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Cheers, Tears At 64th Annual CWA Convention
Delegates Remember Sept. 11 Victims;
Look Ahead to November Elections
There was no shortage of cheers, standing ovations, passionate speeches from the floor or laughter at CWA’s 64th annual convention. But this year, there were also tears.
As a video rolled honoring CWA’s victims of Sept. 11 and the war in Afghanistan, delegates brushed away tears as the late members’ pictures appeared on the four giant screens in the Las Vegas Convention Center. They watched with reverence as footage showed heroic firefighters who risked their lives and tireless CWA relief workers and members who worked around the clock in New York and at the Pentagon to restore communications in the disaster areas.
As “We Will Never Forget” ended, the crowd of 3,000
joined hands and swayed to the music as they sang “America the Beautiful” led by Debbie Thomas of The Newspaper Guild-CWA staff.
“We all lost members of our extended CWA family on September 11 and in its aftermath,” CWA President Morton Bahr said. “I cannot begin to tell you how proud I am of the way in which our leaders and members rallied behind our union. Despite the heartache, the trauma, and an uncertain future, our union today is strong, vibrant and a force for national good.”
From CWA’s commitment to children with AIDS to a resolution condemning the killing of Colombian trade unionists to calls for a living wage, a prescription drug benefit for seniors and many other critical domestic initiatives, the convention highlighted the many ways CWA is working to help not only its own members but people around the country and throughout the world.
“As union representatives, you give voice in workplaces across the nation to the democratic values on which this country was founded,” Bahr said. “You take democracy out of the textbooks and put it into practice every time you represent a member, participate in politics or give of your time and energy to community service.”
Hard Work Ahead
Time and energy are going to be essential in the coming months, speakers said. CWA members and the labor community at large must work harder than ever to send pro-worker candidates to Congress to combat the extreme anti-worker agenda of the Bush administration and Republican leaders.
“I don’t think I have to remind you how much is at stake –— only everything we care about, everything we stand for, every victory we’ve won over the past 70 years and every hope and aspiration our members have for the future,” CWA Secretary-Treasurer Barbara Easterling said.
Labor must fight to hold onto the razor-thin edge the Democrats have in the U.S. Senate and do everything possible to take over the House, where there are presently 222 Republicans, 211 Democrats and two Independents. In addition, two-thirds of the states are electing governors in November and statehouses across the country are up for grabs.
One strong pro-worker candidate for the U.S. Senate is Democrat Ron Kirk of Texas, the former mayor of Dallas — and first African-African mayor in the city — who is running for the seat vacated by Phil Gramm.
“Ron is a candidate of solid credentials and character,” Bahr said in introducing Kirk at the convention.
The son of the first black postal clerk in Austin and a schoolteacher, Kirk said both his parents were involved in unions and the fight for equality, and that led him into politics.
“Growing up in Texas in the fifties during the middle of the civil rights movement, I had a real firsthand, bird’s-eye view of the struggles so many of us went through in fighting the battle to make sure every American could have equal access to every opportunity in this country, so I committed myself to that struggle,” he said. “Keeping opportunity and doors open for all Texans and all Americans is the way I was brought up.”
Kirk’s race is likely to be extremely close. “With less than 10 percent of the voters currently undecided and less than two percentage points separating the candidates, every extra effort that labor can put into this campaign could make the difference,” Bahr said.
CWA’s leadership and legwork is vital, speakers said. “We will fight for our vision of the future, a vision that counts our children, their education and health care, their housing, their jobs as just as important as the well being of the rich,” CWA Executive Vice President Larry Cohen said. “CWA locals and our members are better prepared than ever to see that vision become a reality.”
Strong Domestic Agenda
Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe urged union families not to be daunted by polls that show high approval ratings for President George W. Bush. In fact, other polls show huge concern among voters for the very issues that labor supports.
