CWA Members Share Powerful Stories During “Fighting Attacks on Our Jobs and Our Future” Town Hall

Hundreds of CWA members and retirees joined a virtual town hall on Tuesday to hear from CWAers who have been affected by the takeover of our federal government by extremists who are slashing programs that support our jobs, our families, and our communities in order to give more tax breaks to billionaires.

During the call, CWA President Claude Cummings Jr. praised CWA members, retirees, staff, and executive board members for their response to this crisis. “We have continued to organize—nearly 25,000 workers have joined CWA since I became President two years ago, and we are not slowing down,” Cummings said. “We have continued to mobilize and bargain strong contracts. We have filed lawsuits to protect our rights. We have joined massive demonstrations in thousands of communities across our country to stand up for each other and for our values. We will not be silent, and we will not back down. There is much too much at stake.”

CWA Local 4603 Secretary-Treasurer Kwami Barnes, who is also the CWA Wisconsin Broadband Lead, said that changes that Donald Trump’s billionaire Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, has made to broadband buildout funded by the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law will mean fewer union jobs and higher-cost, less-reliable service for households and businesses. Members of CWA’s Broadband Brigade are speaking out about the damage these new rules will do and pushing states to fight back.

Alyssa Micha, Vice President of NABET-CWA Local 51026 and a Senior Creative Producer at WSKG Public Media in the Southern Tier of New York State, said that federal cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting directly threaten union jobs and, by extension, threaten the quality, accessibility, and independence of the programming stations like WSKG provide. NABET-CWA members have responded by mobilizing members and listeners to call their members of Congress and demand that they protect federal funding for local public TV and radio stations.

Justin Code, a steward with IUE-CWA Local 81206, works as a work-based learning coordinator for Job Corps in Westover, Mass. President Trump’s Department of Labor ordered all Job Corps sites to shut down by the end of June, including a site in Reno, Nev., that’s represented by CWA Local 9413. Code and his co-workers responded by rallying support from the community. A judge has issued a temporary injunction to stop the closure.

In Louisville, Ky., nearly 200 IUE-CWA members have been targeted for deportation by the Department of Homeland Security. Their work permits and status are at risk because the Trump Administration is cancelling the CHNV humanitarian program, which allowed people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to come to the U.S. after completing a background check and getting a sponsor. IUE-CWA Local 83761 member Jess Reese said that her local stepped up to support their members. They offered legal support, helped with basic needs like food, and organized to make sure the company followed their contract. It worked, and the targeted members will not lose their seniority while they are trying to get their status fixed and will be prioritized for rehiring.

You can watch the town hall here. Find out how you can take action to support these fights by checking out our toolkit at https://cwa.org/toolkit.

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This post originally appeared on cwa-union.org.