strike pay for five months, returned to their jobs. President Bindas presented a check for $25,000 to a representative of the UFCW who attended the conference as a guest. IUE-CWA has donated a total of $125,000 to the UFCW to supplement their strike fund and help them in a time of need. The union sister representative sincerely thanked us several times. It's great to be a part of the family we call UNION. The international staff ws very optimistic about the new governing structure and the future of the IUE-CWA. This made for an informative and enjoyable conference. you, the membership, sent us to this conference to listen, learn, and bring something back to our local union. Once again, we thank you for your faith. What we bring back is a mission that was given to us: work together to organize non-union shops. Organize, organize, and organize. More importantly, we need to urge members to register to vote and remove George W Bush from the whitehouse.