Philip Perkins Dies at COE Meeting

Philip Perkins, president of Local 6139 for the past six years, died of a heart attack Jan. 10 while attending the Committee on Equity meeting in Washington, D.C.

Perkins, 51, collapsed at a carryout restaurant across the street from headquarters just before the morning’s meeting. He died in an ambulance on the way to the hospital.

District 6 Vice President Andy Milburn said Perkins’ passing is “a great loss not just for the local but for the entire union. Philip was a good friend and a man who was emerging as a leader for District 6 in his role as our Committee on Equity representative and as a newly elected member of the Southwestern Bell Bargaining Committee.”

Remembered as a calm, focused leader and strong advocate for workers, Perkins had long served his Beaumont, Texas, local. While working at Southwestern Bell as a cable splicing technician and later a customer service technician, he rose to chief steward of the local. He spent eight years as a vice president before being elected to lead the 770-member local.

Perkins attended the 2000 CWA Minority Leadership Institute at the George Meany Center and was named District 6’s COE representative that year. Sylvia Felter, one of the local’s two vice presidents, said Perkins “cared deeply about civil rights and basic human rights.”

Felter and Vice President Ronn Harmon are jointly running the local until the executive board meets to decide how to fill Perkin’s position.

Perkins, who served in the U.S. Army before going to work for Southwestern Bell in 1973, is survived by his wife, Estella, and three children, Mario, a San Antonio firefighter, Tony, an SBC customer service technician and Anisha, a high school senior.