Dear John,
I hope your holidays were restful and full of joy.
As we begin the new year I, like many of you, have been reflecting on the past and looking ahead to consider what is to come.
In 2024, CWA members and retirees demonstrated tenacity and skill in our fight for a brighter future for ourselves, our families, and our communities. We showed up for each other on picket lines, at rallies, by sending emails and making phone calls, and by posting solidarity messages on social media. We gathered to share strategies and leaned on each other for support and advice during hard times. I have enjoyed visiting with many of you at conferences and at your workplaces and look forward to continuing to listen and learn in the coming year.
We welcomed nearly 10,000 new members into our ranks in 2024, and I expect that growth to continue in the coming year. People are fed up with the status quo. They have been inspired by what union members accomplish when we unite toward a common goal, and they want to join us.
It is no surprise that, in 2025, we are going to see a showdown between the forces fighting for corporate control and those fighting for working families. This past summer, while 17,000 CWA members were on strike against AT&T in the southeast, Donald Trump and Elon Musk joked about firing striking workers. They told us whose side they were on. Now Donald Trump is the president elect and Musk is his right-hand man, dictating orders to Congress through posts on X.
But our struggle for economic and social justice will not end because of the results of a single presidential election. We are stronger than that. Even in the face of tremendous headwinds, we elected pro-worker candidates and we won crucial victories, including our successful campaign to elect Central Region At-Large Executive Board Member Erika White to the Ohio House of Representatives. We put collective bargaining on the ballot in Denver, Colo. and now over 7,000 public-sector workers have a pathway to union protections and benefits.
As members of CWA, you are connected to people you might never have met or known otherwise. We work in different industries and have different job titles. We live in rural areas, in suburbs and in cities. We are of different races and genders, and, yes, we hold different political views. But we all come together in our union. We work side-by-side in common purpose and have the opportunity to share ideas and perspectives with people we might never have crossed paths with outside of the union hall. We love our families and our country and want everyone in our communities to have the freedom to be themselves, pursue their dreams, and have a good life. We believe in prosperity, justice, and security for all, not just a privileged few.
Those who came before us fought tough fights. But they also left us a blueprint for how to win. We will continue doing what we know works, and we will continue innovating as we face new challenges: fights against the misuse of artificial intelligence, fights against corporate control, and fights against a system we know devalues worker lives in favor of CEO perks. No worker should risk their life in extreme heat, or unsafe conditions, so a millionaire can afford another yacht.
I’m proud to be in this fight with all of you. I’m looking forward to continuing to strengthen our union and build power for working people in 2025. Much of the future is unknown and unknowable, but we will face whatever comes together, united, and unbowed. We are CWA!
Let’s greet the new year with these words firmly in our hearts: Together We Win.
In Unity,
Claude Cummings Jr.
President
