News

Buoyed by support from across the country, Local 6171 in Arkansas kicked off bargaining with CenturyTel in late July to improve wages, health care, pensions and job security for its 200 members at the rural telephone company.

Senator John Kerry has written to Adelphia CEO William Schleyer urging the company to resume bargaining and reach "a fair agreement that will be positive for the workers, the community and the company."

About 50 CWA and IBEW activists from District 1, 2 and 13 delivered more than 12,000 post cards to CEO Ivan Seidenberg at Verizon headquarters in New York City, on July 29, as part of their joint mobilization for jobs and bargaining power throughout the company.

At its peak, the New Mexico Coalition of Public Safety Officers/CWA Local 7911 represented 500 police and sheriff's department employees. Then it lost nearly half its members when the state's collective bargaining law expired under Republican Gov. Gary Johnson.

After a 3 1/2-year struggle, TNG-CWA members at the Boston Globe overwhelmingly approved a contract Aug. 5 that significantly reduces workers' share of health care costs and provides the highest flat-dollar wage increase since 1996, as well as full retroactive pay increases.