West Virginia CWA Members Vote to Authorize Strike

Last week, CWA and Microsoft announced that they have extended their groundbreaking labor neutrality agreement to cover workers at Microsoft subsidiary ZeniMax Media Inc., enabling all eligible ZeniMax workers to freely and fairly make a choice about union representation. Quality Assurance Testers at Zenimax formed ZeniMax Workers United-CWA last year under a similar agreement.

“Thousands of our ZeniMax co-workers now have a free and fair path to organize together for better working conditions. There is strength in numbers, and as our numbers grow at ZeniMax, at Microsoft, and in the video game industry, we will gain the respect we deserve and raise the standards of working conditions for everyone across the video gaming industry,” said Page Branson, Senior II QA Tester and member of ZeniMax Workers United-CWA.

Members of CWA Locals 2002 and 2007 voted overwhelmingly last week to authorize a strike against their employer, Altice USA, if the company fails to negotiate a fair contract. Altice workers in West Virginia provide telecommunications services under the brand name Optimum.

The union technicians of Altice formed their union with CWA in 2019 and ratified a first contract in 2020 that guaranteed pay raises, provided job security, and established grievance and arbitration rights for the workers. Members seek to build on the 2020 contract and negotiate a successor contract that provides local workers with the pay and benefits they have earned and deserve.

The current four-year contract expired last month. A two-month extension was agreed to in order to give both parties more time to reach a fair deal. The contract extension will expire on June 28, 2024, at 11:59 p.m.

“We have shown up, worked hard, and delivered quality service for our community,” said Nicholas Mariano, a CWA member employed by Altice. “Now it’s time for a contract that gives dedicated, local technicians and our families a better standard of living and secures good jobs for the future.”

On June 13, AFA-CWA Flight Attendants will kick off “Solidarity Summer” with a Worldwide Day of Action, and you can join your CWA siblings as they make their voices heard. A recent survey of Alaska Airlines Flight Attendants found that nearly 10 percent of those who responded live with family or friends because they cannot afford rent in the city to which they’ve been assigned.

Click this link to take part in a global action!

As the summer travel season begins, Flight Attendants are demanding fair contracts, respect, and livable wages. Join them at any of over 30 airports on June 13. Flight Attendants are putting corporate executives on notice: corporate greed won’t fly!

Click here to find a local picket.

Last week, workers at YouTube Music received support from Congressional Democrats, who sent a letter to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) urging a swift investigation of the unfair labor practice charges CWA filed after the company illegally terminated the entire Content Operations team in February. The workers, members of Alphabet Workers Union-CWA Local 9009, were blindsided with the news of the mass firing while they were speaking at an Austin, Texas, City Council meeting.

The congressional response was spearheaded by Representative Greg Casar (D-Texas), who said, “Rich and powerful corporations like Google are seeing workers across the country rise up, organize, and win. The NLRB should quickly and thoroughly investigate if the rights of these workers, like the YouTube Music workers in my district, were violated. Union organizing and collective bargaining should be a right—not a fight.”

“We welcome the attention that Representative Casar and members of the Labor Caucus are bringing to Google’s continued intimidation of workers who want to organize unions at the company,” said Derrick Osobase, Vice President, CWA District 6. “Swift action by the NLRB in this case will send an important message to the entire tech industry that they are not above the law and that they must respect workers’ right to organize and collectively bargain here in Texas and across the country.”

Parul Koul, Software Engineer and President of the Alphabet Workers Union-CWA, also warned, “If Google is allowed to violate its legal responsibilities to its workers and ignore the directives of the National Labor Relations Board in this case, it will set a terrible precedent for the future of workers’ rights in this country.”

Last week, Lauren Ashley Simmons wrapped up a successful primary campaign against incumbent Shawn Thierry (D) to become the Democratic candidate for Representative of Texas District 146. She currently serves as the Texas Organizing Director for the National Domestic Workers Alliance and Staff Steward for CWA Local 1180.

Simmons has been speaking truth to power for years and is a staunch advocate for public education and LGBTQ+ rights. She rose to prominence when a video of her speaking at a local school board hearing went viral. The 2023 video now has over 8.7 million views.

