CWA Members Continue to Build Worker Power with Wins in Georgia Senate Runoff

With this week's victories for Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, working people in Georgia and across the United States have ensured that their voices will be heard on Capitol Hill in 2021 and beyond.

"CWA activists in Georgia have spent years organizing and building a program to engage members and retirees in legislative and electoral work," said CWA President Chris Shelton. "There's no doubt that every vote mattered and their work to organize all around the state made a huge difference in winning Georgia for Joe Biden, Rev. Warnock, and Jon Ossoff. Mitch McConnell's days as the 'grim reaper,' single-handedly stopping legislation that would improve the lives of working people from even coming up for debate in the Senate, are over."

CWA members began preparing for the Georgia Senate race shortly after the 2018 midterm elections. Members educated their co-workers on issues including offshoring, corporate tax cuts, and providing paid leave for all workers and the importance of passing legislation like the PRO Act to enable more workers to join unions and fight back against corporate control of their lives and our economy. The pandemic brought even more urgency to those efforts, as CWA members continued to provide essential services while the McConnell-led Senate failed to act on legislation to protect their lives and their jobs.

For the runoff, CWAers from across the country joined the efforts in Georgia, pitching in on virtual phone banks.

"Our members went from winning a historic strike against AT&T in the summer of 2019 right into work on the Georgia Senate primary election, general election, and now this runoff," said CWA District 3 Vice President Richard Honeycutt. "Mobilizing for a strike and turning out the vote serve the same goal: building worker power and fighting for economic justice."

CWAers, joined by special guests including Stacey Abrams, held numerous phonebanks to elect Warnock and Ossoff, and to ensure that working people's voices are heard once Biden and the new Congress are sworn in.