Sign Up Today for the Union College Benefit

Going back to school can feel out of reach—the cost, the time, the "Is this even for me?" Your Union College Benefit—powered by Edvance and offered through CWA/NETT—is here to change that.

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"I kept putting it off thinking I was too busy, too old, or it was too good to be true,” said CWA Local 1036 member Janell Bullock. “This benefit changed everything for me. As a working mom, going back to school felt impossible financially. The Union College Benefit made my degree affordable and accessible so I could finally finish what I started."

While working full time, this benefit allowed Janell to earn her master’s degree, 100% online, with reduced tuition.

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After nearly three years of negotiations, CWA Piedmont Airlines passenger service and ramp agents have reached a tentative agreement for a new union contract that covers 7,500 workers across the country. The newly proposed five-year contract includes a signing bonus with yearly wage increases throughout the life of the contract, expanded vacation and overtime accrual, and more.

Negotiations for a new contract began in late 2023 and progressed slowly until early 2026, when the National Mediation Board assigned a federal mediator in response to the company’s failure to negotiate in good faith over wages. Under the Railway Labor Act, which governs labor contracts in the transportation industry, contracts do not expire but rather become “amenable,” and the process to strike is lengthy.

“Throughout this process, CWA members at Piedmont Airlines demonstrated their commitment to improved wages and working conditions by organizing multiple pickets and actions at airports across the country,” said CWA Chief of Staff Sylvia J. Ramos. “This is a tentative agreement that delivers for both Piedmont Airlines workers and the flying public they serve.”

Details of the tentative agreement are being provided to Local leadership, and CWA members will vote on ratification of the agreement once the members have had an opportunity to review the details.

Workers across the tabletop and comics industry notched two big union wins last month.

On June 7, 78 workers at Dark Horse Comics won voluntary recognition of Dark Horse Workers United-CWA, making Dark Horse the largest comic book publisher in the country to form a union! They are joining Image Comics and Seven Seas Entertainment in CWA Local 7901. Workers cited layoffs, hiring freezes, artificial intelligence (AI), and return-to-office mandates as reasons they organized, writing to management that they were "seeking a democratic workplace."

On June 23, Magic: The Gathering Arena workers at Wizards of the Coast won their union election with 83% voting in favor, forming United Wizards of the Coast-CWA (UWOTC-CWA). More than 40,000 players and supporters signed a solidarity letter urging recognition, but the company refused, hiring a union-busting law firm and holding weeks of captive audience meetings. Workers held strong, citing layoff and AI protections, remote work, and sustainable workloads as key issues. They credited the United Paizo Workers' 2021 campaign for inspiring them to organize.

Congratulations to Dark Horse Workers United-CWA and UWOTC-CWA on their wins!

 
Magic: The Gathering Arena workers at Wizards of the Coast (pictured above) have won their union election.

In June, CWA District 1 and NewsGuild of New York (TNG-CWA Local 31003) activists, along with allies from the New York State AFL-CIO, the Writers Guild of America East, SAG-AFTRA, the Directors Guild of America, the Freelancers Union, the Writers Guild of America West, and other unions, scored a major victory in the fight against misuse of artificial intelligence (AI). The New York State Legislature passed a bill requiring news organizations to disclose when AI is used to generate content.

The New York Fundamental Artificial Intelligence Requirements in News Act, or NY FAIR News Act, passed both chambers and is now on its way to N.Y. Governor Hochul’s desk for her signature. The bill, numbered S.8451-B/A.8962-B, was sponsored by Senator Patricia Fahy and Assemblymember Nily Rozic.

CWA District 1 political activists lobbied on the bill during their four lobby days in Albany, N.Y., as part of their district’s legislative agenda. Members of the NewsGuild-CWA pushed for the AI legislation alongside the Writers Guild. CWA members and retirees also participated in a press conference led by Senator Fahy and Assemblymember Rozic at the state capitol.

With intense opposition from several employer associations already underway, CWA and coalition partners plan to send letters to the governor in support of the bill and will ramp up political activity closer to the December signature deadline.

