CWA President Larry Cohen was re-elected for a second three-year term by acclamation of delegates at the 70th convention of the Communications Workers of America. Delegates also elected Jeff Rechenbach as secretary-treasurer and Annie Hill as executive vice president, both by acclamation.
Rechenbach, CWA's past executive vice president, succeeds Barbara J. Easterling as secretary-treasurer; she had served in that post for 13 years until her retirement. Hill, vice president for the 14-state District 7, succeeds Rechenbach as executive vice president.
Convention delegates also elected four at-large board members to the CWA Executive Board. Elected were Carolyn Wade, president, CWA Local 1040, Northeast region; Nestor Soto, president, CWA Local 33225, Southeast region; Claude Cummings, president, CWA Local 6222, Central region and Madelyn Elder, president, CWA Local 7901, Western region.
The 2007 convention delegates voted to expand the Executive Board to ensure that CWA leadership fully reflects the diversity, experiences and perspective of local union leaders and membership.
In district meetings, CWA delegates elected vice presidents whose responsibilities include coordination of bargaining, organizing and other activities in their districts. Along with the three top officers, sector vice presidents and four at-large members, these officers make up the union's executive board; all officers were installed June 24 by CWA President emeritus Morton Bahr.
In contested elections, Chris Shelton was re-elected vice president of District 1, defeating Carla Katz; Noah Savant was re-elected vice president of District 3, defeating Stephen Sarnoff; Louise Cadell was elected District 7 vice president, defeating Brenda Roberts in a run off election; and Tony Bixler was re-elected vice president of District 9, defeating T Santora.
In uncontested elections, delegates for District 2 members elected Ron Collins as vice president, he succeeds Pete Catucci who will continue to be a strong CWA advocate for stem cell research, the Employee Free Choice Act and other issues.
Other uncontested election results: Seth Rosen was re-elected vice president of District 4, Andy Milburn was re-elected vice president for District 6, and Edward Mooney, president of CWA Local 13000, was elected vice president of District 13, succeeding James Short who retired.
Vice presidents for these CWA sectors were re-elected: Ralph Maly, communications and technologies; Jimmy Gurganus, telecommunications; Brooks Sunkett, public, healthcare and education workers, and Bill Boarman, printing, publishing and media workers.
In other sector results: Jim Clark was re-elected president of IUE-CWA, John Clark was re-elected president of NABET-CWA, Bernie Lunzer was elected president of TNG-CWA by a sector referendum tallied in May and Pat Friend earlier had been re-elected president of AFA-CWA under that sector's bylaws.
