CWA Ready for the Future: Political Action

Political Action Vital in Fight for Workers

A key goal of CWA's Ready for the Future plan is to step up its political programs to ensure that members, retirees and working families across America get a fair shake.

"We give our members a voice in the halls of government," CWA Executive Vice President Jeff Rechenbach said. "Take pension security. If we aren't raising our members' issues in the discussions around pension legislation then nobody will. Corporations will write the bill and it will benefit them at the expense of workers. The same is true with health care."

To fight for members, CWA raises money through a political action committee, a PAC, called COPE, the Committee on Political Education. Currently, members' donations bring in an average of $3 million a year. The new goal is to raise $5 million a year within the next three years.

Another key goal is an army of at least 50,000 political activists, educated and trained to be quickly deployed for political battles in their states and communities.

The COPE money is split between locals, districts and national headquarters and can be used for state, local and federal races and legislative battles. In fact, Rechenbach said state and local campaigns will get even more emphasis now than in the past, as so many workers' battles have moved to those arenas. "We think that's where we can have a much bigger impact," he said.

COPE funds go toward training materials, leaflets for members and voters, phone banks, get-out-the-vote efforts and other expenses associated with political campaigns. Members can donate easily through payroll deduction, designating as little as $1 a week or as much as they're able to give.

Alfonso Pollard, who recently became CWA's COPE coordinator after working as a lobbyist in the union's legislative department, said Ready for the Future calls for training more state and local legislative coordinators who will help spread the word about COPE and inspire more members to be politically active.

"We want to get people trained to go out and work on political campaigns this fall and, once they're over, we kick into high gear for the 2008 elections," Pollard said.

Rechenbach offers an analogy to help members better understand the link between politics and their lives: "What happens in the halls of government if we don't have a voice is what happens to workers' pay and benefits in a non-union workplace," he said.

While the majority of candidates CWA backs are Democrats, Rechenbach said the union counts a growing number of moderate Republicans among its reliable supporters of workers' rights.

"Our efforts truly are bipartisan," he said. "We base our support on workplace issues and anyone who is willing to stand with us is someone we'll work with."