Help Keep Pittsburgh Press Union Strong!

With a three-year strike barely in the rearview mirror, CWA journalists at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette were happy to welcome new owners to town, avoiding the previous owners' spiteful closure. Hopes of a brighter future dimmed, however, when the Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism publicly alluded to job losses and remained silent on union rights. More than 1,300 signatures on a petition demanding good-faith bargaining and strong staffing have started to turn the tide, but your support can help tip the balance in favor of these NewsGuild-CWA journalists!

Please sign this petition to fight for union journalism and demand good-faith bargaining for your union siblings in Pittsburgh.

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Magic: The Gathering Arena Developers Launch Union Drive with CWA 

On Monday, nearly 100 game developers behind Magic: The Gathering Arena, a popular digital adaptation published and developed by Wizards of the Coast, formed a union with CWA, expanding the growing union efforts in the tabletop roleplaying games industry.

In a letter sent to management, workers outlined several issues that they hope to address as a union, including protections over layoffs and remote work, guardrails over generative AI usage and mandatory crunch time, and increased transparency and equity in the workplace. They’ve also called on the company to voluntarily recognize their union by International Workers’ Day (May 1).

Click here to sign UWOTC-CWA’s petition to Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro.

For more union updates, visit unitedwizardsofthecoast.com/ or follow UWOTC-CWA on Bluesky and Facebook.

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Last Day to Apply for the Joe Beirne Scholarship!

The deadline for the CWA Joe Beirne Scholarship Program is TODAY, April 30, at 11:59 pm ET.

CWA members, including their spouses, children, and grandchildren (as well as dependents of laid-off, retired, or deceased members), may apply. Visit the website for additional information and how to apply.

The CWA Joe Beirne Foundation was established in October 1974 by the CWA Executive Board to honor the name and memory of the founding president of CWA, who served for more than 30 years.

Last week, AT&T Orange Mobility workers reached a tentative agreement for a new contract. If ratified, the new four-year contract will cover 9,000 technicians, customer service representatives, and retail workers across 36 states and the District of Columbia.

Throughout negotiations, workers mobilized to build power and support their bargaining committee, resulting in a tentative contract that sets new standards for members in their respective fields. Highlights of the tentative agreement include a top-tier healthcare benefits package, a wage increase of five percent in the first year, annual wage increases throughout the life of the contract, job security, and other gains.

“This strong tentative agreement is a reflection of our members' dedication to holding AT&T accountable for their corporate greed,” said CWA District 1 Vice President Dennis Trainor. “Whether handing out flyers at AT&T-sponsored March Madness basketball games or holding informational picket signs at busy intersections, CWA members mobilized for higher wages, stronger benefits, job security, and more. This is a tentative agreement that reflects their fight and delivers for both AT&T workers and the customers they serve.”

A ratification vote will be held once members have had an opportunity to review the details of the agreement. A summary of the tentative agreement is available at CWA.org/OrangeTAHighlights.

Last week, members of CWA Canada’s National Representative Council met in Ottawa for their annual conference and to celebrate 20 years of international solidarity as part of the CWA family.

Members honored two media trailblazers. Mary-Ann Barr is a reporter-editor in Alberta and serves as the Secretary of the CWA Canada National Committee. Steven Llewellyn is a reporter in New Brunswick and serves as the Director of the National CWA Canada Executive Committee. Both leaders received the prestigious CWA Canada Award of Excellence.

Click here to learn more about CWA Canada’s history and Autonomy Agreement that recognizes Canada’s distinct labor laws and culture while maintaining valuable bonds of international solidarity within the CWA family.

On Monday, workers at Hachette Book Group (HBG), the third-largest trade publisher in the United States, announced their intent to form a union with the Washington-Baltimore NewsGuild (TNG-CWA Local 32035). The move is an effort to ensure better benefits, protections, and rights for workers, as well as increased equity, transparency, and agency in the workplace. Workers with the Hachette Workers Coalition have signed hundreds of cards in support of forming a union at HBG.

With approximately 600 members, the Hachette Workers Coalition (HWC-CWA) will be the largest union in trade publisher history, inclusive of workers in every physical office and remote location, across the United States and Canada. The HWC-CWA demands a livable wage regardless of work location, better working conditions, a cap on workload hours, a clear and neutral grievance process, AI protections, follow-through on DEI policies, and more.

This campaign is a major strategic push for The NewsGuild-CWA and could spell more powerful contracts for future members in the industry.

“Both across the publishing industry and especially at HBG, we have felt the crush of increased workloads while our compensation, career growth, and opportunities have stagnated,” said HBG designer Andy Wang. “Instead, leadership has continued to spin the revolving door with callously handled layoffs and hushed dismissals, and has regressed on common-sense policies such as the right to work from home or to even have your own desk! As united members of the Hachette Workers Coalition, we reject our current industry model, which actively undermines the long-term development of employees’ skills and their ability to support themselves and their families in pursuit of unsustainable profit-driven growth.”

Click here to read more about the Hachette Workers Coalition.

