Larry Cohen was president of CWA from 2005 to 2015. He began his union career in New Jersey leading the State Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC) in which 34,000 state workers elected to join CWA in 1981. Cohen served as director of organizing and mobilization for the national union from 1986 until his election as executive vice-president in 1998. Cohen developed the union’s mobilization program, led many successful organizing campaigns, fostered an activist international program, led the campaigns to defeat the Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal, and, as chair of the AFL-CIO organizing committee, led the campaign for the Employee Free Choice Act.
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