Velvet Hawthorne, who worked in a US Airways call center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, led the organizing campaign to bring 10,000 US Airways customer service employees into CWA. After three contested elections, the union was finally certified in 1999 and ratified the first contract that year. Hawthorne was appointed staff representative with responsibility for training stewards for the new union. She negotiated breakthrough contracts which faced challenges in response to mergers (American Airlines and America West) and shutdowns in the airline industry after 9/11 and the COVID pandemic.
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