News

CWA locals representing members at AT&T across the union kicked off the "one year to a new contract" mobilization with leafleting and workplace actions across the districts in advance of 2009 negotiations. AT&T Mobility members also joined in, to show support for a united CWA at AT&T and to gear up for the AT&T Mobility Orange negotiations; that contract expires in February 2009.

A Massachusetts local in the midst of a battle with its yellow-page employer has already submitted Employee Free Choice support postcards from 30 percent of its members and its leader is determined to get 100 percent of them to sign.

Lorraine Wetle, 76, retired assistant to the District 9 vice president, died April 11 following a long battle with pancreatic cancer. "Lorraine was a great trade unionist who helped build CWA," said District 9 Vice President Tony Bixler. "She will be missed."

Marking Workers Memorial Day 2008, CWA will join with other unions Monday, April 28, at the National Labor College in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C., to break ground on a garden-style national memorial honoring fallen workers.

While the rest of the country speculates on who will get the Democratic nomination for president, CWA members at the union's annual Legislative-Political Conference focused on the bigger picture: Ensuring that the November election brings sweeping change that will rapidly usher in the Employee Free Choice Act and a pro-worker agenda.