CWA Convention Actions Include Canadian Alliance with USW, Call for Stem Cell Research, Plan to Incr

Delegates to the 69th CWA Convention in Toronto this week took historic action to increase diversity among CWA leadership (see previous story); witnessed the signing of a strategic alliance with the United Steelworkers (USW) to help support CWA's 8,000 Canadian members; and pledged to support embryonic stem cell research to help treat devastating diseases such as ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease), spinal cord injuries, Parkinson's disease, and much more.

CWA President Larry Cohen's keynote speech and speeches by Secretary-Treasurer Barbara J. Easterling and Executive Vice President Jeff Rechenbach are posted at ga.cwa-union.org, along with a slide show of photos from the convention and information on campaigns, including the Employee Free Choice Act.

In a strong but emotional address, CWA District 2 Vice President Pete Catucci, who is suffering from ALS, asked delegates to commit their energy to the fight for the Employee Free Choice Act and also to the fight for embryonic stem cell research, which has shown great promise in the treatment of diseases that now have no cure.

The United States is far behind other countries in this critical research, due to President Bush's order restricting embryonic stem cell research, Catucci said. "These are not cell lines that will ever become tissue and are slated to be destroyed, yet the potential for life-saving cures is enormous," he said. CWAers will be sending postcards to their senators and representatives urging support for this vital research. Joining him in a call for "EFCA and stem cells," delegates gave Catucci a prolonged standing ovation.

Under the strategic alliance signed by USW President Leo Gerard, TNG Canada Director Arnold Amber and USW National Director for Canada Ken Neumann, CWAers in Canada will join forces with the more than 280,000 USW members there to work together on issues of common interest. Delegates also voted to establish a Canadian region, with members formerly in Districts 1 and 7 now part of a new region with full authority on governance, policy and operational decisions affecting Canadian members, in accordance with the CWA Constitution.

Delegates approved a plan under which the CWA Executive Board and the executive board of the Retired Members' Council will meet to determine ways to work more closely together. The RMC also will develop an action plan with specific goals to work with locals to organize new chapters, increase membership and build active participation in CWA campaigns.

Other resolutions endorsed the Restoring Pension Promises to All Workers Act and urged all members to actively support NABET-CWA members who are battling to keep their pensions in bargaining with ABC-TV; supported efforts to build a strong political movement and back workers' candidates through the "$8 in '08" CWA-COPE program; pressed to rescind the extreme postal rate changes recently adopted by Congress; called on CWA to bring worldwide attention to the crisis in Darfur; called for the restoration of true country-of-origin labeling for food and other consumer products entering the United States; declared an immediate end to U.S. involvement in Iraq; and affirmed that CWA will organize the telecom industry wall-to-wall and insist that any contracted work be performed in the U.S. by union workers.