The following statement is from CWA President Claude Cummings Jr.:

Sixty-one years ago, working people in the South first tasted the promise of a truly representative democracy for all peoples when we achieved the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This week, the Supreme Court has set the righteous cause of democracy back with the gutting of the VRA’s enforcement powers and a perversion of the very notion of representative democracy by giving politicians the power to choose their voters based on party affiliation.

For working people—and Black and minority workers in particular—our voice in our democracy is inseparable from our ability to fight for fair wages, safe workplaces, and dignity on the job. Our union has always understood that economic rights and civil rights are two sides of the same coin. The Court’s decision to weaken the voting power of Black communities is an attack on working people everywhere.

We are a fighting union, and we will not sit back and watch politicians and their billionaire backers gerrymander working people out of their voting rights. We will make our voices heard at the ballot box and demand the restoration of our voting rights.

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About CWA: The Communications Workers of America represents working people in telecommunications, customer service, media, airlines, health care, public service and education, manufacturing, tech, and other fields.

cwa-union.org @cwaunion

Last week, workers at Common Defense won their union with CWA through voluntary recognition. Management at the national, progressive veterans advocacy organization recognized the employees’ new union after months of discussions with CWA and the worker-led Organizing Committee. According to their website, Common Defense is a grassroots, veteran-led organization empowering former members of the U.S. military to stand up for their communities, and it serves as a home for veterans to organize and champion equitable and representative democracy.

Eighty-six percent of workers, many of whom are veterans themselves, delivered their union mission statement and request for recognition in August 2025. CWA Local 6215 Vice Presidents David Marshall and Alex Doblado, both members of Common Defense, and CWA District 6 staff helped support the prospective members throughout the process.

Congratulations to the new members of CWA at Common Defense!

On April 11, CWA members at the University of Kentucky (UK), represented by the United Campus Workers-CWA (UCW-CWA Local 3821), joined students and local political allies at a rally to demand that University of Kentucky President Eli Capilouto abandon plans to outsource facilities jobs and reassign hundreds of workers to the Beyond Blue LLC through the university’s Integrate Blue initiative.

Megan Herdt, a counseling psychology faculty member in the College of Education and UCW-CWA member, said in reaction to these announcements, “These are huge changes that are being proposed that could affect an entire generation of UK workers. We need more voices to be included in these discussions and plans for things to move forward in a healthy way that protects workers, students, and the Commonwealth.”

UK is also looking to outsource custodial, groundskeeping, and maintenance jobs under a 30-year contract through its Enterprise Services Partnership initiative.

UCW-CWA member RK Carter, a custodial worker on campus, spoke out against these changes: “The university keeps saying this word, ‘efficiency.’ We are already skeleton crews doing our best to keep the campus safe and clean. How much more efficient can we get? The truth is that when you privatize, you see efficiency by cutting wages and cutting jobs.”

UK UCW-CWA members need your help! Click here to sign their petition.

ITHACA, N.Y. – Yesterday, clinicians and support staff at Family and Children’s Service of Ithaca (F&CS) overwhelmingly voted to authorize their union in an election overseen by the National Labor Relations Board. The workers are represented by the Communications Workers of America (CWA), joining a movement of healthcare workers across Tompkins County who are choosing union representation with CWA.

Workers across healthcare industries are organizing for the right to negotiate union contracts that create working conditions and organizational cultures essential to both client and worker well-being. Staff at mental health clinics are tasked with meeting the increasing demand for mental health services in our communities. At F&CS, workers have seen an increase in the number of clients and increasing acuity of many clients’ concerns. Without adequate support and protections, these growing demands can put F&CS workers at risk of burnout and compassion fatigue, as well as reduce quality of care. Union members at Family and Children’s Service look forward to negotiating a union contract that ensures sustainable and dignified working conditions as they work to meet the needs of the community.

“I’m very proud of the hard work we have done in organizing our union, and I’m excited to move forward with bargaining our first contract as equal partners with management,” said Calyx Steiner, a clinician with Family and Children’s Service of Ithaca. “I believe we will be able to develop innovative policies together, which will offer us respectful, dignified, and trauma-informed working conditions. For me, organizing is a powerful and liberatory act which brings me hope, joy, and a sense of community in our current political landscape.”

“Unionizing means there will be a formal process for workers’ needs and perspectives to be represented in the policies that affect our working conditions,” said Naomi Sommers Bewley, a clinician with Family and Children’s Service of Ithaca. “There’s a mutual benefit towards long-term sustainability for workers and the organization, allowing us to continue filling a crucial role in mental health services for our community.”

Represented workers include clinicians, nurses, intake clinicians, behavioral health care coordinators, facilities workers, outreach workers, and clinic administrative coordinators. The workers provide mental health care and social services to the Ithaca community.

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About CWA: The Communications Workers of America represents working people in telecommunications, customer service, media, airlines, health care, public service and education, manufacturing, tech, and other fields.

cwa-union.org @cwaunion

Workers behind Magic: The Gathering Arena seek voluntary recognition by Hasbro subsidiary after a supermajority signed cards in favor of union representation 

Renton, Wash. – Ahead of International Workers’ Day, a supermajority of game developers behind the popular digital game Magic: The Gathering Arena has announced their intent to form a union with the Communications Workers of America (CWA), also marking the first unionization effort at Hasbro subsidiary Wizards of the Coast, a popular digital and tabletop studio based in Washington State, most known for developing Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons.