Earlier this month, members of the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) announced their intention to join the Canadian Media Guild (CWA Canada Local 30213). Workers filed with the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) after a supermajority of the staff signed union cards. These workers are based across Canada with their main office in Manitoba.

APTN is a national Indigenous media organization, sharing programming that celebrates the rich diversity of Indigenous Peoples at home and abroad. This year it was nominated for 38 Canadian Screen Awards, including Best National Newscast and Best Comedy Series.

The Canadian Media Guild (CMG) represents 6,000 workers in the Canadian media sector. CMG represents a majority of the workers at APTN and has offered both guidance and resources to assist this newest cadre in their campaign for a voice in their workplace.

“APTN is a national treasure,” said CWA Canada President Carmel Smyth. “It’s the only network in Canada dedicated to telling stories for and by Indigenous people. It has been recognized globally for exposing the poverty and racism Indigenous people face. CWA Canada is proud to represent and support their work.”

In their mission statement, APTN workers stated, “As a community, we believe every employee deserves healthy and safe working conditions, guidance and support from their managers, the trust and independence to do their best work, and most importantly, flexibility to care for their families and communities.

“By coming together, we strengthen our ability to support one another, advocate for our wellbeing, and create a sustainable future for the people who make APTN possible.”

On Monday, workers at the nonprofit organization Wikimedia Foundation, which hosts Wikipedia and sister projects, officially requested voluntary recognition of their union, Wiki Workers United U.S.-CWA (WWU-US/CWA). This request comes from a supermajority of union-eligible workers who have signed union authorization cards.

The announcement follows a similar request for voluntary recognition made by WWU-UK, the United Kingdom branch of WWU, represented by the United Tech and Allied Workers (UTAW), a national branch of the Communication Workers Union (CWU).

Workers are concerned over issues of transparency, trust, and the organization’s future. They are calling on the Foundation to uphold its stated values and its recent public commitments supporting the right to form a union.

Over 1,100 volunteer editors, who help keep Wikipedia functioning, have signed a petition showing their solidarity with the Wikimedia workers and affirming their "willingness to engage in collective action if called upon by WWU, up to and including staging an editorial strike.”

Click here to learn more about WWU-US/CWA workers’ fight for a long-deserved voice.

Washington, D.C. — A new report released today by the Communications Workers of America (CWA) has revealed that Gigapower—the joint venture launched by AT&T and private equity investment giant BlackRock to build fiber broadband networks—appears to be failing to meet its on-time buildout targets, withholding key performance metrics from investors, and facing legal challenges in a $200 million dispute that calls the business model into question more than three years after its launch.

The report, "Gigapower's Flimsy Phase One: Deployment Delays, Missed Targets, and Litigation," analyzes Gigapower's deployments in Arizona, Minnesota, Nevada, and New Mexico through corporate disclosures, municipal public records, litigation documents, and field investigations. It builds on two prior CWA reports that exposed widespread workforce fragmentation and substandard work in the company’s early deployments in Arizona.

The report examines court filings in a lawsuit between Gigapower and its former prime contractor, Tilson Technology Management, in which Gigapower alleged that in Arizona, Tilson failed to deploy broadband to even a single living unit in 2023 against a target of 11,000. This mirrors slow progress across the markets CWA investigated. In Minnesota, the City of Bloomington issued ten separate stop-work orders to Gigapower and its contractors between April and October 2024. In Nevada, the City of Las Vegas issued a notice of default in January 2025, triggering what Gigapower itself described as an "extended pause" that "imperiled Gigapower's entire Las Vegas network." In New Mexico, the City of Albuquerque issued a two-week stop-work order to Gigapower in December 2024, and by November 2025, the company had reached only approximately one-fifth (20%) of its forecasted buildout target in the city.

The report also finds that Gigapower's "lowest bidder" contractor model may be putting workers and communities at risk. Across three different markets, approximately 20% of contractors CWA identified working on Gigapower projects appear to have been unlicensed or unregistered in their respective states. In Bloomington, that figure exceeded 40%. In one especially egregious case, the New Mexico Department of Justice found that Boreworxx Construction LLC—a Gigapower subcontractor that was unlicensed when it began work—illegally filed liens on nearly 200 residential properties in Albuquerque "in an attempt to frighten and manipulate homeowners" and pressure Gigapower’s general contractor, Circet USA, into paying for Boreworxx’s fiber work that allegedly was not completed satisfactorily.