According to CWA District 6 Campaign Lead Kristie Veit, the Simmons campaign was one of the best she’d seen run. “If we called, they answered,” said Veit. “Our [CWA] communication with them was an absolute priority for her campaign.”

Congratulations to Lauren Ashley Simmons, who stated on her campaign website, “One of my heroes is the late, great Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm. She famously said, ‘If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.’”

Members of TSEU-CWA Local 6186 joined fellow activists with the Gulf Coast Labor Federation and Equality Texas to knock doors with candidate Lauren Ashley Simmons (pictured left of center in the white hat).

The Minnesota Legislature kicked off Memorial Day weekend with its own fireworks on the capitol floor. According to witnesses, both chambers erupted in shouting as Democrats called for a vote on a last-minute omnibus bill. The bill included new broadband labor standards recommended and advocated for by CWA’s Broadband Brigade in conjunction with activists from the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LiUna).

The new standards, signed into law by Governor Tim Walz, will allow the Minnesota Broadband Office, tasked with distributing broadband funding, to prioritize those applicants that pay prevailing wages and offer training, health insurance, and retirement benefits. Going forward, companies that receive public funding to build broadband networks will be required to provide workforce plan data to the Broadband Office, including contractors working on the project and wage data. New safety training requirements will tackle the problem of subcontractors who cut corners and help improve worker safety.

CWA Local 7201 President Christy Kuehn commented on the legislation, saying, “CWA has been fighting for affordable, universal broadband access, with proper oversight and accountability, for nearly 20 years. By holding all contractors and providers to high labor standards, Minnesota will ensure that public funds are used to build the high-quality broadband infrastructure that our state deserves without endangering our workers and our communities.”

The CWA Joe Beirne Foundation was established in October 1974 by the CWA Executive Board to honor the name and memory of the founding President of CWA, who served for more than 30 years.

Sixteen partial college scholarships of $4,000 each are being awarded for the 2024–2025 school year. Winners, selected in a lottery drawing, will also receive second-year scholarships of the same amount, contingent upon satisfactory academic accomplishment. Part-time students taking fewer than 12 credits will receive half of the scholarship amount.

Eligible for the awards are CWA members and their spouses, children, and grandchildren, including those of retired or deceased members.

2024-2025 Winners:

Toemars Levell, son of Tasha Graham, CWA Local 1101
Nailah Thomas, CWA Local 1037
Chelsea Walsh, daughter of Timothy Walsh, CWA Local 1103
Alex Glynn, son of Sandra Tan, TNG-CWA Local 31026
Alejandro Boxx, son of Jeffrey Boxx, CWA Local 1170
Amberleigh Fretwell, daughter of Ian Thomas, CWA Local 2222
Paris Iqbal, daughter of Victoria Muñoz, CWA Local 3640
Brayden Degueyter, son of Nicholas Degueyter, CWA Local 3406
Branden Haywood, son of Willie Webb, CWA Local 4320
Jordyn Zittle, daughter of Jason Zittle, CWA Local 4302
Natalie Anderson, daughter of Joe Anderson, CWA Local 6012
Holden Guilfoyle, son of Timothy Guilfoyle, CWA Local 6410
Reina Lujan, CWA Local 7076
Jayleen Ramirez, daughter of Fernando Ramirez, CWA Local 9333
Charles D. Cease, son of Editha Cease, CWA Local 9003
Elisabeth Coppard-Reuten, daughter of Pat Coppard, CWA|SCA Canada Local 30223

Click here to learn more about the Joe Beirne Scholarship Program.

Randy Stoernell (TNG-CWA Local 38061) participates in a strike meeting. (PHOTO CREDIT: Steve Mellon, Pittsburgh Union Progress, TNG-CWA 38061)

Name: Randy Stoernell
Local: The Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh, TNG-CWA Local 38061
Workplace: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Title: Content editor, sports department
Experience: 30 years officially, as of April 23 (spent 9–10 years as a sports stringer before that).
Strike Time: 1.5+ years
Quote: “I don’t understand how you can dedicate all this time to this company, and it turns around and treats you with all of this disrespect.”
Inspiration: “It takes a lot of courage to do what our colleagues have done to remain on strike this past year and a half.”