McAuliffe said Republicans who assume they’ll ride into office on Bush’s coattails should take note that in November 2001, Democrats won both gubernatorial races on the ballot — New Jersey and Virginia — won 29 of 42 mayoral races and picked up two state legislative chambers.
“Don’t talk to me about poll numbers, because it is our issues that help us win elections,” he said. With regard to issues other than the war on terrorism — which Democrats support as steadfastly as anyone else — McAuliffe suggested Republicans have little to run on.
“Are they going to run on having 8 million people out of work in this country today, 2 million since George Bush became president? It’s our message that emphasizes domestic kitchen-table issues,” he said. “Social Security? George Bush has taken $1.5 trillion out of Social Security. Prescription drug benefits? Ninety-four percent of seniors aren’t covered. We need 2 million new teachers in this country. We want real pension protection.”
It’s that kind of agenda that has led Democrat Darrio Herrera, presently a county commissioner in Clark County, home to Las Vegas, to run for the U.S. House this November.
“I will always fight against the wealthy, powerful special interests that care only about costs, profits and fat-cat bonuses,” he pledged. “Our country needs leaders committed to standing up to those big corporations that trade away your hard-earned pensions and retirement savings for their bonuses, and right now the balance of this Congress is against us.”
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said people should ask themselves when they go to the polls: “Are we working to live, or living so that we can work?”
“I believe you know the answer, and it is one that we have to begin to address by raising the wages for working people so they have the ability to share — not just for the corporate executives who walk away with the fruits of the labor of our nation,” he said. (See Kerry story, page 11.)
Such conduct is especially contemptible in the wake of Sept. 11, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said. “Union members showed America the best of our working-family, working-class values — rolling up our sleeves, getting the job done, placing our communities’ and the country’s needs in front of our own,” he said. “Then we discovered that while many of our leaders were celebrating workers and wearing hard hats in public, they were padding the profits of their corporate supporters in private.”
Perhaps the convention’s most fiery speaker was William McNary, president of USAction, a rapidly growing organization that brings unions and like-minded groups together to pursue issues important to working families. CWA is one of USAction’s national affiliates.
With a booming voice and animated delivery, McNary said he was glad to be in a “room full of aggressive, progressive people who are not just interested in something and then forget about it, but who are interested in fighting back.” He has no patience for those who would say, “It’s not whether we win or lose, it’s if we fight the good noble fight.”
“We want to win and we want to win because the people we serve are the poor, the powerless, the suffering. They are the ones living from paycheck to paycheck, working from ‘can’t see’ in the morning to ‘can’t see’ at night and they are still poor, seeing their incomes shrinking and their jobs going overseas,” he said. “The people we are serving need somebody who will fight just as hard for them as those who are fighting against them.”
One of the Good Guys
In spite of widespread and highly publicized corporate abuses elsewhere, CWA employer Cingular Wireless has earned high marks from the union as a good corporate citizen — so much so that CEO Stephen Carter was invited to speak at the convention.
While CWA and Cingular don’t agree on everything, Bahr praised the company for agreeing to a neutrality and card-check agreement that brought more than 15,000 members into CWA. And just recently, the company asked CWA for permission to display the CWA logo in many of its stores to show customers that it’s a union employer. “We, of course, are happy to comply,” Bahr said.
Together, CWA and the two-year-old wireless company “have to prove to those who are watching our relationship that our shared goals make us a stronger and more determined and winning competitive team in the marketplace,” Carter said.
CWA officers in districts representing Cingular workers joined Local 4320 President Jack Huber at a microphone to praise Carter. Huber said organizing went quickly in District 4 because of card check and soon resulted in a contract that increased wages and benefits, improved working conditions and gave workers a stronger voice on the job.
Never Forget
Introducing Harold Schaitberger, president of the International Association of Fire-fighters, Bahr blasted the offensive conduct late last year of Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho).
