Stewards Army: Stewards Army on Active Duty for CWA Nationwide

More than 30,000 CWA members and retirees across the country are serving in CWA’s Stewards Army, fully engaged in the fight for quality jobs, health care, retirement security and workers’ rights.

During the labor movement’s “Million Member Mobilization” supporting the Employee Free Choice Act, the CWA Stewards Army helped collect 105,000 postcards, more than any other single union.

CWA District 1 got the ball rolling on the Million Member postcard collection, gathering the first 400 signatures at a conference and building from there.

Across the country in California, District 9 activists held an overnight vigil at Sacramento’s Federal Building, and then collected thousands of postcards, hand-written letters and photographs to deliver to Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

In Pennsylvania, District 13’s Stewards Army helped coordinate a massive letter-writing campaign across the state, ultimately delivering thousands of letters to Sen. Arlen Specter. Members also planted Employee Free Choice lawn signs throughout Specter’s neighborhood and hung campaign banners from highway bridges and overpasses.

“Having the Stewards Army structure in place is invaluable, because it means we have a trained, enthusiastic group of activists ready to go whenever they’re needed,” CWA Local 13000 Executive Vice President Jeff Reamer said. “They are our point people. When we’ve got a campaign, we bring them up to speed and they reach out to every single member in their specific locations. We’ve always worked hard on mobilization, but the Stewards Army has made a real difference in how quickly and effectively we can make it happen.”