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On June 18, over 3,000 CWA members, retirees, elected officials, local leaders, and allies rallied in Trenton at the New Jersey State House Annex, calling on state leaders to confront New Jersey’s healthcare affordability crisis. Members took their case directly to legislators, calling on state leaders to lower costs without shifting more of the burden onto workers, retirees, local governments, and families. Members have been visiting the capitol over the last several months to speak to lawmakers and to provide testimony on the healthcare issue. They have also made calls to legislators and spoken to reporters to share personal stories of the impacts of untenable healthcare costs.

“When public workers stand up and fight for affordable healthcare, we’re not only fighting for ourselves,” said CWA District 1 Assistant to the Vice President Bill Gallagher from the podium. “We are part of a larger movement, a movement to change the healthcare system that puts profits over people. A movement that says ‘affordability matters’.”

Ralliers called on state leaders to adopt practical reforms, including stronger oversight of healthcare vendors and carriers, real transparency in pricing and drug costs, Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM) reform and competitive bidding, and claims audits to root out waste. Above all, members called for fixing the State Health Benefits Plan so it stays strong, affordable, and sustainable for the workers and retirees who depend on it.

In an op-ed run at news site nj.com on June 17, CWA District 1 Vice President Dennis Trainor wrote, “The message is simple, and other states have already written the proof: New Jersey can have quality, stable, affordable public health coverage and a sustainable bottom line.”

Click here for more details about the rally.

On Monday, June 15, members of NABET-CWA working at ABC-TV ratified a new Master Agreement. The new contract will go into effect on October 1 and run through March 31, 2031.

The new ratified Master Agreement covers broadcast technicians, newswriters, producers, and desk assistants at various company network and TV station operations in New York; Chicago; Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles; and San Francisco.

The new contract guarantees wage increases of 3%, 4%, 3%, and 3.75% over the next 4 years, the highest wage increases in a 4-year contract in more than 30 years for these members. The contract also includes improvements to how travel time is calculated, new rules to stop stagnation on the pay escalator, and guardrails regarding how generative artificial intelligence (AI) will affect members. This is a particularly important subject right now for our graphic artists and newswriters, but it will protect all of our members moving forward as AI usage becomes more widespread.

“NABET-CWA and the ABC network Locals involved are proud of the many contractual enhancements we’ve achieved in negotiations with ABC-TV,” said NABET-CWA President Charlie Braico. “The upgrades to wages, benefits, and travel provisions will directly improve the lives of our daily hire and full-time staff members significantly. Our union solidarity and determination have proven once again that when we stand strongly together, we win, for members and for workers across the board.”

Last week, AFA-CWA-represented Flight Attendants at Horizon Air voted 99.8% to authorize a strike at the wholly-owned Alaska Air Group regional airline. The vote is the result of seriously delayed bargaining and months of outrageously low economic proposals from Horizon management.

“We have dedicated our lives to Horizon and the communities that we serve,” said Lisa Davis Warren, president of the Horizon chapter of AFA-CWA, representing 650 Horizon Air Flight Attendants. “We are simply asking for the pay, benefits, and improvements we have earned. But Horizon management seems uninterested in resolving this dispute or showing the slightest concern for frontline workers who can’t afford rent or other basic life necessities.”

Their demands include living wage pay increases; increased pay for time at work, including while boarding the plane; better benefits; and work rule improvements.

The right to strike is triggered when the National Mediation Board (NMB) declares that negotiations are deadlocked and releases both parties into a 30-day “cooling off” period leading to a strike deadline.

Last week, in a mail ballot election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), workers at Coforma voted overwhelmingly to join CWA. These workers handle digital engineering and design for government services, including those conducted by the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Internal Revenue Service’s e-filing system.

Workers cited concerns over possible layoffs, especially with the expansion of artificial intelligence, and wanted a say in decision-making, clearer evaluations, and standardized pathways to promotion. To show their determination, workers coordinated a messaging campaign to send thanks and words of encouragement to a coworker who faced disciplinary action after voicing support for the union effort in a department meeting. The union has filed an unfair labor practice suit with the NLRB.

