For press inquiries, please reach out to Communications Director Erin Bzymek at ebzymek@uwua.net or 202-702-9655.
In the 1993 movie Groundhog Day, Bill Murray’s character Phil Connors says, “Do you know what today is? Today is tomorrow. It happened.” As we approach year three of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are all feeling emotionally and physically exhausted and to a certain extent like we’re stuck in the same time loop as Phil…
That was the message conveyed by a UWUA Young Workers Committee panel that gathered virtually for the P4A Training in Action conference. Committee members joined me and National Executive Vice President Patrick Dillon for a discussion about the choices they faced as high schoolers preparing for their futures. They hope that by sharing their experience…
As part of the recent Power for America conference, leaders from three locals joined me for a roundtable discussion on how we can all do a better job of fostering women leaders in our union. Juanita Ray, president of Local 223 in Michigan; Jean Washington, a Local 1-2 business agent; and Barbara Yatauro, president of…
With great sadness we share news of former UWUA President Donald Wightman passing away on November 16. We offer our condolences to his family, friends and all who knew him. A true fighter Upon learning of his death, President Jim Slevin said, “Don Wightman truly understood the fights our members and their families faced. He…
A recent incident at one of our locals led the Safety Committee to review certain employer practices. After benchmarking best practices, policies and procedures to help safeguard members with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) from around the country, we discovered there were a number of OSHA standards and industry practices that were not being followed by…
A year ago, we thought we’d be back to “normal” by this fall. We looked forward to gathering for a command performance of the Power for America (P4A) training conference last held in 2017. Like with so many other things, COVID put a kink in our plans. Undeterred, UWUA leadership and members showed ingenuity and…
When Utility Worker Union of America members joined together in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for their first constitutional convention on April 6, 1946, they made history. Like the founding fathers of the United States, their goal was to form a more perfect union and hammer out a constitution to do so. Generations of utility workers have lived…
“It’s kind of a sad, but successful story,” says Local 369 President Craig Pinkham when asked about the work his members are doing to decommission the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts. “The fact is that even though the plant is decommissioned and there are not going to be any more Utility Workers onsite, our…
Hourly employees in the public works department of the City of Canfield, Ohio ratified their first union contract on November 8, capping off a successful two-year campaign in which the workers also faced down brazen acts of anti-union intimidation by the city manager. The contract victory secures a successful organizing drive from September 2019, when…