Feedback

Steven Richman, son of Barbara Richman of Local 1033, is one of 30 members of CWA families who received a $3,000 first-year scholarship to attend college for the 2003-2004 academic year. Steven has been attending Landmark College in Putney, Vt. Based upon satisfactory academic progress, Steven's scholarship has been renewed for a second year. Below are excerpts from his letter of appreciation.

Dear President Bahr:

Academically, the college experience has been challenging, but I have been very successful in my courses. Landmark organizes its student body around learning communities, small interactive groups of students and faculty, which feature coursework in writing, study skills, self-understanding and technology instruction.

Of all my last semester's courses, I liked Cognition, Learning and Self the best. It was aimed at helping me to identify my strengths and weaknesses and on developing strategies for improved learning. I also enjoyed the Communication course, which taught us how to think analytically and to analyze the ways people interact verbally.

This semester has been going well. I have been concentrating on improving my math and writing skills. I also joined the school's baseball team. This summer, I am hoping to take one or two summer courses at a college near my home in Philadelphia and transfer the credits to Landmark.

Thank you for awarding me the CWA Joe Beirne Foundation scholarship. I greatly appreciate receiving the money and am motivated to do the best I can in my course work.

Steven Richman

Beirne scholarship applications will be available online in the fall for the 2005-2006 academic year. For complete information, visit the web page at ga.cwa-union.org/members/beirne.

To the editor:

I've had the habit of recycling my mail and newspapers for years, changing the captions and using it as my own brand of art. After President Morton Bahr's recent editorial about retraining workers, I crafted a piece of art suggesting we retrain employers.

After years of privatization, rightsizing, downsizing, shortstaffing, layoffs, speed-up and a host of other economy-busting behaviors, what should the average employee do?

Skipping from job to job when business owners behave badly is hardly a solution. Going without benefits or carrying inadequate benefits makes necessary health care impossible. Families and individuals caught up in the system are hurting, not just for jobs but for a system that makes sense.
If employers could be retrained to work for the good of their workers, the economy might flourish.

Dave Lesher
CWA Local 4501