CWA is opposing President Trump’s nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court and calling on members of the U.S. Senate to reject this nomination, citing his long record of routinely ruling against workers and their families and regularly siding with employers against employees seeking justice in the workplace – including CWA members.
Decisions of the Supreme Court can have a dramatic impact on working people’s rights, freedoms and legal safeguards, as we saw in cases this past term like Janus v. AFSCME Council 31 and National Labor Relations Board v. Murphy Oil.
Just last year, Kavanaugh issued a partial dissent in a case involving more than 300 NABET-CWA technicians at CNN who lost their jobs and the benefits of union representation in the wake of the company’s phony reorganization scheme to get rid of union workers. He concluded that the company was not liable for violations of the National Labor Relations Act and should not have to pay back wages.
Kavanaugh also stood with AT&T to prevent CWA members in Connecticut who interact with customers or work in public from wearing union shirts protesting their treatment by the company. He has held that a waiver of a right to picket allowed Verizon to prevent workers from displaying pro-union signs in their cars.
Judge Kavanaugh’s unwillingness to protect workers even extends to life-and-death situations. In a case involving the death of a Sea World trainer who was working with a killer whale, he dissented from the majority, holding that the Department of Labor lacks authority to regulate activities of participants in sports events or entertainment shows in order to protect their health and safety.
Based on his record, it seems clear that if he is appointed to the Supreme Court, Judge Kavanaugh will continue to protect the interests of already powerful corporate CEOs instead of working families.