Delegates Adopt Ready for the Future ?Phase 3?

CWA delegates move forward on Ready for the Future Phase 3.

• Biennial conventions
• Merger of Districts 2 and 13
• Merger of Communications and Technologies and Telecommunications Sectors
• Vote on the Executive Board for the Canadian Director

CWA convention delegates again voted to move CWA forward and adopted several changes that will support every level of CWA in building our union. That action continues the work of the Ready for the Future plan that CWA began in 2005.

Delegates, in a roll call vote, approved a biennial schedule for CWA conventions that will take effect in 2011, allowing CWA to put more resources into frontline representation. Delegates voted new provisions to handle appeals, elections and other issues, ensuring that CWA will remain the most democratic union in the labor movement.

The convention approved the merger of District 2 and 13, and effective next year, 50,000 CWAers in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia will be part of District 2-13. Local union members and leaders in both districts had strongly endorsed the merger, along with vice presidents Ron Collins, D2, and Ed Mooney, D13.

"I am proud of everyone in District 13 for making this merger possible. Local leaders did not hesitate in taking action they knew would better serve members' and our union's best interest," Mooney said.

"Members in District 2 and 13 have shown that they are ready for the future by embracing change when it is necessary to strengthen our union. All sides of the CWA triangle are strengthened by our taking this step to unite our two districts," Collins said.

Delegates also voted to combine the Communications and Technologies and the Telecommunications offices, creating a new office with a single vice president. Both C and T Vice President Ralph Maly and Telecommunications Vice President Jimmy Gurganus supported the merger.

Maly pointed out that the two sectors already had been working together closely for several years, "a real plus for our members." Gurganus said the merger would make the sector even stronger and able to build more bargaining power for members.

Delegates also voted to give CWA's Canadian director a vote on the Executive Board. The director of CWA/SCA, currently Arnold Amber, was added to the executive board in 2008.