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.
Toward a Stronger Union Movement
CWA is playing a key role as the AFL-CIO undertakes a wide open self-examination and debate over strategies to revitalize the labor movement and reverse the steady decline of union membership as a proportion of the workforce.
The CWA Executive Board submitted a 10-point plan for consideration when the AFL-CIO Executive Council begins the process at a meeting March 1-3. The subject of new directions and possible restructure of the federation will top the agenda at the AFL-CIO's convention July 25-28 in Chicago.
Concern over declining "union density" is what swept the administration of AFL-CIO President John Sweeney into office 10 years ago with a reform platform centered on boosting union growth. The trend has continued, however, with union members now representing only 8 percent of the private sector workforce, down from a high of 35 percent in the 1950s.
CWA's plan emphasizes a major, long-range push to strengthen worker organizing and bargaining rights through passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, along with building a larger grassroots base of workplace stewards and mobilizers and bolstering the effectiveness of central labor councils for action at the community level.
Other highlights include a call for a movement-wide strike insurance fund, greater emphasis on creating global union alliances, encouragement of joint union bargaining and organizing efforts, and a sharper focus by the AFL-CIO on bargaining support and politics and legislation.
"This debate can be a healthy and productive one if union leaders can maintain a positive focus and look for solutions that unite us, not divide us," said CWA President Morton Bahr.
CWA already has been singled out by the news media as one of the major players in the debate following a panel appearance by Executive Vice President Larry Cohen at a labor forum last December at Queens College in New York.
At the forum, Cohen offered several of the proposals later fleshed out and formalized by the CWA board, and in doing so he voiced disagreement with some of the ideas offered by fellow panelists from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and UNITE HERE.
It was SEIU that sparked the present debate last summer when its president, Andy Stern, put forth a controversial proposal to force a consolidation of the AFL-CIO's 58 affiliates down to 20 unions along industry lines, together with other changes.
Stern's threat to pull his 1.7 million-member union out of the AFL-CIO if his plan wasn't adopted provoked headlines and speculation that the federation might celebrate its 50th anniversary this year by breaking apart. Stern last year put together a disparate alliance including the Laborers, Carpenters and UNITE HERE (the recently merged hotel and restaurant and needle trades unions) under the banner of New Unity Partnership, raising the specter of all of these unions dropping their AFL-CIO affiliation.
The NUP alliance quietly disbanded in January, with its leaders saying they had accomplished their objective of getting the labor movement to reexamine its mission and structure. However, Stern hasn't withdrawn his threat to leave the federation.
While CWA and SEIU share concerns over the need to dramatically bolster union growth and political power, Bahr and Cohen point to a significant philosophical difference over the issue of forced mergers and rigid jurisdictional control by the AFL-CIO.
CWA's plan stresses development of local leadership and grassroots activism. Cohen stated at the Queens College forum: "If anyone in this room thinks that we're going to change collective bargaining rights based on how we structure rather than how we mobilize, they're mistaken."
Cohen has been outspoken in linking bargaining power with organizing effectiveness, noting that we can't organize unless we can get first contracts—and in today's environment, employers have learned they can ignore the law and kill newly formed unions in the crib by thwarting first contract settlements.
In recent speeches, Cohen has pointed out that reforming labor laws to strengthen workers' organizing and bargaining rights has to be labor's top goal.
"If collective bargaining is indeed a public good—and we know that it is—labor needs to focus more on explaining and defending that process and what it means to society, rather than just highlighting the obstacles that individual unions face while trying to boost their own membership," Cohen said.
The CWA Executive Board submitted a 10-point plan for consideration when the AFL-CIO Executive Council begins the process at a meeting March 1-3. The subject of new directions and possible restructure of the federation will top the agenda at the AFL-CIO's convention July 25-28 in Chicago.
Concern over declining "union density" is what swept the administration of AFL-CIO President John Sweeney into office 10 years ago with a reform platform centered on boosting union growth. The trend has continued, however, with union members now representing only 8 percent of the private sector workforce, down from a high of 35 percent in the 1950s.
CWA's plan emphasizes a major, long-range push to strengthen worker organizing and bargaining rights through passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, along with building a larger grassroots base of workplace stewards and mobilizers and bolstering the effectiveness of central labor councils for action at the community level.
Other highlights include a call for a movement-wide strike insurance fund, greater emphasis on creating global union alliances, encouragement of joint union bargaining and organizing efforts, and a sharper focus by the AFL-CIO on bargaining support and politics and legislation.
"This debate can be a healthy and productive one if union leaders can maintain a positive focus and look for solutions that unite us, not divide us," said CWA President Morton Bahr.
CWA already has been singled out by the news media as one of the major players in the debate following a panel appearance by Executive Vice President Larry Cohen at a labor forum last December at Queens College in New York.
At the forum, Cohen offered several of the proposals later fleshed out and formalized by the CWA board, and in doing so he voiced disagreement with some of the ideas offered by fellow panelists from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and UNITE HERE.
It was SEIU that sparked the present debate last summer when its president, Andy Stern, put forth a controversial proposal to force a consolidation of the AFL-CIO's 58 affiliates down to 20 unions along industry lines, together with other changes.
Stern's threat to pull his 1.7 million-member union out of the AFL-CIO if his plan wasn't adopted provoked headlines and speculation that the federation might celebrate its 50th anniversary this year by breaking apart. Stern last year put together a disparate alliance including the Laborers, Carpenters and UNITE HERE (the recently merged hotel and restaurant and needle trades unions) under the banner of New Unity Partnership, raising the specter of all of these unions dropping their AFL-CIO affiliation.
The NUP alliance quietly disbanded in January, with its leaders saying they had accomplished their objective of getting the labor movement to reexamine its mission and structure. However, Stern hasn't withdrawn his threat to leave the federation.
While CWA and SEIU share concerns over the need to dramatically bolster union growth and political power, Bahr and Cohen point to a significant philosophical difference over the issue of forced mergers and rigid jurisdictional control by the AFL-CIO.
CWA's plan stresses development of local leadership and grassroots activism. Cohen stated at the Queens College forum: "If anyone in this room thinks that we're going to change collective bargaining rights based on how we structure rather than how we mobilize, they're mistaken."
Cohen has been outspoken in linking bargaining power with organizing effectiveness, noting that we can't organize unless we can get first contracts—and in today's environment, employers have learned they can ignore the law and kill newly formed unions in the crib by thwarting first contract settlements.
In recent speeches, Cohen has pointed out that reforming labor laws to strengthen workers' organizing and bargaining rights has to be labor's top goal.
"If collective bargaining is indeed a public good—and we know that it is—labor needs to focus more on explaining and defending that process and what it means to society, rather than just highlighting the obstacles that individual unions face while trying to boost their own membership," Cohen said.