Stewards Army: 'We're Stronger and We've Gained Respect'

Members of CWA’s Stewards Army in Virginia produced a big win for Verizon workers and consumers and successfully fought back against Verizon’s effort to have telephone service for residential and business consumers deregulated. 

Every CWA telecom local in the state was involved in the campaign.

CWA Local 2201, one of the locals in the campaign, spent a lot of time building its Stewards Army and strengthening its political/legislative program well ahead of the fight, said Local President Chris Lane. “We knew our program needed beefing up. It wouldn’t be strong enough to meet the challenges that we’d be facing against Verizon, either in bargaining or in legislative and political arena.”

Using SIF funds for training activists, the local built its army to nearly 300 strong. At the same time, local activists worked with members to make the connection between building union power and CWA-COPE. In three years, member participation in the voluntary political contribution program has risen more than 300 percent.

An effort by Verizon to get a deregulation measure through the state legislature in 2007 also was met head on by the CWA Stewards Army. Union activists “took petitions into their neighborhoods, to their community groups, organizations and houses of worship,” said Richard Hatch, local executive vice president. There were several rounds of phone banking to customers, to make sure they knew that quality service was at risk.

“Because of these victories, we’re stronger and we’ve gained respect,” said Lane. “Verizon knows that we are a force, and can no longer ignore us.”