Mar 1, 1998

Following an announcement by Executive Vice President M.E. Nichols that he plans to retire at this year’s CWA convention, the Executive Board adopted a resolution thanking Nick for his 51 years of service to CWA and stating that the Board will recommend to convention delegates that he be honored with the title of Executive Vice President Emeritus.

The Board noted that during his 18-year tenure as EVP, “the CWA Education and Health and Safety programs have been strengthened and expanded to provide vital services to locals,” and that by Nick’s establishment and administration of the CWA Disaster Relief Fund, countless members have been helped after disasters such as Hurricane Hugo and the Grand Forks floods.”

The Executive Board, gathering for its mid-winter meeting last month in Miami Beach, also unanimously adopted a resolution calling on President Bahr to “make organizing and the future growth of our union the primary responsibility of the Executive Vice President.”

The resolution cited the importance of membership growth to strengthening CWA’s effectiveness in bargaining as well as in political and legislative action, especially in light of the growing union avoidance and containment strategies by employers today.

Noting that, “In the early years of CWA, organizing was assigned to one of the union’s executive officers,” the Board stated: “In this time when we need to grow our union while in a hostile environment, we recognize that today, more than at any other time in our union’s history, we must renew the intensity of our commitment to organizing at all levels . . . . the Executive Board believes that it is necessary to once again raise the organizing responsibility to the policymaking leadership level.”

Nichols applauded the Board action, stating that he has long believed that the key role of organizing must be spotlighted. “If we don’t continue to grow, then quite simply we will begin to decline and lose our ability to represent our members effectively. This is the right step to give our organizing program the priority status it must have for CWA’s future,” he said.

Nichols said that he will continue his close ties to CWA and the labor movement, perhaps serving as a visiting professor in labor-management relations at the University of Virginia.