Dear John,

With the holiday season in full swing, I wanted to thank each and every one of you, our CWA members and retirees, for your tireless work this past year. We knew this would be a challenging time. President Trump and his billionaire enablers are following their brutal Project 2025 blueprint to the letter and show no sign of slowing, despite the hardship and trauma their attacks are causing for our families, our neighbors, and our communities here in the United States and across the globe.

Despite the constant flood of demoralizing headlines, you found the strength and courage to fight back. You leaned on one another, supported each other, and together we continued to build power for working people across the country.

Our organizing efforts this past year helped bring over 25,000 new members into our union, expanding opportunity for them, their families, and their communities. And at our 80th CWA Convention, we resolved to safeguard our future with CWA Unbreakable, to resist the slide into authoritarianism, to mobilize for good union jobs in the public sector, to protect all workers’ rights, and to recommit to organizing in telecommunications, our union’s industry of origin. I am incredibly proud of our union members for declaring, in a resounding voice, our commitments to one another and to our union values.

Guided by those values, we accomplished a lot in 2025. We launched United Videogame Workers-CWA, a direct-join, industry-wide video game union, which has since welcomed hundreds of video game professionals into our ranks. NewsGuild journalists won a powerful precedent in the fight against the misuse of artificial intelligence. Through persistent mobilization and solidarity actions, our UPTE-CWA members at the University of California won a victory for themselves, their coworkers, and their patients. And, after three years on the picket line, we won the longest strike in the nation as Pittsburgh Post-Gazette strikers returned to work.

There are far too many victories to name each one, but none of these achievements would have been possible without the care and trust you and your CWA siblings have shown one another. Unity is our strength, and together, there is nothing we cannot accomplish.

With the new year comes new challenges, new possibilities, and new opportunities. I can promise you that there will be difficult times. But I can also promise you that CWA will remain a fighting union and that, if you stand strong with your union family, we will win.

We will continue to stand together to protect our Flight Attendants at Spirit Airlines and to support our Passenger Service Agents at Envoy and Piedmont Airlines through tough bargaining fights. We are gearing up for bargaining with AT&T Mobility members under the Orange Contract and for our AT&T Midwest and Legacy T members. There will be negotiations with Verizon and ABC/Disney later in the year. Our members and staff are trained and ready to fight and win strong contracts.

And this coming year, we will be working hard to continue the political wins we saw in November. We proved that when candidates stand with workers, they win. Your phonebanking, doorknocking, and one-on-one conversations with other union members are the most effective way to drive crucial voter turnout. We plan to double down on those actions ahead of the midterms to elect pro-worker candidates, regardless of which side of the aisle they are on, to positions where they can make a difference in the lives of working-class people.

CWA is widely respected because of dedicated members like you. I am proud to serve as your president and continually encouraged by the professionalism, tenacity, and creativity members like you bring to every fight—at the bargaining table, on the picket line, or at the voting booth. When we fight, we win!

Have a blessed and restful holiday, and I will see you in the new year.

In Unity,

Claude Cummings Jr.
President