Volume 73, Issue #4 | Winter 2013

We have a victory to celebrate. All of us in CWA should be proud of the work our union did, with our allies, to help restore democracy to the U.S. Senate. The procedural change that Senators adopted last month means that, finally, President Obama?s nominations to executive branch positions and the judiciary (with the exception of the Supreme Court) will get the up-or-down vote they deserve.

CWA and the Democracy Initiative are fighting for comprehensive immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship.

One year ago, on Dec. 10, 2012, International Human Rights Day, CWA, Sierra Club, Greenpeace and NAACP launched the Democracy Initiative. Since then, other large membership organizations have signed on, representing 20 million activists. The Democracy Initiative is focused on three of our four democracy blocks: voting rights, money in politics, and Senate rules reform.

Last summer, 2 million members of Fix the Senate Now organizations mobilized to make sure the Senate confirmed a full, five-member National Labor Relations Board and leaders for top agencies including Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Gina McCarthy to lead the Environmental Protection Agency.

In November, Senate Majority Leader Reid and nearly every Democratic Senator acted to end Senate gridlock and obstruction on Presidential nominations.

With negotiations around TPP winding down, secrecy is at an all-time high.