CWA-PHEW Members Commit to Being the “PHEW for the Many” at Annual Conference

Last month, over 150 of CWA’s Public, Healthcare and Education Workers (CWA-PHEW) members and retirees attended a conference in Denver, Colo., hosted by CWA-PHEW Vice President Margaret Cook. The theme for the conference was “PHEW for the Many.”

CWA President Claude Cummings Jr. lauded the work CWA-PHEW has done to protect worker rights across the country. “As union members, we have all answered the call to protect not just one another but the working class as a whole. But you here have taken that a step further. You have taken on the incredible responsibility of safeguarding our public institutions, our government offices, our institutions of higher education, and the well-being of strangers. For that, I salute each of you.”

CWA-PHEW Vice President Cook set everyone’s sights on the future, saying, “There is a lot of fighting coming our way, and we must get ready and organized for it. And I believe—no, I know—that the best way to do that isn’t for us to turn inward, isn’t for us to close ranks, not for us to stick to what we know and who we’ve already got.

“No, PHEW, the way we’re going to win those fights is by getting together with the many and for the many. Organizing new members, mobilizing the unmobilized for stronger contracts, getting out the vote and building our political power, building coalitions to take action to defend our public services, expand our public services, and transform them for the better.”

Several members of CWA’s Executive Committee and sector leaders took part in the conference, including CWA District 3 Vice President Richard Honeycutt, CWA District 4 Vice President Linda L. Hinton, CWA District 6 Vice President Derrick Osobase, CWA District 7 Vice President Susie McAllister, CWA District 9 Vice President Frank Arce, NewsGuild-CWA President Jon Schleuss, CWA Retired Members Council President (RMC) Gwen Parker, and CWA-PHEW Sector RMC President Lisa Kermish.

Conference workshops included ongoing class war, the attacks on higher education and the public sector, and winning strategies for collective bargaining.

 
CWA Public, Healthcare and Education Workers (PHEW) Vice President Margaret Cook hosted the CWA-PHEW conference in Denver, Colo.

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This post originally appeared on cwa-union.org.