*Deregulation, privatization, corporate restructuring, and new technology.
*Employer attacks on pay, benefits, job security, and decent working conditions.
*Management resistance to union organizing among cable and wireless workers.
*Recent strike activity at Telus, Alliant, Bell Canada, SBC, Sprint, Verizon, France Telecom, and other big firms.

Spend Friday, May 5 (or the whole the weekend of May 6-7, 2005 at the Labor Notes Conference), sharing information and ideas about how to make our unions stronger and more effective!

Location: Hyatt Regency Hotel, Dearborn, Michigan. (For room reservations, call: 313-593-1234; for Labor Notes conference info, go to: www.labornotes.org). The telecom meeting will be from 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Sponsored by: Communications Workers of America District 4; the Communications, Energy, and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP); SUD-PTT/France; and CWA Locals 1400 and 9423. (Partial list.)

Please register in advance by: contacting either Steve Early at CWA District 1 (781-937-9600 or Lsupport@aol.com) or Sid Shniad at the Telecom Workers Union at 604-437-8601 or Sid.Shniad@twu-canada.ca.

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Tentative Agenda for May 5 Telecom Cross-Border Meeting

1. Mapping The Terrain -- overview of global telecom industry today.

2. Lessons of Recent Telecom Disputes:

*Reports on the TWU-Telus dispute and other contract struggles.

*Mobilizing members for non-strike strategies like "work-to-rule."

3. Telecom Organizing Campaigns -- what works and what doesn't.

4. Fighting For Jobs and Service Quality – and Against Out-Sourcing -- in the Legislative and Political Arena.

5. Building Cross-Border Networks of Rank-and-File Telecom Union Activists: How can we work together against common corporate adversaries?