Search News
For the Media
For media inquiries, call CWA Communications at 202-434-1168 or email comms@cwa-union.org. To read about CWA Members, Leadership or Industries, visit our About page.
Resolution #1: Gathering CWA's 'Collective Wisdom' to Chart the Future
With the beginning of a new leadership era, CWA is now looking to the future by reaching out to every element of CWA "to examine our union thoroughly from top to bottom in order to best represent our members."
In adopting Resolution #1 - "CWA: Ready for the Future," convention delegates called for members and leaders at all levels to "imagine our future together," and outlined a year-long process to gather input for a Strategic Plan, which will be presented by the Executive Board to the next convention in July 2006. (See the full text of the Resolution.)
"We returned from convention running at full speed to take up the challenge of Resolution #1," CWA President Larry Cohen reported to locals and staff in early September. "We are excited about the future of our union and our potential to work together to face our challenges. Working together is our best hope, and we are all dedicated to working with you as we build CWA."
CWA's Executive Board has already met to outline ways to put Resolution #1 on the agenda at meetings of all CWA districts and sectors, and to review a local union discussion guide that is being developed to assist locals in analyzing and assessing current CWA programs, priorities and structures at both local and international levels.
CWA is also setting up a special website that will contain discussion and resource materials and an area for posting ideas and recommendations.
The last time CWA underwent a comprehensive self-examination was in the early 1980s, with creation of a Committee on the Future, which pointed to the need to organize new areas and reach out to merger partners, and resulted in some structural changes.
Since then, Resolution #1 describes the transformation CWA has gone through, changing from a union comprising mainly telephone workers to one representing workers from nearly every walk of life - public employees, newspaper staff, broadcasters, nurses, police, manufacturing workers, customer service representatives, flight attendants and others.
The resolution urges "creative and visionary" discussions that could include such issues as the union structure, multi-district employers, the relationship of members and bargaining units to districts and sectors, roles and responsibilities of locals, the structure of union assets and resources, ways to engage members and other topics.
"No part of this union can or should be left out of the discussion, and every level of the union should be examined," the resolution states. "In this far-reaching review, there are no sacred cows."
In adopting Resolution #1 - "CWA: Ready for the Future," convention delegates called for members and leaders at all levels to "imagine our future together," and outlined a year-long process to gather input for a Strategic Plan, which will be presented by the Executive Board to the next convention in July 2006. (See the full text of the Resolution.)
"We returned from convention running at full speed to take up the challenge of Resolution #1," CWA President Larry Cohen reported to locals and staff in early September. "We are excited about the future of our union and our potential to work together to face our challenges. Working together is our best hope, and we are all dedicated to working with you as we build CWA."
CWA's Executive Board has already met to outline ways to put Resolution #1 on the agenda at meetings of all CWA districts and sectors, and to review a local union discussion guide that is being developed to assist locals in analyzing and assessing current CWA programs, priorities and structures at both local and international levels.
CWA is also setting up a special website that will contain discussion and resource materials and an area for posting ideas and recommendations.
The last time CWA underwent a comprehensive self-examination was in the early 1980s, with creation of a Committee on the Future, which pointed to the need to organize new areas and reach out to merger partners, and resulted in some structural changes.
Since then, Resolution #1 describes the transformation CWA has gone through, changing from a union comprising mainly telephone workers to one representing workers from nearly every walk of life - public employees, newspaper staff, broadcasters, nurses, police, manufacturing workers, customer service representatives, flight attendants and others.
The resolution urges "creative and visionary" discussions that could include such issues as the union structure, multi-district employers, the relationship of members and bargaining units to districts and sectors, roles and responsibilities of locals, the structure of union assets and resources, ways to engage members and other topics.
"No part of this union can or should be left out of the discussion, and every level of the union should be examined," the resolution states. "In this far-reaching review, there are no sacred cows."