Cohen: 'Change is Possible'

In his last keynote address as CWA President, Larry Cohen told delegates that "we can't keep playing by their rules – the deck is stacked, the dice are loaded, the game is fixed." To change that stacked deck, "we need allies and deeper coalitions because the obstacles are that much tougher. We are forming something together beyond a single issue, a deeper sense that we are building a movement together that can move from one issue to another, linked by our goals of democracy and economic justice. I commit to you that I will fight just as hard, shoulder to shoulder with you to build this movement," he said.

President Cohen gives his final keynote address.

Read Cohen's full speech and watch some video here.

Cohen administered the oath of office to new CWA President Chris Shelton, who praised Cohen as a "visionary, transformational" leader.

Cohen was presented with the President's Award, CWA's highest honor for organizing, also known as the "Hat Award," in honor of CWA founding President Joe Beirne. In presenting the award, Shelton said the honor was long overdue and was a tribute not only to the 40,000 New Jersey public workers that Cohen brought into CWA in 1981 but his decades of work to help workers gain organizing and bargaining rights and his never-ending commitment to building our union.

Delegates also adopted a resolution "honoring the leadership and determination of President Larry Cohen to fight 'One Day Longer, Each Day Stronger,' and also voted to designate red as CWA's official color, both in honor of Cohen and in memory of Local 1103 Steward Gerry Horgan who was killed on a picket line in 1989.

Read full resolution here.