Phone and Mail Unions Unite in Action

CWA Stands Up to Verizon on August 11

Rally in Philadelphia.

Tens of thousands of workers will unite next week in Philadelphia -- the birthplace of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights -- to demand economic freedom and opportunity for all.
CWA and IBEW workers will be kicking off the activities with a rally at Verizon’s office. Meet promptly at 9:45 a.m. at 900 Race Street.

We will then march to Eakins Oval, in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where we will join more than 30,000 people from all over the country to stand up for the middle class and urge all Americans -- especially elected officials -- to stand with us.

It's time for everyone to stand up and be counted.

Photo of CWA President Larry Cohen:

CWA Supports a Public Postal Service

CWA stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the National Association of Letter Carriers in its battle to save the US Postal Service, CWA President Larry Cohen said last week at the biennial NALC convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Photo of CWA President Larry Cohen addressing the biennial NALC convention in Minneapolis.

“We will fight back, and we will be there together with you in that fight to save a public Postal Service as if it’s our own fight—because it is our own fight,” he said, according to the convention newspaper.

Addressing more than 8,000 Union members, Cohen said CWA’s fight against corporate greed at Verizon is not unlike letter carriers’ struggle against the Postal Service. “We get management, whether the Postal Service or Verizon, that wants to shrink us, to keep us in a box, until they can shut us down and throw us out,” he said.
He encouraged delegates to continue advocating for workers’ rights.

“When you cut our pay, we say no. When you cut our health care, we say no. When you destroy our retirement, we say no,” he said. “We stand up, we fight back.”
Over 1,000 Letter Carriers Protest Verizon Greedy in Show of Unity

Photo of Letter carriers (mail men and women) protest VeriGreedy in Minneapolis.

More than 1,000 members of the National Association of Letter Carriers last Thursday demonstrated outside a Verizon Wireless store in downtown Minneapolis in support of CWA’s yearlong fight for a fair contract. (Solidarity-ed)

CWA President Larry Cohen had addressed the delegates to the biennial convention earlier in the day, pledging CWA’s support in the battle to save the Postal Service. And in return, letter carriers poured in the street to rally against Verizon’s corporate greed.

“His remarks got the troops fired up,” said Pam Donato, who leads the NALC’s coalition-building and community services work. “We thought that maybe 200 people would show up, but when it came time to rally, I think we topped 1,000. It was massive.”

She added, “It was like breaking bread with family. It’s really a special occasion to rally with another group of workers, to support each other physically, putting to life what you do a lot of times with paper, pen and keyboard.”