For press inquiries, please reach out to Communications Director Erin Bzymek at ebzymek@uwua.net or 202-702-9655.
UWUA Local 51 members in Roswell, NM, recently won unscheduled bonus payments and new benefits for blue-collar employees of the City of Roswell, following a months-long battle over a bare-bones budget imposed by the city council in July 2023. Shortly after council members adopted the surprise austerity budget — citing exaggerated woes in the city’s…
It’s easy to get bogged down by the work tasks on our plates. We can quickly lose sight of the big picture including all the ways the work we do — regardless of which utility sector we work in — is interconnected. We’ve all experienced moments of feeling very siloed in our work, which has…
Workers responsible for water treatment, distribution maintenance, and wastewater services for Jersey City’s 280,000 businesses and residents recently ratified a new four-year agreement, winning substantial gains in wages and other areas. The agreement holds particular significance for the 40 workers represented by Local 375. It was the first time they bargained with Veolia Water. Five…
The National Safety Committee attended two conferences this fall and came away with important information to share. In October, I represented the UWUA at the National Safety Council’s (NSC) Safety Congress & Expo. The NSC is an organization focused on eliminating the leading causes of preventable workplace injury and death. The NSC recently launched an…
When Joe Biden ran for President he said that if elected he would be the most pro-union President in history. It’s now been nearly 3 years since he took office, so we have a pretty good idea as to whether that statement is true or not. On day one of his presidency, January 20, 2021,…
When negotiating contracts, members at Local 69 were accustomed to sometimes contentious face offs with their two employers, Dominion Energy and Berkshire Hathaway. After Dominion sold its West Virginia natural gas operations to Hope Gas in late 2022 and the local’s collective bargaining agreement covering 265 employees came up for renewal in 2023, Local 69…
Local 108 and Anderson, IN Patience paid off for 58 members of Local 108 who run Anderson’s water and wastewater systems. UWUA was the last of the city’s municipal unions to reach agreement on a contract renewal; the prior agreement expired December 31, 2021. Ryan Green, who stepped down as local president this fall, said,…
Shelley Kolonics grew up thinking her father was working for a good company with a strong union. Little did she know she would one day join him. Andy Kolonics, president of Local 511 at California American Water, never thought that would happen either. He has been with the company for 40 years in many different…
UWUA was well-represented at the 2023 Inter-Union Gas Conference (IUGC) held October 23-26 in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Our union sent 64 delegates from 20 locals to this forum for gas workers to share ideas and information and participate in workshops on safety; service; clerical; distribution; and transmission, storage and field operations. This year’s theme, Natural…
As we gathered to reflect on 2023, we found ourselves discussing several remarkable instances of workers standing up for themselves, whether to organize or secure better pay and conditions through collective bargaining. We witnessed a profound resurgence in the United States labor movement. Workers are not just standing up but standing tall, with unions taking…