News

John Kerry didn’t pull any punches: The three-term Massachusetts Democrat is fed up with hypocrisy from his colleagues on the other side of the U.S. Senate aisle who couldn’t wait to shake hands and take pictures with New York’s firefighters in the wake of Sept. 11.

There was plenty for delegates to cheer: massive organizing victories at Verizon, AT&T Broadband and Cingular Wireless, a strike-ending contract at New Era Cap Co., and the affiliation of public safety officers of the fourth oldest state police agency in the country.

CWA President Morton Bahr presented the union’s highest organizing award to districts and locals that provided exceptional leadership in nationwide campaigns:

• District 3 for organizing more than 10,000 Cingular Wireless workers in the South;
  

Delegates to the 64th CWA convention elected Jimmy Gurganus, CWA staff representative in District 3, as vice president for telecommunications.

Gurganus succeeds T.O. Moses who retired this year after 13 years of service. Moses was elected vice president emeritus by acclamation.

Of all the standing ovations in Las Vegas during the CWA convention, one of the longest and most heartfelt was for CWA President Morton Bahr as he was unanimously elected to another three years in office.