Annie Hill served as CWA executive vice-president and then secretary-treasurer from 2008-2015. Hill began her career in her home state of Oregon In 1976 as a residential installer. Her employment in the former "male" technician job was a direct result of the Bell system's affirmative action consent decree with the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC). Hill was elected president of Local 7904 in 1985 and was appointed to CWA staff five years later. She moved up the union ranks, moving to District 7 headquarters in Denver, where she bargained multiple contracts and arbitrations with US West and other employers. In 2004, Hill was elected CWA District 7 Vice President, a position she held until her election to CWA national leadership.

Bob Master led and built a powerful political and legislative program in CWA District 1 for more than three decades from 1986-2022. Master brought the CWA mobilization program to the District 1 during the 17-week 1989 strike against NYNEX. His strategic approach to politics and member mobilization were key factors in the successful 2000 and 2016 strikes against Verizon. Master was one of the founders of the Working Families Party in 1998, a creative approach to build worker political power. The political program and relationships that Master built in District 1 helped support workers' organizing at Cablevision, among other workplaces, Master's political work included support for the Bernie Sanders presidential campaigns.

Brenda Roberts worked as a service representative for Northwestern Bell (which became part of US West after the 1984 Bell system divestiture) for thirteen years (1979-1992) in the St. Paul, Minnesota metropolitan area. Roberts was active in Local 7201 as a steward, strike captain, and leader of the labor/management joint program to improve the service representative job. After moving to Seattle, she became active in Local 7800 where she was elected president in 2003. Roberts joined CWA staff a few years later, chairing the District 7 legislative and political work. In 2015 she was elected District 7 vice-president where she led CWA delegations to Germany and the Philippines to meet with call center leaders.

Brooks Sunkett returned from service in Vietnam, went to college, and began work in the New Jersey Department of Taxation where he joined the CWA campaign to organize state workers. After CWA won representation of New Jersey state worker units, Sunkett became president of the newly formed Local 1033. In 1989 he was elected vice-president of the CWA Public Workers Department, becoming the first African-American to serve on the CWA executive board. Sunkett chaired the CWA Civil and Human Rights Committee and led the union's programs to support the CWA public and health care worker units until his retirement in 2019.

Charlie Braico is an award-winning broadcast technician who joined the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians (NABET-CWA) early in his career at WLS-TV, the ABC television affiliate in Chicago. Braico served as president of NABET-CWA Local 84041 in Chicago from 2010 until his election as NABET-CWA president in 2015. NABET merged with CWA in 1993.

Chris Shelton served as CWA's fourth president from 2015 to 2023. Shelton began his career as an outside technician at New York Telephone (later NYNEX, Bell Atlantic, and Verizon) in Manhattan in 1968. He signed a union card with Local 1101 on his first day and became a shop steward within six months, later chief steward, and joined CWA staff in 1988. Shelton was a local leader during the 1971 seven-month strike against New York Tel, staff leader during the 1989 strike against NYNEX, and District 1 vice-president during the 2000 strike against Verizon. As CWA president, Shelton founded the CWA STRONG program to build workplace power, strengthen bargaining, and resist outside efforts to destroy our union.

Dennis Trainor was elected District 1 vice-president in 2015 and was still serving in this position at the time of this interview. Trainor signed on to New York Telephone in 1969 as a splicer and joined Local 1101 the first day on the job. He became chief steward with responsibility for all members in the Bronx at the time of the 1971 seven-month strike against New York Tel. Trainor helped the independent Connecticut Union of Telephone Workers join CWA and then remained in Connecticut, mobilizing members who were on strike to win a good contract. Trainor was appointed to CWA staff in 1999 and elected vice-president of District 1 in 2015. He led the union during the 2016 strike against Verizon, making member mobilization the key to a successful outcome.

Claude Cummings was elected president of CWA in 2023. Cummings began his career as a Southwestern Bell technician, hired in 1973, the year the Bell companies signed an affirmative action decree with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Cummings served as president of Houston Local 6222 for twelve years and as vice president of CWA District 6 for another twelve years. Cummings is a national leader in civil and voting rights organizations.

