For press inquiries, please reach out to Communications Director Erin Bzymek at ebzymek@uwua.net or 202-702-9655.
While COVID-19 has made safety and Personal Protective Equipment topics of discussion worldwide, workplace hazards are nothing new for utility workers. We’ve been dealing with dangers on the job our entire careers. From the very first days of our nation’s industrialization to today, utility workers have faced live wires, leaking gas lines, open pits, gushing…
With key new appointments at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), President Joe Biden is delivering on his campaign promise to be the most pro-union president in history. First, out with the old and in with the new. Within hours of taking office, President Biden fired Peter Robb, the most anti-union general counsel in the…
After two years of meeting cancelations and attempts to replace in-person meetings with virtual meetings, the Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA) will return to hosting in-person events in 2022 with its regional education conferences. The conferences will begin with the Region V meeting in Redondo Beach, California, on March 24 – 26; followed by…
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…
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…
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…