Rechenbach: Strong, Vibrant Labor Movement Will Restore America

Retiring CWA Secretary-Treasurer Jeff Rechenbach bids farewell as a national officer but pledges to be an active volunteer in his home state of Ohio.

In a farewell convention speech filled with his trademark humor, retiring Secretary-Treasurer Jeff Rechenbach outlined the challenges CWA faces but also its strengths: dedicated activists and leaders with a shared passion to make things better for members, their families and all workers.

"It is what we all in this room hold in common — the desire to make things better for our coworkers and our nation, to gain respect on the job and dignity in the workplace, to bring economic security to the homes of our members," Rechenbach said.

Doing so is a bigger challenge than ever, he said, pointing to the soaring gap between what American workers and CEOs earn, and the country's extreme inequality of wealth.

"Anyone want to guess how long it would take for the average CWA member to earn what the top hedge fund manager earns in one year? 35,217 years," Rechenbach said. "Oh, and by the way, you currently pay a tax rate that is more than double what the hedge fund manager pays."

The rich "aren't getting richer in this country because they are smarter," he said. "The people with incomes over a million dollars aren't the teachers who shape our children's minds and characters, they aren't the factory workers on an assembly line or the construction workers building a new home, they aren't the scientists searching for a cure for cancer, they certainly aren't the telephone workers, newspaper reporters, flight attendants, call center workers, printers, TV technicians or public workers that belong to our union."

Rechenbach discussed the many ways CWA has tightened its belt financially, from leasing out large portions of the headquarters building, to staff reductions through attrition, to agreements from both union and exempt staff to forgo raises and accept health and pension benefit changes. Further, he said, CWA officer salaries remain among the lowest in the labor movement.

Under Rechenbach's leadership, CWA has also reduced its number of fulltime officers, merging Districts 2 and 13 and the Telecom and C&T offices, and eliminating the executive vice president position, held until this week by Annie Hill. Delegates elected Hill to succeed Rechenbach as secretary-treasurer.

While CWA, its members and working families nationwide are doing everything they can to be financially responsible and continue to make ends meet, Wall Street and CEOs are enriching themselves and shipping jobs overseas, and through their money have a direct line to Congress to write the rules that benefit only them, Rechenbach said.

"The only hope to turn around this nightmare cycle of wealth distribution to the top is a strong and vibrant labor movement," he said. Our opponents "will do anything and everything they can to crush us, but as the song goes, like a tree standing by the water, we shall not be moved."