Category: CWA

The Communications Workers of America (CWA) union released the following statement from CWA President Claude Cummings Jr. and CWA Public, Healthcare and Education Workers Vice President Margaret Cook:

On Monday, the Trump Administration and Secretary of Education Linda McMahon resumed its fanatical campaign to mold America’s higher education system into its extreme ideological vision. The so-called “National Call to Action to University Presidents and Governing Boards” is an attempt to bring back its extreme Higher Ed Compact, which campus workers and courageous higher ed leaders from across the country resisted and ultimately defeated last year.

Though some of the most severe elements of Compact 1.0 have been revised, this second version rehashes many of Trump’s grievances and mischaracterizations of our universities and the people who teach, work, and study there. Compact 2.0 may be disguised as concern for free expression, safety, affordability, and accessibility, but working people are not fooled by this fig leaf. This Administration has slashed funding for research, viciously repressed free expression and assembly, attacked student diversity, and repeatedly pursued punitive litigation against universities that resist its agenda.

What they want is to destroy higher education in America by attacking its faculty, staff, students, and institutions. 

No doubt there are real challenges with the higher education system in this country, from the rising price of tuition the Trump Administration will not help alleviate to the unregulated proliferation of AI the Trump Administration supports to the existential cuts to research and discovery the Trump Administration itself has made. Compact 2.0 does nothing to address these challenges.

Real change will come from the participation of the people who make our campuses work and run and the people who they serve; it will not come from threats nor from misleading claims and misinformation. Our union and our allies must mobilize to stop Compact 2.0 just as we helped stop Compact 1.0 and continue to push a program that defends our higher education system from these attacks, even as we seek to transform and expand it in support of our students, public education, discovery, and democracy.

###

About CWA: The Communications Workers of America represents working people in telecommunications, customer service, media, airlines, health care, public service and education, manufacturing, tech, and other fields.

cwa-union.org @cwaunion

Press Contact

CWA Communications

(202) 434-1168

comms@cwa-union.org

Support AFA-CWA’s Kaela Berg for Congress

Kaela Berg is an AFA-CWA union Flight Attendant and state representative running to represent Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District! Please join CWAers across the country to help turn out the vote ahead of Kaela’s primary election in mid-August.

In the Minnesota State House, she worked to fully fund Minnesota’s schools, prevent gun violence, protect health care, and end union busting.

Now, she wants to take that fight to Washington to lower the cost of groceries, healthcare, and housing. She believes the wealthiest must pay their fair share, that healthcare access should be protected, and that we must strengthen our education system.

Join us on Thursday, August 6, at 7pm ET/6pm CT/5pm MT/4pm PT for a virtual phone bank. Register here: CWA.org/Kaela.

~~~

Attend the CWA Human Rights Conference!

From August 16‒19, join the Human Rights Committee in Atlanta, Ga., for its annual conference. Guests include President of the Service Employees International Union-United Service Workers West (SEIU-USWW) David Huerta; politician, author, and activist Stacey Abrams; Tennessee State Representative Justin J. Pearson; Georgia Congresswoman Nikema Williams; AFL-CIO Director of Civil, Human and Women’s Rights Alex Rias, and many others.

Online registration has closed but you can still register at the event!

Contact Mikeya Jones for help booking accommodations.

~~~

Tell Congress to Protect Workers From Dangerous Heat

Extreme heat has engulfed the nation, with cities coast-to-coast breaking all-time heat records this summer. But while workers continue to face dangerous and potentially deadly working conditions, anti-worker leaders in Congress are quietly attempting to stop any heat safety protection laws from being passed, now or in the future.

H.R. 6213, the misnamed Heat Workforce Standards Act, would prohibit the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) from creating or enforcing any national heat safety law.

Tell Congress to protect workers from heat—and not block heat safety protections. Dial 844-937-2517 or fill out the form on this page to make a call.

Visit aflcio.org/heat to find resources on how to protect yourself and your co-workers from extreme temperatures.

NewsGuild of New York-represented staff (TNG-CWA Local 31003) at ProPublica have won a first contract with the nonprofit investigative newsroom in a deal that gives staff up to 24% raises over the life of the agreement, mandates transparency around the use of AI, protects hybrid work, offers significant healthcare savings, and more.

Last week, members of the ProPublica Guild-CWA, which represents more than 150 reporters, video journalists, development professionals, copy editors, and other staff, overwhelmingly voted to ratify their four-year contract.

“This contract is a major step forward for our members,” said Agnel Philip, a data reporter and unit chair of the ProPublica Guild-CWA. “What we won is a testament to our hard work and shows what we can achieve when we stand together.”

Click here to read more about the first contract reached by ProPublica Guild-CWA members.

Congratulations to our ProPublica Guild-CWA members on their victory!

Last week, after three years locked in a union certification battle with TV station operator Nexstar Media Group, a federal appeals court sided with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), ordering the company to recognize and bargain with NABET-CWA Local 51022.

The unit, representing broadcast media workers at WROC-8 in Rochester, N.Y., voted on February 15, 2023, to be represented by NABET-CWA. Nexstar raised challenges that delayed the certification but when the NLRB certified the unit, Nexstar refused to recognize the union. The company began litigation that made arguments about alleged supervisors, Board Agent misconduct, and improper influence on the election by a promised reduction of dues rates.

On June 30, 2026, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued its Order and Opinion enforcing the Board’s decision in NLRB v. Nexstar (WROC-TV). The appellate court addressed and dismissed Nexstar’s arguments, including alleged Board agent misconduct.

Members of the bargaining unit hope that Nexstar representatives will learn from this appellate court ruling. The unit has issued a new request to commence bargaining with WROC-8 on a first contract, for which these members have fought for nearly 42 months.

In July, workers at Schneps Media Network voted overwhelmingly in favor of joining the Independent Association of Publishers’ Employees (IAPE-CWA). The union victory marks an important step forward toward better pay and news standards for community papers in the greater New York City area. IAPE is a part of The NewsGuild-CWA Local 1096.

The worker-led organizing campaign lasted for a year and a half, across numerous local N.Y. news offices, despite a concerted anti-union effort from management, including an onslaught of emails, calls, and one-on-one meetings aimed at swaying workers to vote against forming their union. Workers focused on their goals of livable wages, affordable health care, and stronger editorial guardrails.

“IAPE is thrilled with the monumental win of the Schneps Media Union and looks forward to negotiating with the company to create a fair contract that protects worker rights, ensures fair treatment, and guarantees employees are paid what they deserve for the great work that they do,” said IAPE Local President Jodi Green.

Follow the workers on their website, Instagram, Twitter, and Bluesky. A full mission statement and additional information about the Schneps Media Union is available here.

After winning a three-year strike, only to be largely purged from the staff of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette by new owners, Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh (TNG-CWA Local 38061) refused to be beaten. On Monday, they launched the Pittsburgh Progress, a worker- and reader-owned daily news cooperative featuring worker-centered reporting hard to find elsewhere.

The outlet’s mission is to “serve as a source of communication and connection that reflects the needs of working-class people in the region.” True to their ethos, they are working with CWA union co-op members at the Sassafras Collective (CWA Local 7250), who designed their website.

We can support the former strikers today by becoming members of their co-op and subscribing; following their accounts on Bluesky, Facebook, or Instagram; and reading and sharing their work.

If you or your Local would like to discuss directly supporting or investing in the Progress financially, you can contact them at PGHGuild@gmail.com.