CWA President Cohen to Convention: 'This is Our Time;'

Delegates Galvanized for Obama Victory in November, Employee Free Choice

Delegates meet in Las Vegas at the 70th CWA convention.

Declaring that "this is our time," CWA President Larry Cohen called on delegates to the 70th annual convention to imagine life a year from now – a nation led by President Barack Obama, the Employee Free Choice signed into law and affordable, universal health care within reach.

"This is our time and it rests on three things – our unity, our strategies and our focus," Cohen said, calling on the nearly 2,500 delegates, alternates and guests attending the Las Vegas convention to return to their locals and inspire CWA members, retirees and families to work harder, and dream bigger, than ever.

The promise of the Employee Free Choice Act was the convention's recurring theme, evoked by everyone at the podium from workers fighting to organize to global labor leaders.

"We need to pass the Employee Free Choice Act so that workers like me can join a union without running through a meat grinder of employer intimidation," said Roger Reece, a worker leading the fight for CWA recognition at Verizon Business in New York and New England. "I know that soon I will be holding a CWA card in my wallet."

The spirited convention, which included a live teleconference with Obama, also served as a farewell celebration for retiring Secretary-Treasurer Barbara Easterling, who joined CWA 57 years ago as a telephone operator at Ohio Bell.  Delegates elected CWA Executive Vice President Jeff Rechenbach as secretary-treasurer and elected District 7 Vice President Annie Hill as executive vice president. (See full election results in story below.)

In her final convention speech as a national officer, Easterling urged delegates not to underestimate their power to change the world.  "Brothers and sisters, our voice has never been more important than it is today," she said. "During the past seven years, the Bush administration took dead aim at all of us in this room. Well guess what? We're still standing, stronger than ever. And together we can once again make history by electing Barack Obama president and changing America."

Obama Thanks CWA for Support

In a satellite hookup from the campaign trail in Albuquerque, N.M., on Monday, Obama thanked delegates for passing a resolution endorsing him. He pledged his full support not only for Employee Free Choice, but for a federal government that once again values workers and workers' rights. "It's not just that this administration hasn't been fighting for you – they've actually tried to stop you from fighting for yourselves," he said.  "This is the most anti-labor administration in our memory. They don't believe in unions. They don't believe in organizing. They've packed the labor relations board with their corporate buddies." (Obama's full speech is available at www.cwavotes.org.)

Earlier Monday, in an emotional speech that left delegates and national officers brushing away tears, retiring District 2 Vice President Pete Catucci paid an especially personal tribute to Cohen and the union at large. Catucci, who was diagnosed in 2006 with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, stood and spoke despite his difficulties with speech and movement.  He described his condition as a "gift" that has taught him to focus on what he called the "sweet and healing" power of love.

Catucci, too, championed the Employee Free Choice Act, saying it "will change the entire labor movement and help make the United States stronger, more humane and more competitive than ever."

Million Member Mobilization

Cohen talked about the CWA's leading role in the labor movement's Million Member Mobilization, which is collecting signed postcards from 1 million union members demanding passage of Employee Free Choice. The postcards, along with many of the members' photographs, will be displayed in the U.S. Capitol after the November elections. The goal is to pass the bill soon after the new Congress takes office in January.

CWA has pledged to get 15 percent of its members to sign cards, and Cohen asked delegates from locals that have committed to participating to stand up. A vast majority of the delegates stood, and those who didn't were urged to add their local numbers to poster boards on the side of the ballroom. On Wednesday, speaking in favor of a resolution of support for the campaign, Local 1126 President Mike Garry said, "15 percent of your local? I say we sign them all up, brothers and sisters!"

In a fiery speech just after the resolution passed, United Autoworkers President Ron Gettelfinger noted the 1 million members collectively that CWA, UAW, the Steelworkers and the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers have in three states that are vital to victory in November – and ultimately vital to passing Employee Free Choice: Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

The four unions have formed an alliance that Gettelfinger said has set as its goal "100 percent participation by every local union" in campaign and get-out-the-vote efforts. "With your help, we're going to get the job done and we're going to elect a pro-union president," he said.

Despite the many difficulties union organizers face today, CWA locals are proving up to the task. 43 locals received awards for organizing more than 100 members each over the past year. The union's highest honor, the President's Award for organizing, was given to District 3 for winning collective bargaining rights for more than 3,000 new CWA members in southeastern states. The victories included 2,400 retail workers at AT&T Mobility, formerly Cingular, and 350 workers at the New Era cap plant in Alabama.

"It shows you what can happen and what's going to happen when we pass the Employee Free Choice Act," District 3 Vice President Noah Savant said, as Cohen presented the award.

Global Focus on Workers' Rights

In an era of rapid globalization, speakers said Employee Free Choice will help bring America's badly eroded organizing and bargaining rights closer to what workers enjoy in most of the rest of the developed world. In addition to Europe and Japan, even such countries as South Africa and Brazil beat the United States – by far -- in the percentage of workers with collective bargaining rights.

"I find it tragic that the world's most powerful economy has the worst collective bargaining coverage of any advanced nation," Philip Jennings, president of Union Network International  (UNI) told delegates on Tuesday. He was followed by Francisco Hernandez Juarez, head of the Mexican Telephone Workers Union, who looked toward November and said, "We know and we hope you will bring to power a progressive government in your country." By electing Obama and enacting Employee Free Choice, he said America will inspire Mexico and other countries that have even fewer workers' rights now than the United States.

Demanding fair trade agreements that protect workers' rights in both the United States and its trading partners was one of nine resolutions delegates passed during the convention. In addition to the Employee Free Choice resolution and Obama endorsement, delegates heartily passed a resolution honoring Easterling's decades of service.

The other resolutions supported CWA's leading role in the campaign for affordable, universal health care, resolved to organize the cable and satellite industries, promoted the new CWA Print Sector label, pledged to address climate change issues and a "green" jobs strategy, and called for "peace and labor rights" in Iraq with policies that truly support the health and welfare of America's troops.