CWA Newsmakers

Dennis Carney, a CWA representative who has flown hundreds of physically or mentally challenged children in his private plane, has retired. His telecommunications and union staff career spanned 38 years. Carney, 57, worked for the Northern Pittsburgh Telephone Co. from 1964 as an accounting clerk and test man/dispatcher. In 1968 he attempted to organize his company into CWA, but its workers chose to join the Federation of Telephone Workers of Pennsylvania. He served as treasurer, vice president and president of Local 104 of the FTWP prior to 1979, when he became full-time president of its Non-Bell Division. In 1984, when the FTWP merged with CWA, Carney joined the staff as a CWA representative. A lifelong sufferer from spina bifida, Carney in 1966 became a licensed pilot and joined the Experimental Aircraft Association and its Young Eagles program. With assistance from CWA Local 13000, he and other pilots have thrilled children by taking them aloft on behalf of the Spina Bifida Association, Lions Clubs and Make a Wish Foundation. In 1996 Carney received the Young Eagles National Humanitarian Award from retired general and famed test pilot Chuck Yaeger.

Jim Ellenberger, a member of The Newspaper Guild-CWA Local 32035 and recent retiree from the AFL-CIO staff, has been appointed by Virginia Gov. Mark Warner to serve as deputy commissioner of the Virginia Employment Commission. The commission, which has 39 local offices, oversees the state’s unemployment insurance system, hears appeals, offers job search assistance and prepares economic forecasts. Ellenberger started at the AFL-CIO as an intern in 1972, then spent two years in the Philippines working with the Asian-American Free Labor Institute. He returned to the AFL-CIO for a 26-year career, during which he was an executive board member and negotiator for his Guild local. He retired last year as assistant director of the federation’s occupational safety and health office. In announcing Ellenberger’s appointment, Warner said he is a nationally recognized expert in areas of workers’ compensation, unemployment insurance and disability issues. Ellenberger said he wants to help the state provide more aid to jobless workers in benefits and training. “Virginia generally scores very low in comparison to other states in terms of how it treats unemployed workers, so I’m hoping that under Gov. Warner’s leadership we can address some of these shortcomings, improving the percentage of unemployed workers who receive benefits and improving the amount of those benefits,” he said.