Conference Sets Stage for Historic Election, Employee Free Choice

While the rest of the country speculates on who will get the Democratic nomination for president, CWA members at the union's annual Legislative-Political Conference focused on the bigger picture: Ensuring that the November election brings sweeping change that will rapidly usher in the Employee Free Choice Act and a pro-worker agenda.

Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Barack Obama, left, and Sen. Hillary Clinton, right, said enactment of the Employee Free Choice Act is critical to restoring America's middle class.

The CWA audience cheered both Democratic presidential contenders Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and a parade of other speakers who made it clear that workers' rights, health care reform, fair trade and retirement security will be top priorities for a Democratic president and worker-friendly House and Senate.

"You can feel the excitement as we imagine the change we can bring about in the next 12 months," CWA President Larry Cohen told the crowd of 700 members that filled a Washington, D.C., hotel ballroom to capacity.

As participants registered for the four-day conference, April 6-9, they filled out postcards urging what will be the new Congress and new president to take immediate action to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.  The labor movement is gathering 1 million postcards and will submit them with photos of many of the signers so that they can be displayed in the Capitol after the November election, putting both names and faces to the fight. CWA has committed to getting 15 percent of its membership, about 90,000 people to sign cards.

CWA Executive Vice President Jeff Rechenbach said the key to all of it – to passing Employee Free Choice, enacting health care reform and more – is victory Nov. 4. "It's all riding on the election," he said. "For the next six months, that's our focus."

Participants heard from lawmakers and other leaders in the mornings and spent the rest of the day on Capitol Hill meeting with representatives, senators and their staffs to discuss CWA's key issues.

In meetings and in speeches, leaders expressed strong support for the Employee Free Choice Act, grave concern about the state of the U.S. economy and anger that the world's wealthiest nation isn't providing health care for tens of millions of its citizens. They also focused on another top CWA priority: high-speed Internet access for every American. Right now, the United States lags far behind other developed countries in both access and upload and download speeds.

"If we want to compete in the global economy, we need to be investing in universal high-speed broadband access," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) 

He and other speakers urged what they praised as an already tireless union to get even more involved over the next six months, ensuring that working families across the country understand the issues, know what's at stake and will turn out on Election Day.

"We cannot turn the tide without your help," said Rep. Andre Carson (D-Ind.), who was elected in March with labor's support to fill the seat of his late grandmother, Julia Carson. Reps. David Obey (D-Wis.) and Rob Andrews (D-N.J.) also spoke, as did West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, a Democrat who is credited with bringing new, living-wage jobs to his state and enacting tough worker safety laws.

The conference included a panel of national political directors and advisers who detailed what seats are open and which are vulnerable in the House, Senate and in governor's offices across the country -- all campaigns that CWA locals and their members will be working on in addition to ensuring that John McCain does not become president.

Panelists were Paul Dioguardi of the Democratic Governors' Association; Martha McKenna of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee; John Vogel of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee; and Parag Mehta of the Democratic National Committee.

On the conference's final morning, DNC Chairman Howard Dean spoke, emphasizing that the party has two extraordinary candidates and that one of them can, and must, beat John McCain.

He noted what he termed McCain's "Let them eat cake" speech recently in which he ignored Wall Street's and the administration's role in the free-falling economy and suggested instead that people struggling to pay their mortgages get second jobs and cut back on other spending. "He is completely disconnected from the struggles of working-class people," Dean said.  

Speaking at her final CWA legislative conference before her retirement at June's convention, Secretary-Treasurer Barbara Easterling honored McCain's military service but condemned his terrible record on working-family issues.

Calling this the "the greatest election opportunity of our lifetime," Easterling said, "We are here on a mission, a mission to build a political movement to restore bargaining rights in America. And if we do our jobs and work as never before, come Election Day we will win and we will usher in a powerful new movement to change America for generations to come."