CWAers Take to the Streets on May Day

National

Last week, CWA members and retirees mobilized across the country to fight for workers’ rights and against billionaire control of our country and our economy. May 1—May Day—is International Workers’ Day. CWAers joined events calling for an end to attacks on federal workers, education, healthcare, the National Labor Relations Board, immigrants, and more.

 
CWA members and retirees across the country joined in May Day celebrations and protests.

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NABET-CWA

Members of NABET-CWA Local 54041, in partnership with the community group Evansville Resistance, labor activists from United Mine Workers of America Locals 11 and 1189, and community supporters, used May Day to rally against Nexstar’s illegal termination of five union workers at WEHT/WTVW. The company later terminated two more union members for speaking in favor of their union's elected official boycott—action that is protected by federal law. Workers rallied in Boonville, Ind., on May 3 and in Evansville, Ind., on May 4.

Nexstar has refused to engage in bargaining of any kind, prompting not only the boycott but also a “work to rule” action, calling on members to only do work within their job descriptions.

 
NABET-CWA Local 54041 member Brody Shaffer, who was one of several workers illegally fired in April, spoke at the Evansville, Ind., rally, saying, “Solidarity doesn’t mean ‘until I get a contract’ or ‘until I get my forty hours.’ It means solidarity forever, through the easy times and the hard times. And we’ve hit some hard times. Workers’ rights are human rights. When you come for one worker, you’re coming for all of us. And if they’re attacking workers’ rights, they’re attacking human rights.”

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IUE-CWA

In preparation for national contract bargaining in June and a May 6 virtual shareholders meeting, members of IUE-CWA Local 81201 in Lynn, Mass., held an informational picket and then joined in the May Day community march. Workers at General Electric (GE) Aerospace plants are responsible for building, testing, repairing, and improving the advanced engines powering commercial and military aviation. Member activists and elected officials from other IUE-CWA GE Aerospace unions, including Local 83701 (Madisonville, Ky.), Local 86004 (Strother Field, Kan.), and Local 81301 (Schenectady, N.Y.), traveled to Lynn to take part in Local 81201’s informational picket. Members from IUE-CWA Local 83761 in Louisville, Ky. also participated in the picket and spoke about the impact of the Trump Administration’s revocation of work visas and attempts to deport union members who work at the GE/Haier Appliance Park site and what IUE-CWA is doing to protect workers.

 
IUE-CWA members, retirees, and supporters participated in the Lynn, Mass., May Day celebration.

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UPTE-CWA

On May 1, 20,000 healthcare, research, and technical workers across the University of California (UC) system, represented by UPTE-CWA Local 9119, walked off the job in a one-day Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike protesting UC’s unlawful, unilateral system-wide hiring freeze.

Members of key public sector unions and elected officials joined hundreds of striking UC workers in Sacramento for a solidarity march through the California State Capitol.

“Our message to UC’s administration and the new incoming president is simple,” said UPTE-CWA Local 9119 President Dan Russell. “We won’t stand by while patients wait longer, students suffer, and research slows. Now is not the time for California to cower to threats of funding cuts. If UC doesn’t reverse course, workers are prepared to do whatever it takes to ensure UC ends the hiring freeze and invests in the staffing necessary for Californians to receive the highest quality of healthcare, research, and educational support.”

 
Members of UPTE-CWA Local 9119, with labor and community supporters, went on a one-day strike on May 1 against the University of California administration, protesting unfair labor practices.

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This post originally appeared on cwa-union.org.