Scott Stephens, former Plain Dealer reporter and past member of the Guild's executive council, writes about CWA's late Seth Rosen in today's Plain Dealer: "Seth Rosen was a union leader, one of the best and the brightest anyone has seen. Seth Rosen was a musician, a first-rate mandolin player an talented songwriter. But in some ways, Seth Rosen was also a preacher, the most powerful spiritual leader I have ever met. His pulpits were crowded union halls, snow-covered streets and smoky barroom stages. From these ungodly venues, Seth's fierce sense of fairness and justice converted many a nonbeliever."
The Polish trade union Solidarity has decided not to extend a welcome to U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romeny during his visit to Poland, saying, "Regretfully, we were informed by our friends from the American headquarters of (the) AFL-CIO, which represents more than 12 million employees … that Mitt Romney supported attacks on trade unions and employees’ rights. Solidarity was not involved in organizing Romney’s meeting with (Lech) Wałęsa and did not invite him to visit Poland."
Seth Rosen, CWA's vibrant District 4 vice president who died July 20, is remembered in The Nation magazine by Amy Hanauer, who writes that "one of Seth’s many gifts was that he invariably made you feel your work mattered as much as anything else. He made legions feel that way about their music (he played mandolin and guitar), their activism, their organizing, their lives."
As severe budget cuts jeopardize schools, health care and other critical services, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten told convention delegates in Detroit that, "This new reality—this new normal—demands an entirely new approach to unionism. An approach that is relevant and appropriate to the 21st century. More than ever, we need to act in innovative, creative and new ways—simultaneously refuting our critics, advancing our values, connecting with community and proposing solutions. That’s solution-driven unionism."
There's just a few days left to nominate young women leaders in the social justice movement for the 2012 Edna Award, presented, along with a $10,000 check, by the Berger-Marks Foundation. The award was first given last year, and judges were "blown away" by the quality of the nominees, said Linda Foley, Berger-Marks president and past president of NewsGuild-CWA. For more details, click through to the Berger-Marks Edna Award page. Photo: Foundation leaders with the winner and runners-up at the 2011 ceremony.
A memorial service for Seth Rosen is set for Aug. 4 in Ohio, and a fund to support organizing efforts has been established in honor of the late CWA District 4 vice president. Photo: Rosen with CWA members. Rosen helped create and lead the "Stand Up for Ohio: Good Jobs and Strong Communities" movement.
Linda Hinton, who had served as assistant to the late Seth Rosen in CWA District 4 since 2005, was sworn in Wednesday as the district's new vice president. Rosen, 55, drowned last week while on vacation in North Carolina. Photo: With sadness over the reason for the change in leadership, CWA President Larry Cohen and Hinton embrace after her swearing-in.
Hundreds of California labor activists rallied in San Francisco Tuesday with CWA President Larry Cohen and U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis to send a clear message to Congress and corporations: Bring American jobs home! "It’s not just manufacturing jobs that are outsourced," Cohen told the crowd. "It's all of our jobs, anything they can move, they move. In five years, 500,000 call center jobs were moved out of this country." Photos: Cohen, and crowd at Tuesday's rally.
After more than a year of negotiating with no end in sight, CWA and the IBEW have requested federal mediation services in the unions' talks with Verizon. The talks involve about 35,000 CWA members and 10,000 IBEW members in New England and the mid-Atlantic region.
Business is booming at Caterpillar, as the New York Times headline states, but that isn't stopping the company from demanding a six-year wage freeze, far higher health care contributions from employees and a pension freeze for most of the 780 production workers at its Joliet, Ill., factory, where a strike began three months ago. Greenhouse reports that the company's profits came to $39,000 per employee last year, money that is going directly into big raises for Caterpillar executives.
