Senate Republicans and the IDC early Saturday morning (June 23, 2013) created a steeper hill for CWA Verizon Telecom Members to climb to protect their jobs.  The Senate Republicans did it by what they didn’t do; while, the IDC did it by what they did do.  Although, CWA Members bombarded New York State Senators with calls asking them to support the VoiceLink Moratorium bill, the Republican Senate majority refused to act.  Therefore, the VoiceLink Moratorium bill that would have stopped Verizon from forcing customers to switch from a landline copper service to a home based wireless service died in committee; never even getting to a floor vote.   

So what did the IDC (Independent Democrat Conference) do to hurt the VoiceLink bill?  They stole the majority in the NYS Senate giving the Republicans a leadership majority position to pick and choice which bills would get voted on and which would be ignored.      On Election Day, 2012, State Senate Democrats for only the second time in 75 years were in the lead by 3 seats.  So, like the Democratic majority in the NYS Assembly (that heavily favors labor) the Senate was finally going to be able to stand up for workers.  Except that 5 renegade Senate Democrats, became turncoats to their party and formed their own caucus.  The defectors that split from the Democratic caucus and allowed the Republicans to stay in charge and continue to deny legislation to help CWA Members were Senators John Klein, David Carlucci, David Valesky, Diane Savino & Malcolm Smith.  So, although, the Senate Democrats on Election Day had by count, the most seated members, their caucus was 2 seats shy of the Republicans.  Then the Republicans with the power they won from a small group of traitors, on Saturday June 22, 2013  put our bill to protect our jobs to a silent death.

In the Assemlby, where there is a Democatic Majority our VoiceLink bill passed 87-23.  Our Call Center bill passed by an even higher spread 100-7.  The Senate Republicans also refused to put the Call Center bill up for a vote.  It is noteworthy to report that only 1 Senator and 1 Assembly member in 1103 jurisdiction did not co-sponsor our VoiceLink bill in their respective legislative bodies.  They were: Senator Gregg Ball and Assemblymen Steve Katz; both Republicans.   

 This fight will continue, although we lost this round, the political pressure we created has open the public's eyes.  Our eyes are wide open too and our stares are directed to those in our political jurisdiction that set us back in the protection of our jobs.  The Executive Board wishes to thank the 246 Members from within 1103's jurisdiction in area codes 914 and 845 that joined the fight and made calls to their Senators.  This fight isn't over yet, not by a longshot.   

(Senator Carlucci and Ball and Assemblymen Katz are all within the jurisdiction of CWA 1103 and our Membership voting districts)