News

All Out Between Now and Election Day

29 Oct, 2024

CWA New Yorkers bus to Philadelphia to doorknock for Harris/Walz

With so much at stake in this year’s election - possibly more than any other election in recent memory - everyone has a role to play, and a need to step up. And CWA District 1 members are doing just that.

Between Labor Day and mid-October, CWA D1 members from locals up and down the Northeast have:

Completed over 2,000 volunteer shifts, including phonebanking, door-knocking, postcard-writing, and more
Reached out to 32,000 voters in critical swing districts in New York, New Jersey, and New England
Knocked on 25,157 doors and canvassed 7,645 voters in New Jersey alone for Congressional candidate Sue Altman
Been part of a massive labor mobilization effort that’s knocked on over 150,000 doors in Pennsylvania
Held two huge Days of Action in Philadelphia along with our CWA District 2-13 family
Made trips from Western NY to Erie, PA nearly every weekend to talk to voters
Held twice-weekly phonebanks for labor strong Congressional candidates in New York

We've had huge canvass operations in New Jersey with hundreds of members turning out to knock on doors, particularly in New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District in what’s shaping up to be one of the key Congressional races in the country.

CWAers in New York have also been hitting the pavement each weekend throughout Brooklyn, Staten Island, the Hudson Valley, Long Island, and Western and Central New York several Congressional and State Legislative candidates.

One of the most hotly contested races is also one that’s the most personal for us: CWA Local 1123 President Chris Ryan is running for the New York State Senate in Syracuse, NY, for a seat that was previously decided by just TEN VOTES. Labor has turned out in force to help send one of our own to the NYS Legislature, with a huge AFL-CIO Labor Walk last weekend and a CWA Day of Action coming up this Saturday, November 2 (click here to join us!)

Check out this campaign video for Chris!

On Saturday, October 26, CWA D1 and CWA D2-13 were joined by hundreds of other union members throughout New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, as well as our own CWA National President Claude Cummings, Jr. for a massive mobilization effort to knock on union member doors in Pennsylvania to get out the vote for Harris/Walz.

CWA National President Claude Cummings, Jr, CWA District 2-13 VP Mike Davis, PA Senator Bob Casey, CWA District 1 VP Dennis Trainor

"We need to understand clearly - and it's laid out in the Project 2025 plan - they are going to do everything they can to destroy unions," said CWA President Claude Cummings, Jr. "That's what they want to do to us. But what has Kamala Harris done? She actually supported the PRO [Protecting the Right to Organize] Act - she was a sponsor of the PRO Act. She saved the pensions of over one million union members. This is the most important election in our lifetime."

"Donald Trump - there's a lot of things we can say about him, but the one thing we all know as unionists is that we have a target on our back if that man gets back in the White House," said CWA District 1 Vice President Dennis Trainor. "We have to do our due diligence from now until Tuesday to talk to everyone [to get out the vote]. Let's do this - let's knock on doors, let's get people out to vote. We get them out, we win this!"

Many people have reached out to express their appreciation for the work of our members - including Vice President Kamala Harris, who took time out from her campaign schedule to record a video thanking all the union members that have worked to get her elected. Watch it here!

Last week, Vice Presidential candidate JD Vance crossed a CWA picket line at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, proving that he cares about workers and union members about as much as his running mate Donald Trump - which is not much. Learn more here about Trump and Vance's track records of not only being scabs, but encouraging the firing of striking workers.