As virtually every politician scrambled for a tour of the World Trade Center disaster site and a photo opportunity with the firefighters and police they called “heroes,” Craig embarked on a campaign to derail a bill that would have given police and fire employees collective bargaining rights in 22 states where they currently have none.
Craig sent a letter to all Republicans urging them to vote no. The heading said: “A clear and avoidable danger. Amendment could lead to firefighter and police strikes during a terrorist attack.”
“What could be more outrageous?” Bahr said. “What an insult to those fallen heroes.” The bill died but has since returned. Bahr pledged CWA’s support.
Schaitberger said Craig is going to face a race unlike any other as firefighters mount a major campaign against him in Idaho. He said he’s sick of politicians in the Craig camp “who have been singing our praises for the past nine months,” while fighting worker initiatives at every turn.
Schaitberger’s emotional speech paid tribute to CWA’s Sept. 11 victims. “I, too, have a heart that breaks, a heart that brings the condolences of a quarter of a million of my members to the families, the loved ones, the friends of those CWA members who lost their lives on that fateful day.”
“I will never forget the first time I walked onto Ground Zero, 24 hours after those towers collapsed,” he said. “I have been in my profession for 36 years. I have seen the aftermath of a lot of tragedy and trauma — earthquakes, hurricanes, plane crashes, the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building and a number of high-rise collapses. But I have never seen anything like the World Trade Center attack and I hope and pray that none of us ever will again.”
Philip Jennings, general secretary of Union Network International, brought condolences to CWA from unions around the world. “We were united by our grief,” he said. “Let us now have the vision and the craft to build a better world for working people.”
While many politicians are trying to use the tragedy to silence labor and other opponents — branding any criticism of government as unpatriotic — speakers said the most patriotic, the most American thing that union members can do is continue to speak out, to organize, lobby and fight for working families.
“September 11 is yet another reminder to our nation that America’s free, independent trade union movement is one of the pillars of democracy that separates us from those who committed the attack,” Bahr said. “Free societies and free unions go hand in hand. The most basic act of union representation that you perform every day is a statement of our freedom and liberty.”
Look Ahead to November Elections
There was no shortage of cheers, standing ovations, passionate speeches from the floor or laughter at CWA’s 64th annual convention. But this year, there were also tears.
As a video rolled honoring CWA’s victims of Sept. 11 and the war in Afghanistan, delegates brushed away tears as the late members’ pictures appeared on the four giant screens in the Las Vegas Convention Center. They watched with reverence as footage showed heroic firefighters who risked their lives and tireless CWA relief workers and members who worked around the clock in New York and at the Pentagon to restore communications in the disaster areas.
As “We Will Never Forget” ended, the crowd of 3,000
joined hands and swayed to the music as they sang “America the Beautiful” led by Debbie Thomas of The Newspaper Guild-CWA staff.
“We all lost members of our extended CWA family on September 11 and in its aftermath,” CWA President Morton Bahr said. “I cannot begin to tell you how proud I am of the way in which our leaders and members rallied behind our union. Despite the heartache, the trauma, and an uncertain future, our union today is strong, vibrant and a force for national good.”
From CWA’s commitment to children with AIDS to a resolution condemning the killing of Colombian trade unionists to calls for a living wage, a prescription drug benefit for seniors and many other critical domestic initiatives, the convention highlighted the many ways CWA is working to help not only its own members but people around the country and throughout the world.
“As union representatives, you give voice in workplaces across the nation to the democratic values on which this country was founded,” Bahr said. “You take democracy out of the textbooks and put it into practice every time you represent a member, participate in politics or give of your time and energy to community service.”
Hard Work Ahead
Time and energy are going to be essential in the coming months, speakers said. CWA members and the labor community at large must work harder than ever to send pro-worker candidates to Congress to combat the extreme anti-worker agenda of the Bush administration and Republican leaders.
“I don’t think I have to remind you how much is at stake –— only everything we care about, everything we stand for, every victory we’ve won over the past 70 years and every hope and aspiration our members have for the future,” CWA Secretary-Treasurer Barbara Easterling said.