Debbie Hayes organized her fellow nurses at Buffalo General Hospital in 1982 with the assistance of CWA Local 1122, a telephone workers' local. She was elected president of her Local 1168 and led a successful 80 day strike to win a good contract. Hayes went on to lead organizing drives and strikes at other hospitals and health care facilities in her hometown of Buffalo. During merger negotiations that formed the Kaleida Health System she negotiated a majority sign-up (card check)/neutrality agreement leading to further organizing successes. Under her leadership, almost 7,000 health care workers joined CWA. Hayes served as CWA staff representative for many years, including the challenging years of the Covid-19 epidemic. In 2021, she finally won legislation in the New York state legislature mandating nurse staffing ratios.

Gail Evans began her career at C&P Telephone (which became part of Bell Atlantic and later Verizon) in Baltimore, Maryland in 1970. She worked as an operator, service representative, and then transferred to frame attendant and later central office technician (formerly "male" jobs). Evans was one of the longest-serving local presidents, leading CWA Local 2100 for twenty years from 1984 to her retirement in 2004. She led many bargaining teams in negotiations with Bell Atlantic and Verizon.

George Kohl joined the CWA research department in 1980 and served as research director for almost three decades. In 1987, as CWA special projects director, Kohl organized the Jobs with Justice founding convention in Miami and went on to support chapters across the county. As CWA research director, Kohl built a strong research staff that supported CWA leaders in collective bargaining, organizing campaigns, and public policy initiatives, adopting innovative and data-driven strategies to build the union. Kohl served as assistant to three CWA presidents, Morty Bahr, Larry Cohen, and Chris Shelton.

Gladys Finnigan joined New York Telephone as an operator in 1981 and led the legendary campaign to bring her co-workers into CWA in 1985. She served as president of Local 1110, beginning in 1993 until the local merged with local 1108 in 2004. Finnigan served on (and led) multiple bargaining teams in negotiations with NYNEX and the merged Bell Atlantic, including during the 17-week NYNEX strike in 1989. Finnigan joined CWA staff in 2004 and retired in 2022 as assistant to District 1 Vice President.

Gloria Middleton was elected president of CWA Local 1180 in 2018 in New York City, representing mid-level supervisory staff of multiple city agencies. Middleton was born and raised in Harlem and began working for the city in 1972 in the Department of Corrections, later transferring to the Department of Social Services where she rose to an administrative position. She was active in the union as a shop steward, then served as a staff representative for the local for thirteen years (1995-2018) until her election as the first African-American president of the local. She has made pay equity for women and people of color her priority as president, winning a $15 million equal employment suit against the city. Middleton served fifteen years as chair of CWA's Civil Rights and Equity Committees and, in 2021, was elected to serve on the CWA executive board in one of the four designated diversity positions.

Hetty Rosenstein was employed as a Job Corps educator in New Jersey and became a leader in the State Worker Organizing Committee (SWOC) which successfully led 34,000 state workers to select CWA as their union. As president of Local 1037 representing state workers throughout northern New Jersey, Rosenstein built a strong steward structure that fought for members in the workplace and turned out thousands of CWA activists at legislative hearings and rallies in contract and policy battles. Rosenstein cemented strong relationships with activist community groups as chair of New Jersey Citizen Action, leader in the New Jersey Working Families Party, and early supporter of gay marriage legislation.

James Irvine began his career with AT&T Long Lines in 1962 as a communications technician in Cleveland, Ohio. He got involved with the union as a steward and was elected president of Local 4350 in the early 1960s. Irvine was elected national director of the AT&T communications unit in the early 1980s and, after CWA reorganized its structure, vice-president. Irvine's leadership spanned the years from Bell system pattern bargaining, Bell system national bargaining (1974-1982), and then the Bell system break-up in 1984. Irvine faced challenging conditions at post-divestiture AT&T, as the company slashed 100,000 union jobs, pursued multiple mergers and acquisitions, and aggressively sought to limit union power. Irvine retired in 2001.

Jeff Rechenbach served as CWA executive vice-president (2005-2008) and secretary-treasurer (2008-2011). Rechenbach got his start in the payphone department of Ohio Bell in Cleveland, Ohio. He was elected president of CWA Local 4309 at the age of 19 where he represented a predominantly female group of service representatives. He joined CWA staff eight years later, was promoted to administrative staff, and elected vice-president of CWA District 4 in 1994. When AT&T bought Ameritech (the midwestern regional Bell company), Rechenbach negotiated a majority sign-up (card check)/neutrality agreement over the wireless workers. He later led a successful four-day strike coordinated with other CWA regional AT&T bargaining units. Under his leadership of the national union (in partnership with president Larry Cohen), convention delegates adopted proposals to add four diversity seats to the CWA executive board and to establish the Strategic Industry Fund to promote strategic programs to grow the union.

