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CWA Ranks Grow by 25,000: Ron Collins Cited for Leadership Role

CWA won representation rights for more than 25,000 working men and women across the United States and Canada during the last year, CWA President Morton Bahr told delegates, alternates and guests attending the union’s 60th annual convention in Chicago.

It was, Bahr said, the single best year in organizing during the years since 1985 that he has presided over the union.

All together, nearly 40 CWA locals were honored, either for individually organizing 100 or more members during the past year, or for their combined efforts in such massive campaigns as the one that brought 10,000 passenger service agents at US Airways into the union, and the affiliation that produced 6,500 new members employed at Southern New England Telephone Co.

In addition, Bahr honored Ron Collins, vice president of CWA Local 2101, Baltimore, with the President’s Annual Award in recognition of Collins’ achievements in organizing over a period of years. In 1997, Collins was instrumental in a project that organized 325 workers on three campuses of the Community Colleges of Baltimore county, and he played a key role in the US Airways campaign at BWI airport near Baltimore, Bahr said.

"Ron and Local 2101 have done it all" and he has "developed top notch organizing skills over a period of many years," Bahr said, in presenting the union’s top organizing award to Collins.

Calling attention to the fact that no local officer or member can organize without support and encouragement from the top, Bahr also called on Local President Maria Bury during the ceremonies. Collins was nominated for the award by Vice President Peter Catucci of District 2, Bahr said.

The campaign at the Baltimore Community Colleges was the first one outside basic telephone where a card check campaign succeeded, Bahr pointed out. The effort took two years, had strong staff support and required a political campaign to pressure the county college system to recognize the union, he added.

Upon accepting the award, Collins credited teamwork: "We could not have done it without a team, and the team was not just a team at Local 2101. The team was the local, the team was District 2, the team was the Organizing Department, the team was the Public Workers Department, the team was the International CWA. We all came together as a team to get this one home."

Locals honored as part of the CWA Organizing Network — for bringing in 100 or more members during the past year — are:

  • Local 30213, Canada Media Guild, for organizing 750 employees at the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.;
  • Local 1040, Trenton, N.J., for organizing 140 state public and health care workers;
  • Local 1051, Malden, Mass., for organizing 780 operators at the AT&T Fairhaven Call Center;
  • Local 1105, Bronx, N.Y., for organizing 279 employees in the Dutchess County Sheriff’s Department;
  • Locals 1101, New York City; 1105, Bronx; 1110, Queens Village, N.Y.; 1120, Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and 1400, Portsmouth, N.H., for their combined efforts to bring about victory in the affiliation-election among 6,300 Connecticut Union of Telephone Workers members employed by the Southern New England Telephone Co.;
  • Local 2101, Baltimore, for organizing 325 technical and support staff at Baltimore County Community Colleges;
  • Local 3207, Augusta, Ga., for organizing 360 operators at an AT&T Directory Assistance center;
  • Local 4034, Grand Rapids, Mich., for organizing more than 100 workers at 10 telecommunications companies;
  • Local 4340, Cleveland, for organizing more than 100 workers at the office of the Lake County Commissioners, installers and technicians at Security Link, a subsidiary of Ameritech, and technical and clerical workers at 16 other companies;
  • Local 6143, San Antonio, Tex., for organizing 225 Southwestern Bell Wireless employees;
  • Local 7777, Denver, for organizing 80 counselors at Arapahoe House and 25 telemarketers at Telefund;
  • Local 9119, San Diego, Calif, for organizing 2,000 health care professionals at the University of California;
  • Local 9400, Los Angeles, for organizing 90 technicians at API/ADT Alarm Co., as well as 38 workers in five other companies;
  • Local 9415, Oakland, Calif., for an affiliation campaign that brought in 140 members of the Tool & Die Craftsmen Alliance, as well as organizing 35 employees at KPFA, a Pacifica Radio station, and
  • Local 9573, San Bernardino, Calif, for organizing 225 employees of GTE Customer Service.


Locals honored for organizing the 10,000 passenger service agents at 110 US Airways locations are: 1105, Bronx, N. Y.; 1118, Albany, N. Y.; 1122, Buffalo, N. Y.; 1123, Syracuse, N. Y.; 1126, New York Mills, N. Y.; 2101, Baltimore; 2201, Richmond, Va.; 3108, Orlando, Fla.; 3122, Miami, Fla.; 3151, Jackson-ville, Fla.; 3218, Marietta, Ga.; 3603, Charlotte, N. C.; 3808, Nashville, Tenn.; 4322, Dayton, Ohio; 9509, San Diego, Cal.; 13000, Philadelphia, Pa.; 13500, Pittsburgh, Pa., and 13550, Pittsburgh.