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.
Dec. 10 Was a Huge Success
CWA members swelled the ranks of well over 100,000 union members and supporters who commemorated Dec. 10, International Human Rights Day, by demanding collective bargaining and organizing rights for all workers.
They participated in at least 17 of 90 actions around the nation - CWA took the lead in Cleveland, Phoenix and Los Angeles - ranging from massive demonstrations to small rallies to teach-ins on college campuses and Jobs with Justice workers' rights board hearings.
It was the start of a long-term campaign that will bring together the entire labor movement in member education about the bargaining and organizing rights crisis in America, building coalitions with community activists and public officials, gaining sponsors for legislation that would make card check organizing the law of the land and, in 2004, electing a president and Congress that will stand up for workers' rights.
"There are workers in many sectors who have been struggling to gain a first contract for too many years, because their employers are following an anti-union playbook of delay and stalling tactics," said CWA President Morton Bahr, addressing a rally at SBC's downtown location in Cleveland. He cited Comcast, Adelphia, the Chinese Daily News and other "low-road" employers, where workers have been denied the right to form a union and bargain a contract.
He also addressed a luncheon where CWA local leaders discussed upcoming bargaining at SBC.
About 10,000 workers in Cleveland wore stickers throughout the day proclaiming, "Workers Rights are Human Rights."
The day's events included a workers' rights board hearing hosted by Local 4340, where Adelphia worker Joseph Wargo spoke of an ongoing, yearlong struggle to bargain a first contract. Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) listened along with other community leaders and an audience of about 300 to Wargo's and other workers' stories.
CWA members from District 4 locals filled three buses to attend a large rally outside a local Marc's store, similar to Wal-Mart, where workers have been struggling to form a union.
CWA Executive Vice President Larry Cohen spoke at a rally in Memphis, attended by Graphic Communications Workers International Union members engaged in a fight for fairness and dignity at Quebecor, one of the largest printing companies in the world. Forty workers, after finishing a night shift at a distant Quebecor plant in Tennessee, rode several hours on a bus to the Memphis event. Others attended from as far away as Canada, Brazil and Argentina.
"It's going to take several million union members to achieve what we're trying to do," Cohen said, praising their dedication. "We're fighting as one united labor movement," he stressed.
About 2,000 workers from AFL-CIO unions rallied outside the Labor Department in Washington, D.C., including CWA Secretary-Treasurer Barbara Easterling, District 2 locals, and officers and employees from CWA's headquarters.
They heard Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) lambaste the Bush administration as being "the most anti-worker, anti-labor administration we have seen" since the National Labor Relations Act was passed in 1935. Kennedy pointed out that many of the 8 million workers who stand to lose their overtime pay under new Labor Department rules are veterans of the war against terrorism. "These are patriots, Mr. President. Why do you want to deny patriots their rights?" he asked.
After the rally, Easterling spoke to elected officials and dignitaries at a Global Women's Forum luncheon at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs in Washington. She explained how International Human Rights Day originated from a Universal Declaration of Human Rights initiated by Eleanor Roosevelt and ratified by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1948.
"Everyone has the right to form and to join in trade unions for the protection of his interests," states Article 23. "The rights of workers to freely associate, to form unions and to bargain collectively with their employers are internationally recognized. So, why," she asked, "are they suppressed here in our own country?"
In Los Angeles, more than 1,000 workers, led by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, marched to Pershing Square for a boisterous rally, where District 9 locals turned out in support of workers from the Chinese Daily News, who derided the company's refusal to recognize their union.
In Phoenix, District 7 locals joined Michael McGrath, a former CWA local president, now executive director of the state AFL-CIO, and public officials for a five-hour program highlighting collective bargaining and organizing rights and quality union jobs at Qwest.
District 1 locals marched with thousands in New York City, where AFL-CIO President John Sweeney pointed out, "There are 42 million workers in our country who say they would join a union in an instant if they could, but are prevented from doing that by employers and anti-union elected leaders who have systematically stolen the freedom to organize from workers." He stressed that, "This hurts workers and it is hurting our country."
