News

John Risser, a retired CWA representative in Iowa who helped organize the state’s telephone workers in the 1940s and 50s, died Nov. 1 at the age of 98.

Richard “D.J.” Jarratt went to work for the phone company in the days when homes had a single, sturdy black rotary telephone — if they had a phone at all.

John Mestre’s daughter was 2 years old when he was summoned for jury duty on a case that would end in the largest punitive damage award ever against the tobacco industry — $145 billion.

By the time he finished the landmark trial, his daughter was 4.

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Sept. 12 — The protesters started before 7 a.m., marching, chanting and attracting media attention with street theater lampooning a former state official who made millions off prison privatization.

The senseless, cold-blooded killing of a CWA member and the wounding of six other people in Roanoke, Va. shocked the nation, brought outpourings of solidarity from union members and fueled an already intense battle in Congress for the passage of anti-hate crime legislation.