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CWA Newsmakers
Terry Getty, a retired CWA member with three decades of union service, has been inducted into the East Central Iowa/North Western Illinois AFL-CIO Hall of Fame. Getty, who worked as an outside technician for US West in Iowa, belonged to Local 7117 from 1967 to 1997, serving as a steward, chief steward, vice president, newsletter editor, safety chairman and community services chairman. Additionally, he served the Quad City Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, as a delegate and board member. Vice President Al Gore came to the pre-banquet reception for Getty and three other retired Quad Cities union members. House Minority Whip David Bonior (D-Mich.) was the keynote speaker. More than 500 people attended the event in Bettendorf, Iowa, Getty’s hometown.
Three-time Olympic sprint kayaker Mike Harbold of CWA Local 2108 in Washington, D.C., is on pace to compete once again in next summer’s Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. A cable splicer for Bell Atlantic, Harbold was featured in the February 1999 CWA News. Since then, he has qualified for financial assistance and flexible scheduling under a special Bell Atlantic program to aid Olympic athletes, and his local union has helped with fund-raising to allow him to maintain his grueling training schedule and travel to world-class competitions. Harbold made the U.S. National Team this year in a double kayak, and he and partner Phillipe Boccara went as far as the semifinal in the 1,000 meter events this summer at the World Championships in Milan, Italy. They will compete in the Olympic team trials beginning in May. The U.S. will field one single, one double and one 4-man sprint kayak in the men’s events at the 2000 Olympics.
CWA Local 2011 started a scholarship fund 10 years ago with small fund raisers and presented $500 awards to the children of just two members. A decade of hard work by President Linda Aman and the executive board and — bingo — the Clarksburg, W.Va. local closed out 1999 with 59 scholarships presented to dependents of its 248 members. They started with small stuff like selling candy to raise money. But when the Local 2011 Retiree Club three years ago approached Aman about running a bingo operation, they got serious. West Virginia law requires that all proceeds from gambling be donated to charity, so all proceeds go to veterans’ programs, college and vocational school scholarships and the local United Way. Aman shows up every Friday night to help run the operation. Vice President Art Helmick, Secretary Patt Lamp, Treasurer Stella Barnett and Steward Debbie Sleeth also contribute time. Says Aman, “Our ultimate goal is to be able to award full-tuition scholarships to all our members, retirees or dependents. I am determined that we will get there.”
CWA Secretary-Treasurer Barbara Easterling was featured in “Those Who Have Shaped Our Lives,” a special millennium section in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. The section looked at past and present Ohio residents who have made significant contributions to society, including labor activists. Easterling began her career as a telephone operator in Akron. The article highlighted Easterling’s five decades of union work, including a job in 1970 as chief of the Ohio Labor Division. In 1980, she moved to CWA headquarters as an assistant to then-President Glenn Watts. “She made history in 1992 when she became the first woman to serve as secretary-treasurer of CWA and again in 1995 when she became the first woman to win an executive position with the AFL-CIO, as its secretary-treasurer,” the newspaper reported.
CWA Vice President Bill Boarman, head of the Printing Sector, has been appointed to a second term on the Maryland Commission on Judicial Disabilities, which oversees the conduct of the state’s 300 judges. Boarman was reappointed by Gov. Parris Glendening, who originally asked him to serve three years ago when the 11-seat commission was opened to five members of the public. Previously, only judges and lawyers held seats. The commission reviews complaints against judges around issues of ethics, impartiality and courtesy. Boarman said it’s hard at times “because I’ve spent all my life as an advocate for the worker, and now I sit as a disciplinarian.” But he said he never loses sight of the “human side” of an issue. “Because I’m not a boss, not a businessman, not a lawyer or judge, and I’ve been on the other side of the table, I think I help the commission understand the problems of the individual on the job,” he said. In addition to monthly meetings, Boarman serves as chairman of the commission’s budget committee.
Three-time Olympic sprint kayaker Mike Harbold of CWA Local 2108 in Washington, D.C., is on pace to compete once again in next summer’s Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. A cable splicer for Bell Atlantic, Harbold was featured in the February 1999 CWA News. Since then, he has qualified for financial assistance and flexible scheduling under a special Bell Atlantic program to aid Olympic athletes, and his local union has helped with fund-raising to allow him to maintain his grueling training schedule and travel to world-class competitions. Harbold made the U.S. National Team this year in a double kayak, and he and partner Phillipe Boccara went as far as the semifinal in the 1,000 meter events this summer at the World Championships in Milan, Italy. They will compete in the Olympic team trials beginning in May. The U.S. will field one single, one double and one 4-man sprint kayak in the men’s events at the 2000 Olympics.
CWA Local 2011 started a scholarship fund 10 years ago with small fund raisers and presented $500 awards to the children of just two members. A decade of hard work by President Linda Aman and the executive board and — bingo — the Clarksburg, W.Va. local closed out 1999 with 59 scholarships presented to dependents of its 248 members. They started with small stuff like selling candy to raise money. But when the Local 2011 Retiree Club three years ago approached Aman about running a bingo operation, they got serious. West Virginia law requires that all proceeds from gambling be donated to charity, so all proceeds go to veterans’ programs, college and vocational school scholarships and the local United Way. Aman shows up every Friday night to help run the operation. Vice President Art Helmick, Secretary Patt Lamp, Treasurer Stella Barnett and Steward Debbie Sleeth also contribute time. Says Aman, “Our ultimate goal is to be able to award full-tuition scholarships to all our members, retirees or dependents. I am determined that we will get there.”
CWA Secretary-Treasurer Barbara Easterling was featured in “Those Who Have Shaped Our Lives,” a special millennium section in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. The section looked at past and present Ohio residents who have made significant contributions to society, including labor activists. Easterling began her career as a telephone operator in Akron. The article highlighted Easterling’s five decades of union work, including a job in 1970 as chief of the Ohio Labor Division. In 1980, she moved to CWA headquarters as an assistant to then-President Glenn Watts. “She made history in 1992 when she became the first woman to serve as secretary-treasurer of CWA and again in 1995 when she became the first woman to win an executive position with the AFL-CIO, as its secretary-treasurer,” the newspaper reported.
CWA Vice President Bill Boarman, head of the Printing Sector, has been appointed to a second term on the Maryland Commission on Judicial Disabilities, which oversees the conduct of the state’s 300 judges. Boarman was reappointed by Gov. Parris Glendening, who originally asked him to serve three years ago when the 11-seat commission was opened to five members of the public. Previously, only judges and lawyers held seats. The commission reviews complaints against judges around issues of ethics, impartiality and courtesy. Boarman said it’s hard at times “because I’ve spent all my life as an advocate for the worker, and now I sit as a disciplinarian.” But he said he never loses sight of the “human side” of an issue. “Because I’m not a boss, not a businessman, not a lawyer or judge, and I’ve been on the other side of the table, I think I help the commission understand the problems of the individual on the job,” he said. In addition to monthly meetings, Boarman serves as chairman of the commission’s budget committee.