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Statement by CWA President Morton Bahr, Executive Vice President Larry Cohen and Secretary-Treasurer
This week, two unions decided to separate from the AFL-CIO, and a few others are considering that move. We won't know the effects of that decision for some time. But as union members, we do know that unity is important, today probably more than anytime in our history, because of the real challenges that working people in our country face every day.
CWA was a part of the nearly-year long discussion in the labor movement of issues and ideas, and the AFL-CIO adopted many of our proposals as it sought to reach an agreement with these unions. We proposed changes based on the work we've been doing for many years, the unity of our CWA triangle: bargaining, organizing and political action.
No agreement was reached. Today, CWA will continue to build our union from the grassroots, building workplace representation and structures that enable workers to create their own organizations. We will continue to mobilize, with other unions and other allies, on the critical issues that unite us.
We're fighting to stop the concentration of economic power that enabled corporate CEOS to ruin their companies and the livelihoods of thousands of workers, and has given management free rein to contract out our jobs or move them overseas.
We're fighting for the issues that should unite us all – both unions and progressive organizations. These are: workers' rights, health care for all, fair pensions and retirement security and good jobs. Above all, we're fighting to restore real collective bargaining to workers in this country, which now is about the worst of any democracy.
This hard work continues every day: In the workplace, where workers face hostility and worse from management, in the board rooms, where corporate executives all too easily shift thousands of jobs overseas or cut workers' pensions, and in government, where elected officials must act to restore workers rights and economic fairness.
The stakes have never been higher for working families, and that's why unity is so important.
In every democratic country around the globe, unions have joined together to establish national labor centers, because they realize that strength and solidarity are the way to change public policy. It's unfortunate that some unions in the United States are not moving in that same direction.
CWA was a part of the nearly-year long discussion in the labor movement of issues and ideas, and the AFL-CIO adopted many of our proposals as it sought to reach an agreement with these unions. We proposed changes based on the work we've been doing for many years, the unity of our CWA triangle: bargaining, organizing and political action.
No agreement was reached. Today, CWA will continue to build our union from the grassroots, building workplace representation and structures that enable workers to create their own organizations. We will continue to mobilize, with other unions and other allies, on the critical issues that unite us.
We're fighting to stop the concentration of economic power that enabled corporate CEOS to ruin their companies and the livelihoods of thousands of workers, and has given management free rein to contract out our jobs or move them overseas.
We're fighting for the issues that should unite us all – both unions and progressive organizations. These are: workers' rights, health care for all, fair pensions and retirement security and good jobs. Above all, we're fighting to restore real collective bargaining to workers in this country, which now is about the worst of any democracy.
This hard work continues every day: In the workplace, where workers face hostility and worse from management, in the board rooms, where corporate executives all too easily shift thousands of jobs overseas or cut workers' pensions, and in government, where elected officials must act to restore workers rights and economic fairness.
The stakes have never been higher for working families, and that's why unity is so important.
In every democratic country around the globe, unions have joined together to establish national labor centers, because they realize that strength and solidarity are the way to change public policy. It's unfortunate that some unions in the United States are not moving in that same direction.