Organizing Update

DirecTV Workers Choose CWA

More than 100 DirecTV technicians, warehouse and administrative workers in two Maryland locations have signed up for CWA representation.

CWA Locals 2100 and 2106 joined forces to support workers in Denton and Hanover, MD. Local 2106 President Jim Cutter and Local 2100 Vice President Kimani Kilkenny led the campaign.

"The fact that DirecTV workers throughout the mid-Atlantic and across the country are choosing CWA representation proves what we've been saying all along, that when workers can sign up for a union without being harassed by their supervisors or threatened by management, they want a union. Locals 2106 and 2100 did great work in helping these DirecTV workers get their union, and that work is continuing across our district," said Ed Mooney, CWA Vice President, District 2-13.

AT&T acquired DirecTV in 2015.

ESL Teachers Vote for NewsGuild Representation

English-as- a-second-language (ESL) instructors at Kaplan International in Chicago voted 14 to 3 for representation by TNG-CWA Local 34071. This campaign continues the successful efforts of ESL instructors at Kaplan in New York to gain union representation.

Over two weeks, on an almost daily basis, employees were forced to endure one-on-one meetings with managers and several captive audience meetings. The anti-worker campaign was directed by well-known union-busters Jones Day.

NewsGuild organizer Cat Salonek, left, celebrates with Kaplan ESL teacher Sunny Rashad, who is signaling that there was an 82-percent "yes" vote for the Guild.