Labor must fight to hold onto the razor-thin edge the Democrats have in the U.S. Senate and do everything possible to take over the House, where there are presently 222 Republicans, 211 Democrats and two Independents. In addition, two-thirds of the states are electing governors in November and statehouses across the country are up for grabs.
One strong pro-worker candidate for the U.S. Senate is Democrat Ron Kirk of Texas, the former mayor of Dallas — and first African-African mayor in the city — who is running for the seat vacated by Phil Gramm.
“Ron is a candidate of solid credentials and character,” Bahr said in introducing Kirk at the convention.
The son of the first black postal clerk in Austin and a schoolteacher, Kirk said both his parents were involved in unions and the fight for equality, and that led him into politics.
“Growing up in Texas in the fifties during the middle of the civil rights movement, I had a real firsthand, bird’s-eye view of the struggles so many of us went through in fighting the battle to make sure every American could have equal access to every opportunity in this country, so I committed myself to that struggle,” he said. “Keeping opportunity and doors open for all Texans and all Americans is the way I was brought up.”
Kirk’s race is likely to be extremely close. “With less than 10 percent of the voters currently undecided and less than two percentage points separating the candidates, every extra effort that labor can put into this campaign could make the difference,” Bahr said.
CWA’s leadership and legwork is vital, speakers said. “We will fight for our vision of the future, a vision that counts our children, their education and health care, their housing, their jobs as just as important as the well being of the rich,” CWA Executive Vice President Larry Cohen said. “CWA locals and our members are better prepared than ever to see that vision become a reality.”
Strong Domestic Agenda
Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe urged union families not to be daunted by polls that show high approval ratings for President George W. Bush. In fact, other polls show huge concern among voters for the very issues that labor supports.
McAuliffe said Republicans who assume they’ll ride into office on Bush’s coattails should take note that in November 2001, Democrats won both gubernatorial races on the ballot — New Jersey and Virginia — won 29 of 42 mayoral races and picked up two state legislative chambers.
“Don’t talk to me about poll numbers, because it is our issues that help us win elections,” he said. With regard to issues other than the war on terrorism — which Democrats support as steadfastly as anyone else — McAuliffe suggested Republicans have little to run on.
“Are they going to run on having 8 million people out of work in this country today, 2 million since George Bush became president? It’s our message that emphasizes domestic kitchen-table issues,” he said. “Social Security? George Bush has taken $1.5 trillion out of Social Security. Prescription drug benefits? Ninety-four percent of seniors aren’t covered. We need 2 million new teachers in this country. We want real pension protection.”
It’s that kind of agenda that has led Democrat Darrio Herrera, presently a county commissioner in Clark County, home to Las Vegas, to run for the U.S. House this November.
“I will always fight against the wealthy, powerful special interests that care only about costs, profits and fat-cat bonuses,” he pledged. “Our country needs leaders committed to standing up to those big corporations that trade away your hard-earned pensions and retirement savings for their bonuses, and right now the balance of this Congress is against us.”
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said people should ask themselves when they go to the polls: “Are we working to live, or living so that we can work?”
“I believe you know the answer, and it is one that we have to begin to address by raising the wages for working people so they have the ability to share — not just for the corporate executives who walk away with the fruits of the labor of our nation,” he said. (See Kerry story, page 11.)
Such conduct is especially contemptible in the wake of Sept. 11, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said. “Union members showed America the best of our working-family, working-class values — rolling up our sleeves, getting the job done, placing our communities’ and the country’s needs in front of our own,” he said. “Then we discovered that while many of our leaders were celebrating workers and wearing hard hats in public, they were padding the profits of their corporate supporters in private.”
Perhaps the convention’s most fiery speaker was William McNary, president of USAction, a rapidly growing organization that brings unions and like-minded groups together to pursue issues important to working families. CWA is one of USAction’s national affiliates.
