IWW/CWA dual-carders in the heart of the struggle

At midnight April 5, 2009 contracts for most of the component groups represented by the Communications Workers of America (CWA) at the telecom giant AT&T have expired. After weeks of mobilizing, around 90,000 workers are poised to strike one of the largest and most profitable multinational corporations. A job action by CWA would be the largest and among the most significant labor action in the United States since the UPS strike in 1997. It would also be the first major strike under the Obama regime. The brewing confrontation could set the tone for class struggle in the U.S. for the near future.

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The View from the Floor

By,Bruce Allen is the Vice-President of CAW Local 199 ,
St. Catharines, Ontario.

The decline in overall union density, particularly in the private sector, has been a defining characteristic of the crisis of organized labour in this country for many years along with the debilitating effects of contract concessions. The union bureaucracy's predominant response has been to barely acknowledge there was a problem never mind seriously attempt to address it. That is until now.