Reclaiming America: Convention Delegates Commit to Hard Work to Elect Kerry

Deeply concerned about America's lost jobs, its health care crisis and soaring budget deficits, delegates to the August CWA annual convention eagerly committed their time and energy this fall to ensure that the Bush administration doesn't have another four years to wreak havoc on the country's economy, working families and the unions fighting to protect them.

"No other administration in my adult lifetime has held such contempt for workers and their unions while giving unfettered access to corporations," CWA President Morton Bahr told the 1,400 delegates as the convention opened in Anaheim, Calif. "He is determined to marginalize the labor movement and, if we let him, make us irrelevant to the life of our nation."

Delegates, retirees and convention guests heard from two of California's most respected political leaders, U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer and U.S. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, who would be the first woman to serve as House Majority Leader if the Democrats take back the House in November.

Boxer, a Democrat running for her third term, said growing up as a first generation American in a struggling working-class family set the stage for the fight she mounts daily in the Senate. "We've seen a reduction in household income. Health care costs are out of control. College tuition is going up. Gasoline prices are at an all-time high," she said. "This is putting a squeeze on our working families, and believe me when I tell you, I get it."

Caring about those issues shouldn't be a partisan cause, she said. "We are talking about issues that are great American traditions. They are not Republican traditions. They are not Democratic traditions. They are bipartisan values," she said. "We value our workers, we value our families, we value our military men and women and we value our veterans."

Pelosi said that while Republicans talk a good game about supporting the troops, it's the Democrats in Congress who have fought to do something about it. She noted a recent Department of Defense report that acknowledged that 25 percent of the more than 1,000 Americans killed in Iraq so far could have been spared if they'd had the proper body armor and other equipment to protect themselves. "What an indictment of this president, that he would send our kids into harm's way without proper equipment," she said.

Noting the financial hardships on military families, Pelosi said House Democrats twice proposed rolling back - for a single year - just 5 percent of the tax cut given to people with annual incomes over $1 million. Doing so would have raised $1 billion to give a $1,500 bonus to returning troops struggling to make ends meet. Many Republicans joined the effort but GOP leaders twisted enough arms to ensure its defeat.

"Where is the sense of value in that?" Pelosi said. "How do you support the troops if all you do is talk about it? When it comes to putting the resources there, they won't do it."

Reclaiming America
Invoking the convention's theme, "Reclaiming America," CWA Secretary-Treasurer Barbara Easterling said CWA and its allies are on a mission leading up to Nov. 2.

"We've never embarked on a more important mission," she said. "A mission to reclaim America from the forces of greed that have hijacked our democracy. To reclaim America from those who want to repeal our rights and roll back the Constitution. To reclaim America from a group that will do anything to stay in power… If we don't do everything in our power to elect the Kerry-Edwards ticket, future generations reeling from lower wages, fewer jobs, global instability and a federal government nearing bankruptcy will hold us accountable. As they should."

CWA Executive Vice President Larry Cohen told of horrendous corporate abuses and greed, but also of dramatic bargaining victories. "Every day, all of us here, local officers, staff, our executive board, are inspired by our members, inspired by their energy, their commitment and even their heroism."

But the fact that they have to put so much on the line underscores the urgent need for political reform, Cohen said, urging all CWA members to actively support the pending organizing and bargaining rights bill, the Employee Free Choice Act.

"This is our time to reclaim America," he said. "This is our time to believe again, in the spirit of Harry Truman, that the best days are still to come."

Another speaker addressed the special dangers of corporate greed in the media world, where smaller numbers of huge companies are controlling the news and entertainment people get from TV, radio and newspapers.

Concentrated media power "threatens my members and yours," said John Connolly, a well-known actor and president of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, who has worked closely on media ownership issues with CWA's newspaper and broadcast sectors. "I believe the next great battle for democracy will be the battle for media democracy."

Union Business
Among nine resolutions backed by delegates, John Kerry and John Edwards won unanimous support in their quest for the White House.

Delegates also amended the CWA Constitution to welcome the Association of Flight Attendants. Later, Bahr swore in AFA President Pat Friend as a CWA vice president. She was accompanied onstage by Edith Lauterbach, one of four United Airlines flight attendants who formed a union 59 years ago that later became AFA.

"AFA has much to offer and we are ready to give as full partners and active members in our merged union," Friend said. "Together we can turn back corporate attacks on our contracts. Together we can defeat attacks on our pensions and our health care benefits. And together we can remove George W. Bush from the White House."

Scores of delegates lined up to speak for and against a proposal from a special rank-and-file Committee on the Frequency of Conventions to hold the events every three years instead of annually. The committee said doing so would save CWA millions of dollars that could be used to bolster member representation and address other needs of today's more diverse union. However, delegates speaking against the proposal said they felt the yearly conventions were important to keeping CWA's strong democratic traditions. Ultimately, the proposal was voted down.

The convention ended with an extended, emotional standing ovation and chants of "Morty" for CWA President Morton Bahr, who announced that he will retire as CWA's third president at the end of his term next August. He has held the office since 1985.

Bahr, who celebrated 50 years with CWA in April, told delegates that if they want to give him a retirement present, "Give me the gift of John Kerry and John Edwards in the White House." In his earlier speech, he said that despite the hard fights on the political and corporate fronts, he is "truly optimistic about our future."

"I look out across this hall and I see the best trade unionists in America," he said. "We have the ability to determine our destiny. Together, we can and will elect a friend of working families as president of our great nation. Together, we can and will build a stronger and more powerful union that will lead to the revitalization of the American labor movement.

"Together we can and will be part of a movement based on fairness, social justice and economic opportunity for all our citizens. Together, no power in the universe can stop us."