Delegates Elect Hill as CWA Secretary-Treasurer; Third Term for Cohen

At-Large Board Members, District, Sector Officers Also Elected

By acclamation, convention delegates elected CWA President Larry Cohen to a third term.

Below: Newly Elected CWA Secretary-Treasurer Annie Hill, formerly EVP, takes her oath of office.

CWA President Larry Cohen was elected to a third term in office by delegates to the 73rd CWA Convention this week, and Annie Hill, formerly the union's executive vice president, was elected as secretary-treasurer.

"I am so proud to be standing here today and will be working hard with all of you to make our union and our country the best it can be," Hill said. "We will not just fight back, but we will fight forward."

Hill was elected with 276,769 votes; Don Trementozzi received 94,733 votes.

Hill's former position will not be filled. Under a change to the CWA Constitution approved by delegates at the 2011 convention as a cost-savings measure, CWA will no longer have an executive vice president.

In other national CWA elections, At-Large Executive Board Members Carolyn Wade (Northeast Region), Nestor Soto (Southeast Region) and Madelyn Elder (Western Region) were re-elected. Greg Wynn was elected to the Central Region seat; Wynn received 234,856 votes and Carl Kennebrew received 133,009 votes.

Election results in the districts: Vice Presidents Chris Shelton (D-1), Ed Mooney (D-2-13), Seth Rosen (D-4), and Jim Weitkamp (D-9) were re-elected without opposition. In District 3, Judy Dennis was re-elected; Dennis received 31,019 votes to 18,222 for Mike Fahrenholt. In District 6, Claude Cummings was elected vice president with 32,977 votes; Richard Kneupper received 18,586 votes. And in District 7, Mary Taylor was re-elected with 20,495 votes; Lew Ellingson received 14,049 votes and Ken Saether received 1,652.

In CWA sectors with elections, delegates re-elected Vice Presidents Ralph Maly, Telecommunications and Technologies; Brooks Sunkett, Public, Health Care and Education Workers; Jim Joyce, National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians; and Jim Clark, IUE-CWA. Earlier this year, Vice President Bernie Lunzer, TNG-CWA, was re-elected, and Vice President Veda Shook, AFA-CWA, was elected.

Additionally, Dan Wasser was elected as executive officer of the Printing, Publishing and Media Workers sector.

The only election still outstanding is for the CWA Canadian director. Voting has been delayed there because of a postal strike.

The 2011 CWA Executive Board, as elected by convention delegates. The CWA Canadian director is not pictured; the election there is continuing due to a postal strike.

All the newly elected and re-elected CWA officers and board members were sworn in by CWA President Emeritus Morton Bahr.

In her remarks, Hill said CWA has a great deal to be proud of despite the union's many challenges. She especially praised CWA's aggressive and growing Legislative Political Action Team-led campaigns to fight state and federal attacks on workers' rights and the economic security of working families.

One important way the LPAT program is succeeding is by building new alliances and joining together for major collective action, such as last October's One Nation march in Washington, D.C., Hill said.

More than 1,600 CWA delegates, retirees, family and friends attended the 73rd annual CWA Convention in Las Vegas this week.

"Many natural allies and supporters exist within the human rights communities outside CWA and we have come a long, long way in the last few years to strengthen and add meaning to these relationships," she said. "It is not enough anymore to send dollars, attend conferences and to support their causes. We need them to support us also and understand and work to restore collective bargaining rights in our country. It is the first step to make our country a better place."

In closing remarks to delegates, some of whom supported opposing candidates for various CWA offices, Cohen said, "We saw what democracy looks like at this convention."

"We march out of here as one union, stronger than ever," Cohen said. "When we work, when we organize, when we fight, CWA is there together. It's what we stand for: That we are one union."