Come One, Come All! Member Meeting This Sunday! // Tailgate Newsletter

THE TAILGATE: The Newsletter of the Tower Climbers Union (TCU/CWA)

What’s New

Hey Tower Hand. We’re building something together: a Union by and for Tower Hands. As you know, we’ve been steadily working towards getting 150 climbers to join in our mission and pledge $20 per month in dues to help give us the resources to really kick things off. Curious about what that means? Let us explain!

Read All About it Here, but First, Register to Join Our First Membership Meeting of the Year…This Sunday, February 5th!

📢 Calling all TCU/CWA Members! Join us at our first membership meeting February 5th at 5 PM PST on Zoom 💪 - you'll get to shoot the sh*# with other tower dogs, learn about the TCU/CWA membership benefits package & our plan to build POWER for tower technicians and improve our jobs. Register here!

The meeting is open to all Monthly Dues Paying Members, as well as Founding Members. Not a member yet but you want to join? Excellent idea! You can do that here.

What Kind of Union is TCU/CWA?

Now, back to the explanation of where things are at with our union. There are two types of workers’ organizations: majority unions and pre-majority unions. Majority unions have collective bargaining (i.e. a contract), while pre-majority unions do not. We have both types within CWA.

Some examples of majority unions in CWA are tens of thousands of telecommunications technicians who work at AT&T, Verizon, Lumen, and others. Contracts covering these workers spell out fair wages, benefits, hours of work, safety, grievance procedures, and much more.

Some examples of pre-majority unions in CWA are the Texas State Employees Union and the United Campus Workers (dedicated to organizing workers in the South). These groups join together to fight for improvements on the job and have won real victories, such as increases in pay, worker-led health and safety committees, adjustments to overwork, and reinstatement of unjustly terminated members.

TCU/CWA will be a pre-majority union, backed by the 500,000 members and leadership of the CWA, the largest and most powerful telecommunications’ workers union in the country. It will be a group of Tower Hands that work together to be the organized voice of frontline tower technicians in this industry. We will raise that voice to government agencies, officials and regulators. We will raise that voice in the media. We will raise that voice to push back on the carriers and turf vendors for their unjust pricing structures. Above all, we will raise that voice to protect our health and safety. We are the people that do the dangerous and unappreciated work of keeping this country connected. We deserve more. There are groups out there that claim to be the voice of Tower Hands, but until now, there is no independent organization, completely funded by Tower Hands and run by Tower Hands, to advocate for each other. This is what TCU/CWA will be.

What Happens Once 150 Monthly Dues-Paying Members Are Reached?

1. All monthly dues-paying members will be immediately eligible for the TCU/CWA Membership Package.
2. We will submit an application to the CWA International Executive Board for an official charter of our new Local, which will formally establish TCU/CWA.
3. Once we receive this charter, we will begin the process of electing officers of the union. Per the CWA Constitution and the Local Bylaws (i.e. the union rules), the principal officers of the union will be the President, Executive Vice-President, and Secretary Treasurer. A rank and file Executive Board will also be elected. All monthly dues-paying members will be eligible to nominate and run for these positions.
4. We will establish regular membership meetings that people can access remotely on the phone or computer to have things be fully transparent. All monthly dues-paying members will be eligible to attend. Membership meetings will be able to conduct the business of the union: launching campaigns to build power for Tower Hands, voting on policies of the union, and making financial decisions.
5. Once the principal officers and Executive Board are elected, they will conduct the business of the union in between regular membership meetings.
6. As a chartered Local of the CWA, our TCU/CWA Local will have all the rights and privileges of all other CWA Locals. This means that we have full access to CWA International Departments: Legal, Health and Safety, Research, Political, and Organizing. Our Union will be there to back us up and we’ll stand side by side with our brother and sister telecom workers as we fight to improve this industry.

Get Involved

TCU/CWA is already seen as an important voice of tower technicians in the press. Our collective power and voice will only increase as we gain more members and become a chartered CWA Local.

Interested in getting involved?

SIGN UP TODAY