Many workers also signed a statement, delivered to the CEO, with a demand for recognition and a “vote yes” pledge before mail voting began.

“Our organizing committee worked hard having conversations with coworkers, listening to their concerns, and running a strong campaign,” said Principal Design Researcher Julie Pedtke. “I’m proud to be part of a growing labor movement at this inflection point for the tech industry, modeling more accountable and inclusive ways of working and showing others what’s possible.“

Congratulations to these new CWA members. They will now join CWA Local 1103.

Minnesota trade unionists active in worker assemblies are among the 15 people indicted by the federal government today, as part of a sweeping crackdown on organizing in opposition to the ICE and Border Patrol since December 2025. Among a slew of other allegations, the indictment cited some of the individuals’ participation in assemblies of trade unionists and other workers held at the United Labor Centre in Minneapolis as evidence that the activists participated in a criminal conspiracy.

Experiments with a shorter workweek have shown that working fewer hours improves worker well-being and productivity. But we can’t expect employers to implement this transformative change of their own volition.

Acting secretary Keith Sonderling threatens to withhold administrative funds from states for first time in history

Keith Sonderling sent letters to 53 states and US territories demanding action to “combat waste, fraud, and abuse” within the unemployment insurance program, threatening to withhold administrative funds from states for the first time in history.

“We are officially putting governors on notice,” said the acting US secretary of labor. “The American people will no longer tolerate the blatant waste, fraud, and abuse of their hard-earned tax dollars – no state should allow it either. If states allow it, they will suffer the consequences. This department is no longer afraid to use every lever available to ensure taxpayer money is protected.”

The agency did not provide data on fraud or alleged fraud in unemployment systems, but highlighted three Democrat-led states – California, New York and Illinois – and made claims about each.

They say California owes $20bn to the federal government for a loan during the Covid-19 pandemic. California has struggled paying off the loan, as they did with a similar federal loan received during the 2008 economic recession, due to the current set-up of how employers are taxed to fund unemployment. The unemployment payroll tax system in California has been unchanged since 1984 at a taxable wage ceiling of $7,000 on a worker’s wages and maximum tax rate of 5.4%, leaving the state with insufficient funds to cover its unemployment reserve while legislators on both sides of the political aisle have been working to try to resolve the issue.

The Department of Labor also claimed that New York loses an estimated $2m a day in unemployment insurance fraud and improper payments, but did not differentiate between the two. They also cited that Illinois had improper payments of $320m, at a rate of 14%.

Improper payments are not fraud, rather are most often cited as due to antiquated technology, with an estimated improper payment rate of 14.9% across the US.

While New York, California and Illinois have high improper payment rates compared with the rest of the US, several Republican states also have leading improper payment rates. Florida is reporting a 36.43% improper payment rate, more than double the rate in California at 16.85%, based on data from 2021 to 2024.

“Fraud is still a problem and it hasn’t gone away since the start of the pandemic but this press release is part of the problem, why the fraud isn’t going away,” Michele Evermore, senior fellow at the National Academy of Social Insurance, told the Guardian.

She noted that states should be able to seek help from the US Department of Labor instead of being blamed solely for the issue – with threats.

“No state wants to pay fraudulent benefits to criminal actors,” she added. “It should be an all of government, all of society response, instead of calling out governors they have a political beef with. It’s not the right way to soberly and stoically deal with a problem that everybody faces.”

Sonderling appeared on Fox News on Wednesday morning to discuss the letters.

“I will essentially cut off the states’ administrative funds and then they won’t be able to administer this unemployment insurance due to the fraud,” said Sonderling, who then claimed Democratic governors are the states with the highest fraud, without citing any evidence or data to substantiate the claim.

In May 2025, the Department of Labor sent letters to state unemployment agencies requiring them to return any unspent funds allocated in the American Rescue Plan Act (Arpa), a move criticized by unemployment experts for the disruption it would cause to states in the midst of modernizing their unemployment systems and efforts to fight fraud.

Estimated fraud during the Covid-19 pandemic in unemployment insurance across the US between April 2020 to May 2023 was between $100bn to $135bn, according to the Government Accountability Office, though the Department of Labor argued the estimate was overstated.