Search News
For the Media
For media inquiries, call CWA Communications at 202-434-1168 or email comms@cwa-union.org. To read about CWA Members, Leadership or Industries, visit our About page.
CWA Newsmakers
Carol Ann Simmons, a retired member of CWA 4603 in Milwaukee and past officer of Local 7117 in Davenport, Iowa, has been inducted into the East Central Iowa/Northwestern Illinois AFL-CIO Hall of Fame. Simmons spent most of her life in the Quad Cities of the two states, where she worked for Northwestern Bell and was active in Local 7117, becoming chief steward and vice president. When AT&T downsized in 1990, she got a job with Lucent Technologies in Milwaukee and immediately joined Local 4603. She has served as president of the Iowa state and Scott County chapters of the A. Philip Randolph Institute, vice chair of the Scott County Democratic Central Committee and as an executive board member of the Quad Cities Federation of Labor. Among her many accomplishments, she was named Outstanding Young Woman of America in 1981, selected for a labor study tour of Spain and Portugal, judged and chaired Black History Showdown, a TV game show, and received the Martin Luther King Day Birthday Celebration Award for her outstanding community efforts. In Milwaukee, she served on the AFL-CIO Women’s Committee, chaired the publicity committee, received the Albert Benway Memorial Scholarship for her contributions to the local and was a delegate to the Milwaukee County Labor Council. Simmons retired from Lucent in September 2000.
The International Women’s Democracy Center honored CWA Secretary-Treasurer Barbara Easterling in March with its Global Democracy Award, introduced this year to recognize women who “demonstrate an unfaltering commitment to strengthening women’s global leadership,” the IWDC said. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.) presented the award to Easterling, the first woman to be CWA’s secretary-treasurer and who was also the first woman to serve as AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer. In 2000, Easterling was elected president of the World Women’s Committee of the Union Network International. IWDC, established in 1995, honored her along with Bronagh Hinds, deputy chief commissioner of the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland. McCarthy called them both “world-class women and first-class examples of what women can do for all of us.” Noting “the shameful economic and political gap that exists between men and women throughout the world, including here in the United States,” Kennedy said both women “have worked tirelessly to close that gap. Together, with the IWDC, we recognize their historic efforts, and their historic lives.”
John Krieger, network coordinator for NABET-CWA and a veteran TV reporter, has been named “Alumnus of the Year” by the Russell J. Jandoli School of Journalism and Mass Communication at St. Bonaventure University in New York state. “The high quality of professionalism you practiced and instilled upon others during your years as a journalist and a representative of journalists certainly made you most deserving of the honor,” school Dean Lee Coppola told Krieger in a letter. Krieger graduated in 1951 and went to work as a reporter for the Buffalo Evening News. He worked at Buffalo television and radio stations until 1980 as a reporter, editor, news director, producer and chief editorial writer, among other positions. “You name it I did it — the golden age of television,” he said. He joined the NABET staff in 1981 as an international representative and also edited the NABET News before being named network coordinator in 1995. Though he’s received many honors over the years, he said the alumni award — to be presented at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. in October — tops them all. “Receiving this honor or even being considered for it is beyond my personal expectation and comprehension,” he said.
The International Women’s Democracy Center honored CWA Secretary-Treasurer Barbara Easterling in March with its Global Democracy Award, introduced this year to recognize women who “demonstrate an unfaltering commitment to strengthening women’s global leadership,” the IWDC said. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.) presented the award to Easterling, the first woman to be CWA’s secretary-treasurer and who was also the first woman to serve as AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer. In 2000, Easterling was elected president of the World Women’s Committee of the Union Network International. IWDC, established in 1995, honored her along with Bronagh Hinds, deputy chief commissioner of the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland. McCarthy called them both “world-class women and first-class examples of what women can do for all of us.” Noting “the shameful economic and political gap that exists between men and women throughout the world, including here in the United States,” Kennedy said both women “have worked tirelessly to close that gap. Together, with the IWDC, we recognize their historic efforts, and their historic lives.”
John Krieger, network coordinator for NABET-CWA and a veteran TV reporter, has been named “Alumnus of the Year” by the Russell J. Jandoli School of Journalism and Mass Communication at St. Bonaventure University in New York state. “The high quality of professionalism you practiced and instilled upon others during your years as a journalist and a representative of journalists certainly made you most deserving of the honor,” school Dean Lee Coppola told Krieger in a letter. Krieger graduated in 1951 and went to work as a reporter for the Buffalo Evening News. He worked at Buffalo television and radio stations until 1980 as a reporter, editor, news director, producer and chief editorial writer, among other positions. “You name it I did it — the golden age of television,” he said. He joined the NABET staff in 1981 as an international representative and also edited the NABET News before being named network coordinator in 1995. Though he’s received many honors over the years, he said the alumni award — to be presented at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. in October — tops them all. “Receiving this honor or even being considered for it is beyond my personal expectation and comprehension,” he said.