EVP Jeff Rechenbach to Head National Telecom Office

The CWA Executive Board voted to designate Executive Vice President Jeff Rechenbach to head the new National Telecom Office as the Board continues to review CWA's structure in telecom and other sectors in keeping with the mandate in Ready for the Future.

Rechenbach has played a major role in coordinating the work of the Telecom Industry Committee, set up in September 2005, as well as the various campaigns and issues affecting nearly 300,000 CWA telecom members, noted President Larry Cohen.

Rechenbach said the new office is an outgrowth of the committee's activities, aimed at mapping strategies and coordinating staff activities at the major telecom employers.  The committee is composed of the eight district vice presidents along with the vice presidents for Telecom and Communications & Technologies.

"The National Telecom Office is the next step in that process of better coordinating the staff resources that we have in each of our districts and at headquarters and sharpening our focus," Rechenbach said. 

He noted that the telecom committee recently has launched major Strategic Industry Fund campaigns at Verizon and Alcatel Lucent and also to promote the rollout of high-speed Internet services to spur job and economic growth under the banner of Speed Matters.

"From mergers and spinoffs to new technologies to attacks on our jobs and our contracts, we face constant threats as well as opportunities in telecom.  We need to address these issues in the most clear-sighted and efficient way possible, and that's what we're trying to do," Rechenbach stated.