“At Wizards, we’re organizing for a say in layoffs, accountability that runs up and down the chain, and a living wage that actually lets people build a life. I’m hopeful about what we can build here and being clear-eyed about why it’s necessary,” said UWOTC-CWA member Damien Wilson, a Senior Software Development Engineer for Magic: The Gathering Arena. “This isn’t just something that affects Wizards of the Coast; it’s how most American workplaces are set up: investor profit above all, even if it hurts those behind the products we all know and love. Unions are the missing counterweight to protect our craft.”

In a letter sent to management this morning, workers have outlined several issues that they hope to address as a union, including protections over layoffs and remote work, guardrails over generative AI usage and mandatory crunch time, and increased transparency and equity in the workplace. “We know the workers who make the game can and should be treated better, and our aim is to show that to the world through our union efforts,” the letter reads. 

Workers have given management until the end of the week to voluntarily recognize their union. To ensure a timely certification process, workers have also filed an election petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

“To me, a union means community. It means recognizing that we're all in this together and making sure we all have a voice. It means that when we succeed, we succeed together,” said UWOTC-CWA member Xib Vaine, a Producer for Magic: The Gathering Arena. “It means that we all believe a better world is possible, and we are all going to work together to bring it forth so we can all live and work in that better world together.”

“Since moving to the United States after spending most of my working life in other countries, at-will employment has always felt like a dark cloud hanging over me and my colleagues in the industry,” said UWOTC-CWA member Neil White, a Senior Software Development Engineer for Magic: The Gathering Arena. “Unions are the tool we have as workers to push back on our employers to demand fair treatment. They’re how we protect against choices that impact our coworkers and friends and the product we all work on and love.”

This announcement expands the growing union efforts specifically in the tabletop roleplaying games industry. In June 2023, CWA-represented workers at popular tabletop publisher Paizo (United Paizo Workers-CWA Local 7800) ratified their first contract with their employer, securing wage increases, expanded benefits, and enhanced protections for workers. Over 4,000 workers have organized across the gaming industry to expand game worker solidarity as part of CWA’s Campaign to Organize Digital Employees (CODE-CWA), spanning from AAA studios in Microsoft’s gaming division to indie publishers like Heart Machine, which voluntarily recognized their union last month.

“Today’s union announcement is a milestone not just for these workers but for the games industry as a whole. Whether someone is designing digital worlds or crafting tabletop experiences, every worker deserves job security, fair compensation, and a seat at the table,” said CWA District 7 Vice President Susie McAllister. “Together, we will ensure that the people who bring these games to life are treated with the dignity and respect that they’ve always deserved. CWA District 7 is honored to stand with these members as they take this historic step toward union representation.”

Workers who either have been affected by the industry’s volatile layoffs or are freelance have also been joining the fight under CWA’s direct-join formation, United Videogame Workers-CWA Local 9433 (UVW-CWA), which officially launched in 2025. UVW-CWA now has nearly 600 members across the United States and Canada and will be hosting their inaugural Game Workers Conference virtually on May 22 and 23.

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About CODE-CWA

The Campaign to Organize Digital Employees (CODE-CWA) is a network of worker-organizers and their staff working every single day to build the voice and power necessary to ensure the future of the tech, game, and digital industries in the United States and Canada. CODE-CWA is a project of the Communications Workers of America, which represents hundreds of thousands of workers throughout tech, media, telecom, and other industries who stand together to fight for justice on the job and in our communities.

cwa-union.org @cwaunion

Highlights of the tentative agreement include an improved benefits package, industry-leading wage increases, and more.

NATIONWIDE – AT&T Orange Mobility workers, represented by the Communications Workers of America (CWA), have reached a tentative agreement for a new contract that covers 9,000 workers across 37 states.

The new proposed four-year contract includes a top-tier healthcare benefits package, a wage increase of 5 percent in the first year, yearly wage increases throughout the life of the contract, job security, and more.

Throughout negotiations, workers mobilized to build power and supported their bargaining committee, resulting in a tentative contract that sets new standards for workers in customer service, retail, technical support, and other positions. On March 19, over 95 percent of AT&T workers covered by the Orange Mobility contract voted to give CWA President Claude Cummings Jr. the authority to call a strike if negotiations between CWA and the telecom company failed to reach a fair agreement.

“This strong tentative agreement is a reflection of our members' dedication to holding AT&T accountable for their corporate greed,” said Dennis Trainor, Vice President, CWA District 1. “Whether handing out flyers at AT&T-sponsored March Madness [basketball] games or holding informational picket signs at busy intersections, CWA members mobilized for higher wages, stronger benefits, job security, and more. This is a tentative agreement that reflects their fight and delivers for both AT&T workers and the customers they serve.”

Details of the tentative agreement contract are being provided to Local leadership, and a ratification vote will be held once the members have an opportunity to review the details of the agreement.

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