Partnering with the Communications Workers of America

At TakeAction Minnesota and the Communications Workers of America, we know we’ve got the same opponents and our members face the same problems. We know that to make real progress for the whole 99%, we need the kind of bigger, bolder progressive change that will only come by linking arms and  organizing people together at the grassroots around a shared vision of justice.

That’s why we’re building power together in Minnesota.

What does it mean? This means that we’re building a shared base of union and community activists, including 504 members of CWA who have joined TakeAction Minnesota and CWA’s Local Political Action Teams (LPATs) that train with TakeAction Minnesota leaders.

What have we accomplished already? In 2012, our work together resulted in historic victories: defeating the voter suppression amendment and electing pro-worker Minnesota House and Senate majorities.  CWA led the charge among labor partners in an historic and long-shot victory, defeating the Voter Restriction Amendment and delivering a punch in the gut to the national movement to suppress the vote.  The amendment started with 80% support statewide, but with over 3,500 tracked conversations identifying and persuading voters, CWA and a broad coalition of organizations led by TakeAction Minnesota changed the minds of 1 million voters and defeated this corporate-backed voter suppression measure. CWA and TakeAction Minnesota were also major players in defeating tea-party conservatives former State Senator Benjamin Kruse (Coon Rapids) and former State Representative Doug Wardlow (Eagan), installing in their places AFL-CIO and TakeAction Minnesota endorsed Senator John Hoffman and Representative Laurie Halverson.

Where to next? We still have a long way to go to build a fair economy…

We need to stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership – an international trade deal that will benefit multinational corporations while hurting democracy, workers and the environment.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)–or “NAFTA on Steroids”–is poised to become the largest trade agreement ever enacted.

More than a “free-trade” agreement, the TPP is part of the Wall Street agenda to make the world safe for corporate investment and profits by reducing labor costs and undercutting workers’ rights; dismantling labor, environmental, health and financial laws and regulations; and setting up processes for dealing with disputes that go through special international tribunals rather than our own court system.

Find out more here.

We need to stop the off-shoring of call center jobs.

US Companies that only a few years ago pocketed millions in taxpayer dollars to establish local call centers are now off-shoring those call center jobs; once again leaving those communities devastated by job losses and lost financial investments.

The United States Call Center Worker and Consumer Protection Act (H.R. 3596/S. 3402) would protect US consumers and help level the playing field against companies that off-shore their call center operations overseas.

The Bill supports US workers and consumers by:

• Denying taxpayer cash to off-shorers: creating a ‘bad actor list’ that would send companies that ship jobs abroad to the back of the line for government contracts and stop them from getting Federal loans and grants.

• Giving you the right to know: requiring call center agents to tell you where they are talking to you from.

• Giving you the right to transfer to a US operator: giving you the right to be transferred to a US-based operator when you don’t want a foreign call center.

Find out more here.

Join us by becoming a member of TakeAction Minnesota today