• Biennial conventions
• Merger of Districts 2 and 13
• Merger of Communications and Technologies and Telecommunications Sectors
• Vote on the Executive Board for the Canadian Director

CWA convention delegates again voted to move CWA forward and adopted several changes that will support every level of CWA in building our union. That action continues the work of the Ready for the Future plan that CWA began in 2005.

Delegates, in a roll call vote, approved a biennial schedule for CWA conventions that will take effect in 2011, allowing CWA to put more resources into frontline representation. Delegates voted new provisions to handle appeals, elections and other issues, ensuring that CWA will remain the most democratic union in the labor movement.

The convention approved the merger of District 2 and 13, and effective next year, 50,000 CWAers in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia will be part of District 2-13. Local union members and leaders in both districts had strongly endorsed the merger, along with vice presidents Ron Collins, D2, and Ed Mooney, D13.

“I am proud of everyone in District 13 for making this merger possible. Local leaders did not hesitate in taking action they knew would better serve members’ and our union’s best interest,” Mooney said.

“Members in District 2 and 13 have shown that they are ready for the future by embracing change when it is necessary to strengthen our union. All sides of the CWA triangle are strengthened by our taking this step to unite our two districts,” Collins said.

Delegates also voted to combine the Communications and Technologies and the Telecommunications offices, creating a new office with a single vice president. Both C and T Vice President Ralph Maly and Telecommunications Vice President supported the merger.

Maly pointed out that the two sectors already had been working together closely for several years, “a real plus for our members.” Gurganus said the merger would make the sector even stronger and able to build more bargaining power for members.

Delegates also voted to give CWA’s Canadian director a vote on the Executive Board. The director of CWA/SCA, currently Arnold Amber, was added to the executive board in 2008.

Busloads of CWA members were on Capitol Hill for CWA’s Lobby Day, holding more than 140 meetings with members of Congress and staff on jobs, bargaining rights for public safety officers and high-speed broadband access for all Americans.

CWA members who visited Senate offices also raised the critical issue of Senate rule changes to end legislative gridlock that has blocked legislation to help working families.

They got fired up for the visits by an early morning speech by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who said CWA’s exhaustive work on health care reform proves what can be accomplished by building coalitions and never giving up.

Pelosi described the Democrats’ agenda to rebuild American manufacturing, including ending tax breaks for companies that move jobs offshore, pointing out that more jobs already have been created under the Obama administration than had been created during the entire eight-year Bush administration, when 4.6 million manufacturing jobs disappeared.

The Bush era left America “with a deep financial crisis, a deep recession, and deep deficits. Republican members of Congress are signing pledges to protect tax breaks for companies that ship American jobs overseas and other tax breaks for the rich. Democrats are standing up for the middle class – and we are not going back,” Pelosi said.

Watch Pelosi’s address here.

Washington, D.C. – June 28, 2010 – Communications Workers of America President Larry Cohen today supported President Obama’s signing of a presidential memorandum seeking to make available more wireless spectrum available for commercial use:

“Increased spectrum is a good step forward towards reaching the FCC broadband goals. Wireless internet is critical, particularly in rural areas, if we are ever to close the global broadband gap. However, we still need the right mix of public incentives to encourage wired build out as reflected in the FCC’s National Broadband Plan. Revenue from spectrum auctions could be used to support 1 gigabit to anchor institutions such as hospitals, schools and libraries. It could also help bring to reality an implementation plan to reach the 2015 goals of 50 megabits downstream and 20 megabits upstream – still a dream for most of this country.”

Remarks By CWA President Larry Cohen

Eyes on the Prize

In 1956, as the Civil Rights movement was moving forward after decades of fighting segregation, activist Alice Wine wrote “Eyes on the Prize,” based on a gospel song written decades earlier.  A few years ago, Bruce Springsteen popularized it again in a recording with Pete Seeger and it seemed like a good way to begin today.  Music can carry us forward in tough times, and CWAers and working families are living through some tough times.

View full story here