Communication Workers of America Local 1101

The time has come to elect our New York City Council member in the Fifth District to represent the Upper East Side and Roosevelt Island and Communication Workers of America Local 1101 supports “Labor Candidate” Ben Kallos.

Representing over 7,000 communication workers, including employees at Verizon and AT&T Mobility, our local is dedicated to the working families of New York City.  Ben Kallos shares this mission and understands the value of our members’ work.  Ben paid his way through State University of New York (SUNY) at Albany laying Cat5 cable and supporting the University’s Internet infrastructure.  It is essential that we elect candidates who have not only performed this kind of work with their own two hands, but understand the technology that is essential to keep our City communicating today and in the future.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, he authored an article recognizing union workers’ contributions to the cleanup in the Huffington Post, “New York City Union Workers Respond to Hurricane Sandy: Preparing, Protecting and Rebuilding,” one of the few independent voices to do so.  We had already come across this pivotal piece and were pleasantly surprised to learn that its author was a new kind of City Council candidate, one that we could fully support.

Ben Kallos has been a fixture in the labor community, standing beside us when we’ve needed him most.  He has stood alongside Local 1101 on numerous occasions in the past including when we picketed with the Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA) 1-2 when they were locked out by Con Ed last summer and when we marched with the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1181 as they defended themselves against Bloomberg’s attack on the Employee Protection Provision (EPP) to keep drivers, matrons, mechanic and the children of our City safe. 

Where corporate welfare from windfall City contracts have become the norm, Ben will fight for fair contracts promoting competition to provide adequate community benefits and a living wage that working families need for the City to be sustainable.  When those that took windfall contracts in the past fail to make good on their promises, Ben will have the courage to organize with us against big corporations to keep them to their word.

At CWA Local 1101, we recognize that only by allying ourselves with our brothers and sisters and labor and proven labor candidates like Ben Kallos can we create a better future for the next generation of our City’s workers.  We urge our members, fellow unions, and the working families of New York City to support Ben Kallos in his campaign for City Council.

In Solidarity,

Keith Purce
President
CWA Local 1101