The IUPAT Stands in Solidarity with CWA!
For Immediate Release from the Office of AFL-CIO President, Richard L. Trumka
You will find a list of picket locations here: CWA Picket Locations
I am writing to encourage your support for 1,400 CWA members who have been on strike at Frontier Communications in West Virginia and
Ashburn, Virginia since Sunday, March 4. Like the striking teachers in West Virginia, these CWA members demonstrate the best of the spirit of
our labor movement.
Since Frontier acquired Verizon’s landlines in West Virginia in 2010, the company has cut over 500 middle-class jobs in the state. Informal
complaints to the West Virginia Public Service Commission have risen 69% since between 2014 and 2017.
After ten months of negotiations, these brave and dedicated union members decided that it was time to take their struggle to the picket lines. This
is never a step that any of us take without careful consideration, but Frontier’s job cuts and a lack of investment in infrastructure left the Frontier
workers with little choice but to strike.
This is an important strike for CWA, telecommunications workers, Virginia, West Virginia, and the labor movement. Please encourage your
members to respect the CWA picket lines to the fullest extent possible under your collective bargaining agreements.
Thank you for everything you do to support our vibrant labor movement.
AFL-CIO Pres., Richard L. Trumka
Office of the President