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There are many issues facing labor as we move into 2018 including the elections at the state and federal level. Labor is under attack and the middle class has been losing ground year-over-year while corporations are putting productivity profits in their pocket. The National Union has started a program called CWA Strong which we will hear more about throughout the year. Several Chief Stewards and Stewards have already seen presentations on the program. The goal is to get the rank-and-file informed about the issues labor faces. I’ll be working with the Executive Board on making this happen. It is critically important for labor to have a voice.   We struggle at Frontier trying to understand what’s going on with the business and Frontier’s plan moving forward. We have a leadership meeting scheduled on March 8 and we need the company to lay out a plan for what 2018 will look like for our members. We are in the process of scheduling a membership meeting sometime in March. I will share the information we receive with our members at the meeting.   We are coming off a surplus at AT&T. We were fortunate that the company found guaranteed jobs for five(5) employees in Connecticut in the Legacy T contract. We anticipate AT&T to continue the trend of downsizing and stand ready to deal with those issues.   We are currently working to get our voicemail system up and running. We will be sharing information on how to sign up, access and use the voicemail system through the department Vice Presidents, Business Agents, Chief Stewards and Stewards as well as the website.   I recently attended the National lLegacy T conference where we continue to build a network of Frontier Union Leaders in an effort to coordinate bargaining and workplace issues .We just had a call with Union leaders at Frontier, in which we spoke of sharing information, mobilization activities, and the meeting that President Chris Shelton is having with the CWA VPs and Frontier CEO Dan McCarthy. We also talked about the shareholders meeting, the status of the company, rumors of selling off pieces of the business, US based calls and the arbitration in District 6 for calls going out of the country. We spoke about staffing across the country and the use of contractors as well. This is a call that occurs on a monthly basis that we will be participating on.   I also attended the CWA Mobility conference. There is a national drive with Unity at Mobility to reach out and organize all of the workers in the wireless industry. AT&T wireless and one small group of Verizon technicians and one small group of Verizon retail workers are the only organized and represented wireless workers in this industry. The goal is to improve contracts for our workers with fair and just contracts.   We are going to be seeking union members at Local 1298 to volunteer to get involved with some of the challenges that are facing us in 2018. We need members to be involved on the political action committee; also we need members to contribute to COPE at the state and federal level. We need member involvement in local elections by volunteering to go door-to-door in labor friendly communities to get our union members across the state to vote for labor friendly candidates. We also need members to get involved with an organizing committee to go out and get the workers who are not represented into collective-bargaining agreements. These two committee’s specifically require a lot of your own time. We didn’t achieve fair and just contracts without the efforts of rank-and-file union members over the years. The attack on unions and our rights to organize and collectively bargain is getting progressively worse. If we do not get involved and take on this fight to rebuild and protect our rights to organize and collectively bargain, this country will be in for a world of trouble. Connecticut is very close to becoming a right to work state, which would have a severe and detrimental impact on our members. If the House, Senate and Governorship become Republican controlled in Connecticut and they pass right to work legislation, our contract negotiations and our ability to take on these fights will be diminished. We have seen this happen in other right to work states and the winners are the corporations not the middle class.  Please stay tuned, get involved and talk to your local Steward about CWA Strong. Ask how you can help in the fight for our future.   In solidarity,   Dave Weidlich President CWA 1298