CWA Goals: Fighting for CWA Families

Within CWA' s four overall goals -- jobs, health care, retirement security, and collective bargaining and organizing rights -- there are many on-going campaigns and potential accomplishments that are both inspiring and daunting and which change daily.

1. Speed Matters -- Develop brand campaign with the goal of gaining critical public policy changes in promotion and build out of high-speed Internet access, cooperating with our employers when possible. Educate members, elected officials and the public, recruit allies, build discussion and debate in Congress. Focus on rural issues and impact.
2. Verizon -- Stop Verizon's union-busting. Educate and mobilize members on consequences of Verizon's effort to contain union jobs while growing its non-union entities through CWA's "Tear Down the Wall" campaign. Persuade Verizon through political, community, regulatory and legislative actions to change anti-union behavior. There are 69,000 CWA-represented workers at Verizon.
3. Election 2006 -- Invest significant resources -- COPE PAC funds and volunteers -- to support election of pro-worker candidates and make a real change in the Congress, governors and state legislatures. Deploy CWA activists on campaigns and in GOTV. Release at least 50 staff to work on election. Key battleground races for CWA include Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Tennessee, and Georgia.
4. Delta Airlines -- Organize 15,000 Delta and other flight attendants.
5. Higher Education -- Launch organizing campaign at Ohio State Universityamong clerical/technical/healthcare workers, and at Bowling Green State University for wall-to-wall representation. Build membership at University of Virginia, University of Tennessee, Kentucky and the UC system.
6. Northwest Airlines -- Obtain first contract for Northwest flight attendants.
7. Public Sector -- Increase CWA representation in public sector in Florida and Mississippi, and begin state worker organizing in Colorado. Gain recognition for 1,000 New Jersey DDD sponsors. Working with AFSCME, gain union recognition for state workers in Arizona, and organize 3,000 new members in the short-term.
8. at&t Jobs of the Future -- Gain union recognition for unorganized Internet Protocol work at at&t (hubs and routers).
9. Health Care -- Organize Metro Hospital RNs in Cleveland and expand organizing and combat hospital closings in New York.
10. Political Action -- Set goals to increase number of members participating in COPE. In District 6, double the number of COPE members contributing $1 per week to 12,000.
11. Education and Mobilization -- Train 10 percent of membership as activists and mobilization specialists, ready to deal with issues concerning our employers, legislation and key issues.
12. Internal Organizing -- Implement strategy to reduce numbers of non-members. In District 6, reduce non-members by 33 percent to add 3,000 to 3,500 new members.
13. Cingular Wireless -- Organize Cingular retail stores in remaining states where they are not yet organized.
14. Broadcast Sector -- Organize more Univision and Telemundo television stations, the two biggest Spanish-language broadcasters. NABET now represents six Spanish language stations.
15. NBC Universal -- Strengthen bargaining power of 2,500 members by organizing new NBC non-union businesses (e.g. CNBC, MSNBC, internet transmissions and pod casting) and work locations (MSNBC facility in Secaucus, New Jersey).
16. Internal Policies/Procedures -- Review locals to identify those that need assistance to fully comply with CWA performance requirements, and establish procedures to improve performance and/or pursue merger opportunities.
17. Telecom -- Launch Embarq labor-management committees.
18. Tribune Company -- Strengthen Baltimore Sun contracts and increase union power and density at company.
19. Lee Enterprises -- Build off highly unionized St. Louis Post Dispatch (now Lee Flagship) as base to organize largely unorganized company.
20. Media Ownership  -- Expand campaign to block further media consolidation. Work with allies to build public support to keep current rules.
21. Communications -- Overhaul "Talking Union" newsletter, and create resource tools for organizers and local activists.
22. Public, Health Care and Education Workers -- Work with appointed Strategic Campaign Fund Committee to create and adopt a strategic campaign fund.
23. National Health Care Reform -- Coordinate and expand CWA participation and activism in statewide universal health care campaigns and programs.

Updated September 2006