CWA Presidential Candidates Forum
Our Local CWA 7250 recently partnered with several other CWA Locals to host a historic CWA Presidential Candidates Forum, featuring all of the announced candidates for the International union's top office: Claude Cummings, Jr (Vice-President of District 6), Ed Mooney (Vice President of District 2-13), and Sara Steffens (CWA Secretary-Treasurer) - the forum was hosted by our Local on zoom and filled up quickly with our members and CWA officers and activists from across the country. The CWA T&T National Mobilization Committee helped us out greatly by airing a LIVESTREAM of the forum on their website cwamobilize.com. Secretary-Treasurer Chad Perkins ran the zoom meeting, Exec. Vice-President Kasie Garcia was time keeper, and Local President Kieran Knutson hosted/facilitated.
Initially CWA 7250 had proposed that the forum be sponsored and run by the CWA MN State Council, but only a minority of Locals in the state were interested. We worked with the Minnesota Locals that supported the idea, 7203, 7270, and 7304 - to get the Forum going and all three candidates quickly signed on. We soon had more Locals signed on as sponsors: 7050 (AZ/NM), 7110 (IA), 7500 (ND/SD), and the Guild/CWA 39521-Freelancers Unit - with several others around the country showing interest. At least 300 viewers watched the Forum live.
Each of the candidates were able to give a short introduction, a longer stump speech, and closing remarks - but the heart of the event turned out to be the separate Question and Answer sessions where each candidate got questions from members of the sponsoring Locals (including each of our AVPs areas: Ann Jensen for DTV, Michelle Richardson for the AT&T Call Center, Larry Thompson for Retail, and Sean McCawley for the Techs).
The questions ranged from lack of a Work from Home strategy, to fighting racism within the union, why DTV was cut up into multiple contracts, organizing the non-union "Authorized Retailers", the role of smaller Locals within the CWA, and much much more. We have received lots of thanks from across the union for helping make this Forum happen - we are grateful for everyone who helped out and participated. Our goal was to make sure rank & file workers got to hear directly from the candidates about their history, vision, and plans - and to press the candidates on the issues important to workers - we think this was a successful start towards that end.
To watch the full Candidates forum go to: https://cwamobilize.com/2023/05/31/cwa-national-presidential-candidatesforum/