With a booming voice and animated delivery, McNary said he was glad to be in a “room full of aggressive, progressive people who are not just interested in something and then forget about it, but who are interested in fighting back.” He has no patience for those who would say, “It’s not whether we win or lose, it’s if we fight the good noble fight.”
“We want to win and we want to win because the people we serve are the poor, the powerless, the suffering. They are the ones living from paycheck to paycheck, working from ‘can’t see’ in the morning to ‘can’t see’ at night and they are still poor, seeing their incomes shrinking and their jobs going overseas,” he said. “The people we are serving need somebody who will fight just as hard for them as those who are fighting against them.”
One of the Good Guys
In spite of widespread and highly publicized corporate abuses elsewhere, CWA employer Cingular Wireless has earned high marks from the union as a good corporate citizen — so much so that CEO Stephen Carter was invited to speak at the convention.
While CWA and Cingular don’t agree on everything, Bahr praised the company for agreeing to a neutrality and card-check agreement that brought more than 15,000 members into CWA. And just recently, the company asked CWA for permission to display the CWA logo in many of its stores to show customers that it’s a union employer. “We, of course, are happy to comply,” Bahr said.
Together, CWA and the two-year-old wireless company “have to prove to those who are watching our relationship that our shared goals make us a stronger and more determined and winning competitive team in the marketplace,” Carter said.
CWA officers in districts representing Cingular workers joined Local 4320 President Jack Huber at a microphone to praise Carter. Huber said organizing went quickly in District 4 because of card check and soon resulted in a contract that increased wages and benefits, improved working conditions and gave workers a stronger voice on the job.
Never Forget
Introducing Harold Schaitberger, president of the International Association of Fire-fighters, Bahr blasted the offensive conduct late last year of Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho).
As virtually every politician scrambled for a tour of the World Trade Center disaster site and a photo opportunity with the firefighters and police they called “heroes,” Craig embarked on a campaign to derail a bill that would have given police and fire employees collective bargaining rights in 22 states where they currently have none.
Craig sent a letter to all Republicans urging them to vote no. The heading said: “A clear and avoidable danger. Amendment could lead to firefighter and police strikes during a terrorist attack.”
“What could be more outrageous?” Bahr said. “What an insult to those fallen heroes.” The bill died but has since returned. Bahr pledged CWA’s support.
Schaitberger said Craig is going to face a race unlike any other as firefighters mount a major campaign against him in Idaho. He said he’s sick of politicians in the Craig camp “who have been singing our praises for the past nine months,” while fighting worker initiatives at every turn.
Schaitberger’s emotional speech paid tribute to CWA’s Sept. 11 victims. “I, too, have a heart that breaks, a heart that brings the condolences of a quarter of a million of my members to the families, the loved ones, the friends of those CWA members who lost their lives on that fateful day.”
“I will never forget the first time I walked onto Ground Zero, 24 hours after those towers collapsed,” he said. “I have been in my profession for 36 years. I have seen the aftermath of a lot of tragedy and trauma — earthquakes, hurricanes, plane crashes, the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building and a number of high-rise collapses. But I have never seen anything like the World Trade Center attack and I hope and pray that none of us ever will again.”
Philip Jennings, general secretary of Union Network International, brought condolences to CWA from unions around the world. “We were united by our grief,” he said. “Let us now have the vision and the craft to build a better world for working people.”
While many politicians are trying to use the tragedy to silence labor and other opponents — branding any criticism of government as unpatriotic — speakers said the most patriotic, the most American thing that union members can do is continue to speak out, to organize, lobby and fight for working families.
“September 11 is yet another reminder to our nation that America’s free, independent trade union movement is one of the pillars of democracy that separates us from those who committed the attack,” Bahr said. “Free societies and free unions go hand in hand. The most basic act of union representation that you perform every day is a statement of our freedom and liberty.”