"After more than three years and billions of dollars in commitments, AT&T and BlackRock have not proven their Gigapower thesis. Highly trained, union broadband technicians have been sounding the alarm about this race-to-the-bottom workforce model from the beginning. Now city officials, residents, and contractors are up in arms, too. Investors deserve transparency, communities deserve safe and reliable deployment, and workers deserve good union jobs. Gigapower is delivering none of the above," said Fernando Roman, CWA District 7 Campaign Lead and a broadband technician of 25 years.

The report further documents that, despite repeated assurances from AT&T CEO John Stankey that the company would disclose Gigapower-specific penetration rates, revenue figures, and connection numbers to investors, AT&T continues to report Gigapower's metrics only on a combined basis with its multiple other fiber ventures. New Street Research analyst Jonathan Chaplin recently noted that Gigapower's locations "are still too small to matter after over two years of being in business."

Gigapower's legal entanglements add another layer of potential risk. Former prime contractor Tilson filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May 2025 and then sued Gigapower for more than $200 million in July 2025 for breach of contract. In October 2025, the bankruptcy court approved the sale of Tilson's claims to Winston I LLC, a litigation finance vehicle whose objective, according to industry analysts, is solely to maximize recovery.

Beyond delays and litigation, the report finds Gigapower's overall strategy is showing signs of flimsiness. The company failed to win any funding under the federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program; walked away from discussions with cities including Omaha and Phoenix; and took more than two years to announce its first non-AT&T tenant on its supposed open-access network.

CWA is calling on investors and public officials to demand transparency and accountability from AT&T and BlackRock and to rethink Gigapower's race-to-the-bottom workforce approach.

Read the full report here.

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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

Advanced Canva Training

Interested in using Canva like a graphic designer? Please join our CWA Advanced Canva and Graphic Design Training for design tips and tricks, branding, and an interactive demonstration. The training will be held on July 21 at 1pm ET.

Get more details and RSVP here.

Whether you participated in the Canva 101 training or not, this training has a lot to offer. Please share the RSVP link with other CWAers who may be interested.

See you there!

On July 10, CWA District 6 Vice President Derrick Osobase announced an agreement with AT&T to bring back Trenching and Boring work. These jobs have not been done by CWA members in the District since the late 1980s.

In a message to the CWA Executive Board, Osobase stated, “AT&T will begin hiring for the positions, starting in the major metropolitan areas in Texas where fiber exists. This will create 100 new jobs by the end of 2027 in Texas alone and will expand to the rest of the District as the company continues its investment into fiber.”

This win is part of a larger strategy for CWA, which includes bringing back contracted work previously lost, re-regulating the telecommunications industry, and expanding and capitalizing on organizing opportunities to build leverage for even greater successes in the future.

This agreement comes on the heels of another successful campaign to bring back decommission work, which resulted in the creation of the Buried Service Wire Specialist title. Holders of this new title will handle the trenching and boring work.

Congratulations to the telecom workers of CWA District 6!

Last week, CWA members at unWired Broadband (CWA Local 9333) announced that they had reached a settlement with the company, resolving several unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). These charges were the result of the disciplining and termination of several workers at the Fresno-based internet service provider.

The settlement will deliver $75,000 in back pay to four affected members, signaling the latest milestone in a campaign that has seen unWired technicians standing together amid a brutal anti-union attack by the company. Tactics used by the company include captive-audience meetings, anti-union messaging from management, and the illegal firing of workers on the organizing committee.

“unWired technicians stood together through a tough organizing campaign, and this settlement delivers meaningful relief to the workers who were affected,” said CWA District 9 Vice President Frank Arce. “CWA is proud to stand with them, and we expect unWired to come to the table and negotiate the strong first contract these workers have earned.”

In June 2025, unWired Broadband technicians voted overwhelmingly in favor of union representation by CWA to improve workplace safety, address unjust firings, and secure a voice on the job.