CWA Retired Members' Council Annual Meeting - 2008
Report
The 2008 Retired Members' Council Annual Meeting in Las Vegas set a record for the largest number of attendees ever for such an event. Throughout the day, the 110 chapter delegates, other retirees and guests representing nearly every district and sector in the union heard from many CWA vice presidents who echoed the theme of the Meeting – "We're In This Together" – in the fight for retirement security, health care reform, the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, the election of larger majorities of worker/retiree-friendly Members of Congress, and making Barack Obama America's first organizer president.
In the late morning, President Larry Cohen, then Secretary-Treasurer Easterling and then-Executive Vice President Jeff Rechenbach spoke to the delegates and addressed their questions and concerns. President Cohen and Secretary-Treasurer Easterling were able to stay for the box lunch provided to the attendees by the Council, and continued to interact with the retirees.
In the afternoon, the group was given a special retiree-oriented slide show of CWA's campaign "Building a Political Movement" which focused on the twin problems of unions being under assault and the health care crisis. The assembly learned that the decline of union power has matched the decline in benefits, especially in health care. The solution is to pass legislation, the Employee Free Choice Act, to make it easier for workers to gain bargaining rights. Any health care reform proposals must include everyone, control costs, improve quality, have a strong government role and have broad-base tax financing. For more information, please visit http://www.healthcarevoices.org/.
Chapter members will be given the presentation at an upcoming chapter meeting. (For those who are not Chapter members, check our list of chapters to find one near you.)
Delegates were actively engaged in the business of the Council. By an overwhelming margin, the delegates voted to revive Journeys, the official publication of the Council, as an electronic newsletter. They requested that future Annual Meeting include workshops on relevant issues such as chapter-building. The Board readily agreed.
Delegates were given information regarding the upcoming elections for Council's Executive Board. Briefly stated, all 18 positions are open, self-nominations are made in September, ballots are mailed in October and counted in November. More details will be in the next issue of Journeys.
The 2009 Annual Meeting of the Council will take place in Washington, DC in June. The exact date has not yet been established, but will be publicized as soon as it is known.
For information about the CWA Convention, go to www.cwa-union.org.
View the Convention slide show, which includes photos of Council Chair James Starr and other retirees.
