Congratulations, and welcome aboard to Marc Pretto and Ivan Dawson of Verizon Communications and Thelma Brantley-Howell of Idearc Media. These three members completed the initial phase of steward training on October 23^rd and 24^th .

Verizon is spending big bucks on souped-up broadband and wireless services, while at the same time struggling with basic home phone line repairs. Behind this trend is a shift of money away from shrinking landline businesses with the "lion’s share" of that money going into the newer networks.

Several states have imposed or recommended huge fines against Verizon for forcing customers to wait for repairs. In Virginia, the State Corporation Commission proposed a state-record $17.5 million in fines for their failure to fix an estimated 170,000 phone outages within the required 24 to 48 hours in the first five months of 2006. And in Maryland, Verizon missed more than 20% of its service appointments in five of the first six months of this year.

CWA is very interested in your opinion—which Presidential Candidate do you favor and whether or not you feel CWA should endorse a candidate before the primary season begins.

We have launched a union-wide e-poll, found on our political website, www.cwavotes.org so that you may voice your opinion. The website also includes lots of information about the candidates, including their responses to the questions CWA specifically asked them about jobs and trade, health care and the Employee Free Choice Act.

We encourage you to step up and do your part—as this campaign is a very important part of our political grassroots program which we hope will make a real difference for CWA families.

On Sunday, October 21, 2007, members of Local 2336 along with union members from throughout the area participated in this worthwhile event raising funds for research to stomp out this horrid disease—once and for all.