Last week, Texas State Employee Union (TSEU)-CWA Local 6186 members and retirees marched and rallied at the state capitol in Austin and met with their legislators to demand an across-the-board $10,000 pay increase for all workers and a cost-of-living adjustment and other improvements to retiree pensions. They also called for reversing the privatization of public services, full funding for state agencies and universities, and strengthening of due process and free speech rights.

CWA District 6 Vice President Derrick Osobase (top, left), Public, Healthcare and Education Workers Sector Vice President Margaret Cook (bottom, right), and other labor leaders, elected officials, and community supporters joined TSEU-CWA Local 6186 members to march and rally in Austin, Texas.

United Campus Workers-CWA (UCW-CWA) members held actions across the Southeast this month to protest funding cuts and advocate for better treatment and higher wages.

Staff and students joined together at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville for a rally, where UCW-CWA members spoke out about the impact of cuts to research funding, how the current political climate impacts their teaching, and the worries they have for their coworkers with international status. Speaking to WVLT8, UCW-CWA member Olive Fairweather said, “We’re here today because we know these attacks on higher education are not normal. These cuts are costing people their jobs. Things don’t have to be this way; it really makes me wonder what the future of education in East Tennessee is going to look like.”

UCW-CWA members at Auburn University in Alabama held a rally and petition signing to demand better treatment and wages from the university. Their demands included cost-of-living adjustments, raising the university’s minimum wage, increased stipends and lower fees for graduate students, more fair promotions, and subsidies for childcare. After the rally, UCW members marched to Samford Hall and delivered their petition directly to university administrators.

UCW Kentucky member Anika Jensen wrote an op-ed for the Kentucky Lantern, advocating for higher wages for members, saying, “Since United Campus Workers (UCW-CWA) chartered at UK in 2020, administrators have consistently refused to meet with union members, citing the argument that we are an outside organization. We are not. We are just workers, and these are our demands: $25K baseline stipends for all graduate workers by 2025 without cutting teaching assistant or research assistant lines; an end to discriminatory fees for international students; and a long-term plan to continue adjusting stipends to the cost of living.”

In Georgia, Jill Penn, a UCW-CWA member from Georgia Gwinnett College, helped organize a large “Kill the Cuts” rally at Atlanta’s Liberty Plaza. UCW-CWA members from Georgia Tech and Georgia State were joined by other CWA members and Centers for Disease Control and Protection workers impacted by the cuts. At the University of Alabama, UCW members held a “blitz week” with events, a week of tabling on campus, and a rally supporting their Living Wage Campaign.

Other UCW-CWA campuses, including Kennesaw State University, University of Memphis, University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, and Mississippi State University, held events including informational tabling, organizing drives, and petition signing.

Last week, UCW-CWA members at Mississippi State University, along with members of the Mississippi University for Women, set up an informational table about cuts to higher education funding and asked passersby to post their answers to the question, “What does higher education mean to you?”

TNG-CWA Local 38061 members have delivered award-winning local news coverage to the people of Pittsburgh throughout their two and a half years on strike against the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette through the strike publication, the Pittsburgh Union Progress.

Now, striking photojournalist Steve Mellon has won the prestigious 17th Annual Izzy Award “for outstanding achievement in independent media” for his coverage of the derailment and the fallout that continues to afflict working-class people in and around East Palestine, Ohio, and beyond. He has continued to tell those stories long after major media outlets left them behind. Support the striking workers by subscribing to the PUP at www.unionprogress.com/subscribe or supporting their strike fund at www.unionprogress.com/donate.

In August, members of Alphabet Workers Union-CWA Local 9009 filed an unfair labor practice charge after Google prohibited employees from discussing antitrust litigation brought by the Department of Justice against the company. Last week, the union announced that they had reached an agreement with Google protecting the rights of all Google workers to speak freely about the case.

“It’s encouraging that Google has reversed its course on restricting our federally protected right to free expression,” said Parul Koul, Software Engineer and President of the Alphabet Workers Union-Communications Workers of America Local 9009. “All workers in the United States have the right to discuss their working conditions, and for us this acknowledgement comes at an important time as the government is due to impose antitrust remedies that could affect our work dramatically.”‍

Learn more at www.alphabetworkersunion.org/press/union-victory-against-googles-antitrust-gag-order.

This week, CWA’s Committee for Better Banks (CBB) released a new report warning that Wells Fargo is backsliding into the same harmful practices that led to its infamous fake account scandal back in 2016. Based on employee surveys, internal documents, and a sharp uptick in consumer complaints, the report reveals troubling signs that the bank is reinstating high-pressure sales tactics and maintaining a toxic workplace culture. Read the full report here.

To coincide with the release of the report, Wells Fargo Workers United-CWA members will be hosting a webinar on Thursday, April 24, to provide insights on how concerns of renewed sales pressure and understaffing are impacting workers, clients, and local communities. To register, please RSVP here.

Since the launch of the union drive, 27 Wells Fargo branches, as well as the conduct management intake department, have successfully formed a union with CWA. Bank workers who are interested in sharing their concerns regarding inappropriate sales pressures can fill out our confidential survey here.

In May 1949, after CWA members voted to affiliate with the CIO, all of AT&T’s Bell System companies withdrew recognition of the union and impounded our dues. CWA had been founded just two years before, and the company pounced on what it saw as an opportunity to destroy our growing power.

While two units chose to recertify by signing new cards, others chose to challenge the companies’ actions at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and in federal courts. Because of the structure of the Bell System at the time, the challenge involved 35 separate cases. In September 1949, the NLRB ruled against Southern Bell in the final case, sealing an across-the-board victory for our union.

Over the years, corporate union-busting has become more sophisticated, and consultants and law firms rake in millions of dollars each year by finding ways to abuse the system and delay NLRB proceedings. Today, CEOs and billionaires are trying to destroy the NLRB itself. President Donald Trump has illegally fired an NLRB member, preventing the Board from ruling in most cases. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, and others are arguing in federal court that the NLRB is unconstitutional.

The generations of CWA members who came before us relied on the NLRB as they fought corporate abuses and greed and built our union. We must protect the NLRB and other agencies that enforce labor law so that we have all the tools we need to continue the fight. Click here to take action.

The CWA News reported on CWA’s victory against AT&T’s attempt to destroy our union. View a pdf of this article here.