Local 7032
CWA
Delegates Approve 'Ready for the Future' Plan for Bold Workplace
and Political Strategies
July 11, 2006
Las Vegas, Nevada -- Delegates to the Communications Workers of America convention
approved a bold strategic plan – Ready for the Future – that includes
the creation of a new Strategic Industry Fund to support campaigns to change
employers' anti-union behavior and changes in public policy on issues such
as trade and health care that affect working families.
The Strategic Industry Fund will be earmarked for different industries based
on the percentage of member contributions, at the rate of about $24 million
per year.
CWA President Larry Cohen said, "offense, not defense, is the point of
the Strategic Industry Fund." The fund "will give us the means for
major, long-range action programs to change the terms of engagement with our
employers and reshape the economic landscape in which we bargain. This proposal
lets us take charge of our future and build our bargaining power in every major
industry group," he said.
CWA began its "Ready for the Future" process more than 10 months
ago when delegates to the 2005 convention called for a union-wide conversation
on ideas for structure, strategies and activities to meet the challenges of
the present and future. CWA members used an interactive website to post comments,
respond to proposals and discuss changes, and thousands of CWA members participated
in this process. In membership and district meetings, members and local leaders
assessed proposals and offered recommendations for change.
Numerous outside observers – academics, writers, historians and others,
including those from other unions – have called CWA's process unique
in the labor movement in terms of the opportunity for involvement and democratic
action by every member. The Ready for the Future process reflected the union's
traditions of full democratic participation and emphasis on grassroots involvement
and action.
Based on this creative and bottom-to-top examination, the CWA Executive Board
proposed a strategic plan to carry CWA well into the future. Those proposals
were presented to convention delegates this year who voted strong approval
for the measures.
Ready for the Future includes a ten-point strategic plan to strengthen bargaining
power, expand and increase funding for effective political action, tap the
potential of as many as 800,000 retirees through a retiree activist network,
and expand organizing beyond the current 10 percent commitment in place prior
to the 2006 convention.
A key provision creates a trained and motivated army of stewards and activists,
50,000 strong, who will be ready to defend workers' workplace interests and
join with activists in other unions to build a movement for fundamental change.
Delegates also directed their union to develop a movement-leading political
program that will establish an army of activists for strategic political fights
in communities, states and on the national level, and will increase resources
for political campaigns through stepped-up, voluntary contributions from members.
The creation of the Strategic Industry Fund is an innovative plan to use CWA
resources to build bargaining power and the union's overall strength.
The Strategic Industry Fund will be financed by existing member contributions to CWA's Members Relief Fund, beginning in September 2006. The Members Relief Fund, established in 1990, currently has a balance of about $380 million. The Members Relief Fund – which is used to provide weekly strike benefits to members in an authorized strike – will continue to grow through investment income.
