CWA Local 9510

CWA’s New Diversity Plan Reflects Strategies from AFL-CIO Diversity Dialogues
by James Parks, Jul 17, 2007

Delegates to CWA’s convention approved a new diversity plan.

In a historic action to support union efforts to reach out to a new generation of workers—many of whom are women and people of color—the Communications Workers of America’s (CWA’s) convention meeting in Toronto voted yesterday to add four at-large diversity seats to the union’s executive board to give a greater voice to local leaders.

Convention delegates created the four seats, representing four geographic areas of the union, with the goal of having at least three of the new members be people of color and at least two women. At-large diversity board members will have a full voice and vote on all executive board deliberations.

CWA President Larry Cohen says the decision “is not about being politically correct, it’s about doing the right thing.”
Bringing the perspective and ideas of local leaders and activists to the top ranks of the union’s leadership can only make us stronger and wiser and better equipped to take on the tough challenges facing our movement in the 21st century.

Our fight for economic justice in the workplace and social justice in our world is strengthened today by this action to make certain that workers of every description see themselves reflected in our leadership.
The diversity plan is a key component of CWA’s Ready for the Future program, adopted last year to strengthen its grassroots activist base and develop strategic initiatives to take on critical issues in bargaining and public policy.

CWA Secretary-Treasurer Barbara Easterling, who chaired a committee to develop a plan to increase diversity, says the convention’s action is in keeping with the union’s goals and history.
The fight for equity and justice is what organized labor is all about, and CWA has always been on the forefront of positive change. This diversity plan ensures that all will have a strong voice in the workplace, in society and in our union. It’s the right thing to do, the smart thing to do, the only thing to do.

CWA’s action puts into practice one of the strategies promoted by the recent AFL-CIO Diversity Dialogues. Nearly 200 union leaders and activists met July 14 in San Francisco in the fourth and final conference to discuss strategies to increase diversity in the leadership of their unions.

In the first three diversity dialogues held earlier in Atlanta, Philadelphia and Detroit, local and regional union members, elected leaders and activists joined with members of AFL-CIO constituency groups and central local body and state federation leaders for frank discussions about the best ways to ensure that the leadership of the union movement is as diverse as its membership.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney told the participants in San Francisco that diversity is essential to the future of the union movement.
We simply cannot reach our goal of restoring the vitality of our movement as a bargaining power and a political power without the contributions and active participation of all our members. And we can’t restore the voice of working families without significant membership growth. Women and minorities are our greatest hope for achieving that growth, but we’re not presenting a picture of a union movement they want to join.

There’s an old hymn that says, “There is power in the blood,” and we need to adopt that thought and sing, “There is power in diversity.”