Video Game Workers Take Home CWA’s Highest Award

From an ambitious idea to a full-blown industry movement, video game workers have burst onto the union scene to demand respect, fair pay, and an end to abusive work policies. This year CWA’s highest honor, the “Hat” Award for outstanding achievements in organizing, went to a group of locals who led the way in organizing video game workers at Microsoft. The Hat Award is named for CWA's founding president, Joe Beirne, who would pass his hat at each organizing meeting to collect the funds he needed to cover travel costs of getting to the next group of telephone workers he was to visit.

CWA Locals 1118, 1400, 2100, 2108, 4652, 6215, 7250, 9400, and 9510 accepted the award.

While presenting the award, CWA President Claude Cummings Jr. also recognized former Director of Organizing Thomas Smith for his pioneering vision for video game worker organizing that paved the way for this wave of organizing wins.

 
CWA President Cummings, along with CWA Executive Board members and staff, awarded video game workers CWA’s highest honor, the Joe Beirne President's "Hat" Award.

President Cummings also presented the President Morton Bahr CWA STRONG Award to two locals who faced possible extinction. A right-wing attack from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the state legislature ended payroll dues deductions and forces a decertification if bargaining unit membership falls below 60 percent.

CWA Locals 3180 and 3181 both met this challenge with grit and determination, hosting hundreds of one-on-one conversations with members to get them signed up for bank draft and direct dues payments. Through their tireless efforts, both units now have more members than before the attack. CWA Local 3180 President Laurie Taylor and CWA Local 3181 President Dylan Owens accepted the awards on behalf of their respective members.

Since the last convention, CWA locals from around the country have brought in over 25,000 new members through external organizing campaigns. IUE-CWA Industrial Division President Carl Kennebrew and CWA District 7 Vice President Susie McAllister recognized the locals that organized at least 100 workers in either one or both of the past two years. Each winning local will receive a $1,000 organizing subsidy; five-time winners will receive $5,000.

CWA District 4 Vice President Linda Hinton announced the winners of CWA’s awards for political action. CWA Local 7799, CWA Local 7777, and the Denver Newspaper Guild TNG-CWA Local 37074 won the Paul Wellstone Award for spearheading a ballot initiative to establish collective bargaining rights for city and county employees in Denver, Colo. The Maxine Lee Award went to the Michigan Legislative-Political Action Team, Locals and activists. Their hard work in raising Political Action Funds (PAF) has helped build our political power in Michigan, which played a big role in enabling us to repeal the anti-union so-called “right-to-work” law there.

CWA District 1, District 6, Local 1101, Local 1180, and Local 6327 were recognized for their high level of contributions to CWA's Political Action Fund (PAF). You can find a detailed list of CWA's Political Action Fund Honor Locals here.

Public, Healthcare, and Education Workers Vice President Margaret Cook recognized CWA Locals 1170 and 7076 with the Hope Award for the high percentage of members contributing to CWA’s Charity of Choice, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. CWA Locals 1037 and 7076 received the Ariel Glaser Award, which is awarded to the locals who raised the most funds for the Foundation.

Congratulations to all of the award recipients.

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This post originally appeared on cwa-union.org.