​ CWA Heads Up Massive Rallies in New York to Say: STOP THE CUTS!

More than 10,000 people packed the streets of Lower Manhattan on March 15, representing unions, community groups, healthcare organizations, and more, coming together to tell Congress and the White House in a strong, unified voice: stop the cuts, and stop the attacks on workers!

Over the past several weeks we’ve been facing a growing attack on workers’ rights. Tens of thousands of workers have been laid off and Washington, at the direction of billionaires trying to enrich themselves, is moving forward with devastating proposals to cut $2 trillion in funding for services and programs that working families rely on. Unelected billionaires like Elon Musk have been given free rein to shut down services and force layoffs for their own gains.

But what do we do when we’re under attack? We band together, organize, mobilize, and stand up and fight back!

CWA District 1 helped organize and lead the massive march that included a “Die-In” outside of the New York Stock Exchange to demonstrate the catastrophic impact of cuts to jobs, federal funding, and vital social services under consideration.

"We are living in a critical moment. Slashing funding for public services, laying off thousands of workers at previously unimaginable rates, threatening our healthcare and retirement, sweeping declarations nulling collective bargaining agreements—make no mistake: these are direct and wholesale attacks on America’s working people by a billionaire class and billionaire-funded politicians who want to hoard both wealth and power,” said CWA District 1 Vice President Dennis Trainor. “And we will not stand by and watch it happen! The need to act has never been greater; the threat to our jobs, livelihoods, families, union movement has never been greater. But I’ve also never been prouder to be a part of this great labor movement and in this fight alongside our sisters, brothers, siblings throughout the country standing together.”

Also on March 15, CWA Local 1103 members and retirees joined a partner Stop the Cuts rally in Tarrytown, NY along with hundreds of other union members, workers, and community members. The rally’s message was directed at Rep. Mike Lawler, who recently voted to move forward with a government spending bill that would bring catastrophic cuts to vital social services that working families rely on to fund massive giveaways to billionaires and corporations. Both rallies got huge amounts of media coverage, including the Tarrytown rally featured on the Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC.