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Bahr Era Comes to a Close at 67th CWA Convention
CHICAGO, Aug. 29 -- An historic transition of power marked the opening day of CWA's 67th annual convention as delegates gave a rousing send-off to 20-year President Morton Bahr in the morning and elected a new president, CWA Executive Vice President Larry Cohen, in the afternoon.
Cohen and the full slate of other newly elected and reelected CWA officers will be sworn in Tuesday morning, when Cohen will address the nearly 2,500 delegates and guests gathered from across the country at Chicago's Navy Pier.
In his speech Monday morning, which opened and closed with thunderous standing ovations, Bahr pulled no punches about the challenges facing the labor movement in the most hostile political climate for workers in at least 70 years.
Bahr detailed current efforts by the business lobby and its backers in Congress and the White House to dismantle Social Security, weaken the Family and Medical Leave Act, further assault workers' overtime rights and otherwise erode the Fair Labor Standards Act.
"Since Eisenhower won in 1956 we have had nine presidents," Bahr said, citing the first election he took part in as a union activist. "I can tell you categorically that never has there been a more ideological, anti-worker, anti-union administration than the current one."
From one of the first acts of the Bush administration - killing the bipartisan, Clinton-era ergonomics standard to protect workers from crippling injuries – to the combination of delaying tactics and pro-business rulings by the National Labor Relations Board that have made it harder than ever for workers to organize and seek justice on the job, Bahr said the anti-worker forces in Washington are determined to create an environment in which the only rights that matter are employers'.
"President Bush continually talks about building democracies around the world," Bahr said. "He needs to take a look at democracy here at home. There can be no true democracy in a society where workers do not have the unfettered right to form a union free of employer threats and intimidation."
Bahr, 79, announced that he will kick off his retirement by continuing his 53-year-long fight against anti-union employers.
"This Wednesday, my first full day of retirement, I will become a volunteer organizer devoting my time to bring democracy to every Verizon Wireless workplace in this country," he said. "This is unfinished business for me. It is the deliberate effort on the part of one of our two largest employers to intimidate employees not to join our union no matter what the cost."
Monday's lineup also featured AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, who praised Bahr as "not only one of the strongest and most visionary of any of our leaders, but without rival, the most unselfish, the most honest and the most decent labor leader in America."
Sweeney said that without Bahr, Cohen, CWA Secretary-Treasurer Barbara Easterling and incoming Executive Vice President Jeff Rechenbach, the federation might not have survived the split that occurred at last month's AFL-CIO convention, when three large unions disaffiliated.
As disappointed and angry as the split left him, Sweeney said CWA and the many other remaining AFL-CIO unions "came out of our convention more united and more energized than we have ever been. We are determined to focus our energy not on those who are trying to tear our movement apart but on the greedy corporations and right-wing elected officials who are trying to tear our country apart."
In addition to Cohen's and Rechenbach's elections Monday, delegates unanimously reelected Easterling and Vice Presidents Ralph Maly, Communications and Technologies; Jimmy Gurganus, Telecommunications; Brooks Sunkett, Public, Healthcare and Education Workers and Bill Boarman, Printing, Publishing and Media Workers. James Clark, elected by IUE as its president this spring, was elected to his first full term as a CWA vice president. All will serve three-year terms.
Elections for CWA district vice presidents were being held in district-level meetings after the convention recessed for the day; results will be announced Tuesday.
Cohen, 56, is recognized as one of the labor movement's most innovative and effective leaders. He has built one of the most respected organizing programs in the country and has initiated new strategies to bring union representation to workers in a broad range of sectors. He was elected executive vice president in 1998, after serving as Bahr's assistant and director of organizing the previous 12 years. A native of Philadelphia, Cohen began his union work as an unrepresented state worker in New Jersey, where he led the successful drive that brought 36,000 state workers into the CWA family.
Sweeney praised Cohen as "a writer, a speaker, a thinker, an international strategist, and a leader in the noblest tradition of our movement." Largely because of Cohen's vision and hard work, Sweeney said the Employee Free Choice Act now has 201 co-sponsors in the U.S. House and 38 in the Senate.
Easterling has served as secretary-treasurer for 13 years. She started her union work as an operator at Ohio Bell, joining and serving in various posts in Local 4302. She became an assistant to the CWA president in 1980, was elected executive vice president in 1985, and was first elected secretary-treasurer in 1992.
