Message from US-Union CWA (Communication Workers of America)

My dear fellow unionists,

This is to inform you that the CWA will be coordinating a workplace action in support or in solidarity with your announced 15 February strike in protest of Alcatel-Lucent’s restructuring and the elimination of thousands of jobs.

While under American law we cannot engage in a strike, we are able to make our views strongly understood at Alcatel-Lucent worksites, and the CWA would like to coordinate our actions with yours.

For your information, we have learned that Lucent-Alcatel is currently hiring at two former Alcatel locations in Milpitas, California and Longview, Texas. Alcatel has diligently maintained both of these locations as non-union worksites.

We have also been informed that, while Alcatel-Lucent CEO Pat Russo plans to meet with the company’s “social partners” in Europe, they don’t seem to consider us to be “social partners” and have told us that she has no plans to meet with us.

As you may know, the US government imposed extraordinary “national security” requirements on the Alcatel-Lucent merger, including the creation of a separate, “American-only” company, “Secure Lucent.” As a result, 65 CWA members were informed that they could no longer perform their previous functions and that such work would be subcontracted by Secure Lucent to another company. We demanded that these 65 members be transferred to Secure Lucent, but Alcatel-Lucent refused. In effect, the company has used the US government security requirements as an excuse to establish a totally non-union “Secure Lucent” operation.

We have also demanded that we be given the name of the new subcontractor who will be taking our members’ work. Again, Alcatel-Lucent has refused even to disclose the identity of this company. Frankly, we are concerned that the jobs of other members who work for or in support of Bell Labs and various government installation and maintenance contracts are also in danger of being eliminated.

We have heard rumors of other job reductions but Alcatel-Lucent has refused to respond to our questions about this.

I join with you in opposition to the secretive and unnecessary destruction of jobs by Alcatel-Lucent and look forward to cooperating with you in any ways you believe might be effective.

Sincerely,

Ralph Maly