"Dec. 10 was a huge success," Bahr said. The press responded with coverage from across the country with national Associated Press and Reuters stories, additional articles in publications such as the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, and countless other news stories, op-eds, national radio, local television reports and editorials.
They participated in at least 17 of 90 actions around the nation - CWA took the lead in Cleveland, Phoenix and Los Angeles - ranging from massive demonstrations to small rallies to teach-ins on college campuses and Jobs with Justice workers' rights board hearings.
It was the start of a long-term campaign that will bring together the entire labor movement in member education about the bargaining and organizing rights crisis in America, building coalitions with community activists and public officials, gaining sponsors for legislation that would make card check organizing the law of the land and, in 2004, electing a president and Congress that will stand up for workers' rights.
"There are workers in many sectors who have been struggling to gain a first contract for too many years, because their employers are following an anti-union playbook of delay and stalling tactics," said CWA President Morton Bahr, addressing a rally at SBC's downtown location in Cleveland. He cited Comcast, Adelphia, the Chinese Daily News and other "low-road" employers, where workers have been denied the right to form a union and bargain a contract.
He also addressed a luncheon where CWA local leaders discussed upcoming bargaining at SBC.
About 10,000 workers in Cleveland wore stickers throughout the day proclaiming, "Workers Rights are Human Rights."
The day's events included a workers' rights board hearing hosted by Local 4340, where Adelphia worker Joseph Wargo spoke of an ongoing, yearlong struggle to bargain a first contract. Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) listened along with other community leaders and an audience of about 300 to Wargo's and other workers' stories.
CWA members from District 4 locals filled three buses to attend a large rally outside a local Marc's store, similar to Wal-Mart, where workers have been struggling to form a union.
CWA Executive Vice President Larry Cohen spoke at a rally in Memphis, attended by Graphic Communications Workers International Union members engaged in a fight for fairness and dignity at Quebecor, one of the largest printing companies in the world. Forty workers, after finishing a night shift at a distant Quebecor plant in Tennessee, rode several hours on a bus to the Memphis event. Others attended from as far away as Canada, Brazil and Argentina.
"It's going to take several million union members to achieve what we're trying to do," Cohen said, praising their dedication. "We're fighting as one united labor movement," he stressed.
About 2,000 workers from AFL-CIO unions rallied outside the Labor Department in Washington, D.C., including CWA Secretary-Treasurer Barbara Easterling, District 2 locals, and officers and employees from CWA's headquarters.
They heard Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) lambaste the Bush administration as being "the most anti-worker, anti-labor administration we have seen" since the National Labor Relations Act was passed in 1935. Kennedy pointed out that many of the 8 million workers who stand to lose their overtime pay under new Labor Department rules are veterans of the war against terrorism. "These are patriots, Mr. President. Why do you want to deny patriots their rights?" he asked.
After the rally, Easterling spoke to elected officials and dignitaries at a Global Women's Forum luncheon at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs in Washington. She explained how International Human Rights Day originated from a Universal Declaration of Human Rights initiated by Eleanor Roosevelt and ratified by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1948.
"Everyone has the right to form and to join in trade unions for the protection of his interests," states Article 23. "The rights of workers to freely associate, to form unions and to bargain collectively with their employers are internationally recognized. So, why," she asked, "are they suppressed here in our own country?"
In Los Angeles, more than 1,000 workers, led by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, marched to Pershing Square for a boisterous rally, where District 9 locals turned out in support of workers from the Chinese Daily News, who derided the company's refusal to recognize their union.
In Phoenix, District 7 locals joined Michael McGrath, a former CWA local president, now executive director of the state AFL-CIO, and public officials for a five-hour program highlighting collective bargaining and organizing rights and quality union jobs at Qwest.
District 1 locals marched with thousands in New York City, where AFL-CIO President John Sweeney pointed out, "There are 42 million workers in our country who say they would join a union in an instant if they could, but are prevented from doing that by employers and anti-union elected leaders who have systematically stolen the freedom to organize from workers." He stressed that, "This hurts workers and it is hurting our country."
"Dec. 10 was a huge success," Bahr said. The press responded with coverage from across the country with national Associated Press and Reuters stories, additional articles in publications such as the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, and countless other news stories, op-eds, national radio, local television reports and editorials.