Cohen's successor, Rechenbach, has served as CWA's vice president for District 4, since 1994. Rechenbach's work with CWA began at Ohio Bell in Cleveland, when at age 19, he was elected president of the 2,000-member Local 4309.
Cohen and the full slate of other newly elected and reelected CWA officers will be sworn in Tuesday morning, when Cohen will address the nearly 2,500 delegates and guests gathered from across the country at Chicago's Navy Pier.
In his speech Monday morning, which opened and closed with thunderous standing ovations, Bahr pulled no punches about the challenges facing the labor movement in the most hostile political climate for workers in at least 70 years.
Bahr detailed current efforts by the business lobby and its backers in Congress and the White House to dismantle Social Security, weaken the Family and Medical Leave Act, further assault workers' overtime rights and otherwise erode the Fair Labor Standards Act.
"Since Eisenhower won in 1956 we have had nine presidents," Bahr said, citing the first election he took part in as a union activist. "I can tell you categorically that never has there been a more ideological, anti-worker, anti-union administration than the current one."
From one of the first acts of the Bush administration - killing the bipartisan, Clinton-era ergonomics standard to protect workers from crippling injuries – to the combination of delaying tactics and pro-business rulings by the National Labor Relations Board that have made it harder than ever for workers to organize and seek justice on the job, Bahr said the anti-worker forces in Washington are determined to create an environment in which the only rights that matter are employers'.
"President Bush continually talks about building democracies around the world," Bahr said. "He needs to take a look at democracy here at home. There can be no true democracy in a society where workers do not have the unfettered right to form a union free of employer threats and intimidation."
Bahr, 79, announced that he will kick off his retirement by continuing his 53-year-long fight against anti-union employers.
"This Wednesday, my first full day of retirement, I will become a volunteer organizer devoting my time to bring democracy to every Verizon Wireless workplace in this country," he said. "This is unfinished business for me. It is the deliberate effort on the part of one of our two largest employers to intimidate employees not to join our union no matter what the cost."
Monday's lineup also featured AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, who praised Bahr as "not only one of the strongest and most visionary of any of our leaders, but without rival, the most unselfish, the most honest and the most decent labor leader in America."
Sweeney said that without Bahr, Cohen, CWA Secretary-Treasurer Barbara Easterling and incoming Executive Vice President Jeff Rechenbach, the federation might not have survived the split that occurred at last month's AFL-CIO convention, when three large unions disaffiliated.
As disappointed and angry as the split left him, Sweeney said CWA and the many other remaining AFL-CIO unions "came out of our convention more united and more energized than we have ever been. We are determined to focus our energy not on those who are trying to tear our movement apart but on the greedy corporations and right-wing elected officials who are trying to tear our country apart."
In addition to Cohen's and Rechenbach's elections Monday, delegates unanimously reelected Easterling and Vice Presidents Ralph Maly, Communications and Technologies; Jimmy Gurganus, Telecommunications; Brooks Sunkett, Public, Healthcare and Education Workers and Bill Boarman, Printing, Publishing and Media Workers. James Clark, elected by IUE as its president this spring, was elected to his first full term as a CWA vice president. All will serve three-year terms.
Elections for CWA district vice presidents were being held in district-level meetings after the convention recessed for the day; results will be announced Tuesday.
Cohen, 56, is recognized as one of the labor movement's most innovative and effective leaders. He has built one of the most respected organizing programs in the country and has initiated new strategies to bring union representation to workers in a broad range of sectors. He was elected executive vice president in 1998, after serving as Bahr's assistant and director of organizing the previous 12 years. A native of Philadelphia, Cohen began his union work as an unrepresented state worker in New Jersey, where he led the successful drive that brought 36,000 state workers into the CWA family.
Sweeney praised Cohen as "a writer, a speaker, a thinker, an international strategist, and a leader in the noblest tradition of our movement." Largely because of Cohen's vision and hard work, Sweeney said the Employee Free Choice Act now has 201 co-sponsors in the U.S. House and 38 in the Senate.
Easterling has served as secretary-treasurer for 13 years. She started her union work as an operator at Ohio Bell, joining and serving in various posts in Local 4302. She became an assistant to the CWA president in 1980, was elected executive vice president in 1985, and was first elected secretary-treasurer in 1992.
Cohen's successor, Rechenbach, has served as CWA's vice president for District 4, since 1994. Rechenbach's work with CWA began at Ohio Bell in Cleveland, when at age 19, he was elected president of the 2,000-member Local 4309.