Dear CWA 9509,

I'm writing to you on a great day for America.

This morning, I gathered with members of Congress, my administration, and hardworking volunteers from every part of the country to sign comprehensive health care reform into law. Thanks to the immeasurable efforts of so many, the dream of reform is now a reality.

The bill I just signed puts Americans in charge of our own health care by enacting three key changes:

It establishes the toughest patient protections in history.

It guarantees all Americans affordable health insurance options, extending coverage to 32 million who are currently uninsured.

And it reduces the cost of care -- cutting over 1 trillion dollars from the federal deficit over the next two decades.

To ensure a successful, stable transition, many of these changes will phase into full effect over the next several years.

But for millions of Americans, many of the benefits of reform will begin this year -- some even taking effect this afternoon. Here are just a few examples:

Small businesses will receive significant tax cuts, this year, to help them afford health coverage for all their employees.

Seniors will receive a rebate to reduce drug costs not yet covered under Medicare.

Young people will be allowed coverage under their parents' plan until the age of 26.

Early retirees will receive help to reduce premium costs.

Children will be protected against discrimination on the basis of medical history.

Uninsured Americans with pre-existing conditions can join a special high-risk pool to get the coverage they need, starting in just 90 days.

Insured Americans will be protected from seeing their insurance revoked when they get sick, or facing restrictive annual limits on the care they receive.

All Americans will benefit from significant new investments to train primary care doctors, nurses, and public health professionals, and the creation of state-level consumer assistance programs to help all patients understand and defend our new rights.

As I've said many times, and as I know to be true, this astounding victory could not have been achieved without your tireless efforts.

So as we celebrate this great day, I want to invite you to add your name where it belongs: alongside mine as a co-signer of this historic legislation. Organizing for America will record the names of co-signers as a permanent commemoration of those who came together to make this moment possible -- all of you who refused to give up until the dream of many generations for affordable, quality care for all Americans was finally fulfilled.

So, if you haven't yet, please add your name as a proud health care reform co-signer today:

http://my.barack obama.com/cosigner

Please accept my thanks for your voice, for your courage, and for your indispensable partnership in the great work of creating change.

History, and I, are in your debt.

President Barack Obama

United Way Employee Giving Campaign 2009

Last year’s Employee Giving Campaign saw a 6% drop in San Diego/Imperial County pledging. This year’s solicitors hope to see a reversal of this trend. There were 12 solicitors that visited all AT&T locations for CWA Local 9509, from the beach areas, to the border and back east to El Centro. The Solicitors worked all hours of the early morning to late in the evening to meet the expectation of 100% coverage of over 2000 employees in 25 work days.  The sacrifice of their families should be congratulated for supporting the efforts it took to meet this large task. Solicitors came from all backgrounds, from technicians to Service Reps, some are single parents, most new to soliciting, some are Union Stewards and everyone gave their all to arrange their life around the need to finish this great task. This year’s Solicitors were:  Jorge Martin Del Campo, Heidi Edgerly, Kathie Laguna, Darion Williamson, Derek Sykes, Francisco Barrios, Elizabeth Salazar, Venessa Beltran, Trini Batt, Martha Webb, Karl Zeilik and Sumi Barton.
The experience had so many positive highlights. The team enjoyed working with the United Way representatives as well as representatives of agencies from all over San Diego County; Make A Wish Foundation, The Burn Institute, Teen Challenge of Southern California, Voices for Children and Urban Corps of San Diego,  just to name a few. The team had the opportunity to tour several non-profit agencies that work together with United Way. One particularly moving experience was at the Women’s Resource Center. The Director, Jill Morgan, explained how their services lift both men and women out of the dangers resulting from  domestic violence and gives them the safe haven and support needed to rebuild their lives. The center has been affected by over $200,000.00 in State budget cuts. To meet the challenge of cutting costs, the staff, including everyone from the CEO down, took a 10% cut in pay; they unplugged the refrigerator in the break room to save on electricity and took up gardening responsibilities to cut back on landscaping costs all so that no resources would have to be cut!! A food drive, benefitting the Women’s Resource Center and the San Diego Deaf Community Services, was hosted at the Sequence Drive location and the collected foods were delivered to the two agencies on Friday, October 16th.  Fundraising activities ranged from hosting a taqueria on two separate occasions, as well as ceviche, all 12 pounds made fresh by Solicitor Venessa Beltran!  Also, raffles for prizes ranging from baseball and football tickets to massage therapy certificates, gift cards and even a Wii were given away. All proceeds benefitted the United Way of San Diego County.  

Solicitors (left to right):
Darion Williamson, Derek Sykes, Venessa Beltran, Elizabeth Salazar, Francisco Barrios and Martha Webb; Ceviche fundraiser, Sequence Drive.

Two Agency Fairs, one at Trade St and the other at the Sequence Drive call centers, took place to get employees involved in seeing where their pledges go and how monies donated benefits their community.

Solicitor Heidi Edgerly (left) and United Way Employees;                            Solicitor Trini Batt (far right); 10/12/09 Agency Fair Trade St.
10/12/09 Agency Fair

There were some challenges, this year’s solicitors got a later start than allowed by the company in years past. A third of the team still had to work their Saturday rotation as well as work Mondays. The unexpected frustration of working with managers who were non-compliant and not corporative, apathy and hostility from fellow employees were a surprise to most of the solicitors. People would refuse to attend meetings after guest speakers had been arraigned to be present to share information about their particular agency and how giving to the United Way benefits them and San Diego County. Feedback from both employees and management indicate that many see the campaign as a union sponsored event. The United Way/Employee Giving Campaign is an AT&T annually sponsored event to encourage management and non management to give back to their community through pledging to the United Way of San Diego County.  The only connection to CWA is that AT&T looks to CWA members to complete the task of running the campaign from beginning to end. Every year CWA members meet the challenge and have to answer to the company for how the time was spent, meeting the company’s expectation of 100% coverage by the end of each year’s campaign.
That being said, the consensus of the 2009 Employee Giving Campaign Solicitors was that this was overall such a positive & powerful experience, that we were grateful for the opportunity, and we hope to participate again in years to come!!