Jim Weitkamp served in the Air Force and then signed on as a lineman for Pacific Telephone in southern California in 1977. He worked heavy construction, climbing poles and taking down old lead cable. He served as steward and executive board member of Local 11505 before appointment to CWA staff in 1988. Weitkamp bargained contracts in almost every CWA sector, organized various units, led multiple strikes, and facilitated the merger with the News(paper) Guild in District 9. He was elected vice-president of District 9 in 2009 where he faced challenging contract negotiations with AT&T. He retired in 2014.

Jimmy Gurganus began his career in 1966 with Carolina Telephone and Telegraph Company in eastern North Carolina. Carolina Tel and Tel was one of the non-Bell system phone companies. Two years later, Gurganus joined the successful organizing drive to bring his fellow workers into CWA.  He served as president of CWA Local 3681 for 21 years, from 1976 to 1997, during which time he led strikes, bargained contracts, organized call centers, and intervened in regulatory reviews as United Telecom and eventually Sprint bought the local company. Gurganus was elected vice-president of the CWA independent telephone sector in 2002 and retired in 2011.

Larry Cohen was president of CWA from 2005 to 2015. He began his union career in New Jersey leading the State Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC) in which 34,000 state workers elected to join CWA in 1981. Cohen served as director of organizing and mobilization for the national union from 1986 until his election as executive vice-president in 1998. Cohen developed the union's mobilization program, led many successful organizing campaigns, fostered an activist international program, led the campaigns to defeat the Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal, and, as chair of the AFL-CIO organizing committee, led the campaign for the Employee Free Choice Act.

Laura Unger hired on as a communications technician with AT&T in 1978 in New York City, five years after AT&T signed a consent decree with the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC) to hire more women into "male" technician jobs. Unger came to her union activism as a feminist after years of organizing against the Vietnam War and for racial justice. Unger's union activism began in a rank and file group, the Bell Busters, writing for their newsletter and later for her local's award-winning newsletter, Local Spirit. In the mid-1980s, Unger was elected secretary-treasurer and then president of Local 1150, where she mobilized members against AT&T lay-offs and in support of good contracts. She joined CWA staff in 2007. Unger served on multiple AT&T bargaining committees as an elected member (1992-2007) and then as a CWA staff member.

Linda Foley was president of the News(paper) Guild-CWA from 1995, the year the News(paper) Guild merged with CWA, until she left office in 2008. Foley began her career as a journalist for the Lexington Herald-Leader in Kentucky where she became active in the union. During her tenure as Guild president, Foley led the fight for quality journalism and opposed job-destroying media consolidation. In 2021, Foley was elected Maryland state representative from District 15.

Linda Hinton was elected District 4 vice-president in 2012 and was served in this position at the time of the interview in 2023. Hinton began her employment as an operator working on a cord board at Ohio Bell in the late 1960s, later working in the coin department, and fraud desk as a service representative. She joined Local 4310 in Columbus, Ohio, became a steward, and was elected local president in 1984, the year of the Bell system divesture. She served as local president 12 years before appointment as a staff representative in 1996. As District 4 vice-president, Hinton bargained many contracts, promoted the union's political program, and led the fight in Ohio to repeal the anti-public worker bill (SB5).

Louie Rocha combined a career as a community activist and union leader in his hometown of San Jose, California. Employed by Pacific Bell as a cable splicer and lineman, he became active in the union as a steward, local organizer, and mobilizer. Rocha was elected president of Local 9423 in 1996 where he promoted many labor/community projects. Rocha organized against U.S. intervention in Central America, apartheid in South Africa, for environmental justice in Silicon Valley, and traveled abroad representing CWA. He livened up CWA picket lines broadcasting music as a local DJ and organized a 2,000 person May Day celebration in his hometown. Rocha served in almost every capacity in the local and District 9 as steward, organizer, mobilizer, newsletter co-editor, campaign coordinator, staff representative, and temporary administrator.

Louise Novotny worked in the CWA research department for almost four decades as research economist and then research director (1983-2019). Novotny led the union's health care bargaining and policy work, negotiating managed care networks and quality initiatives to contain rising costs and protect members' benefits, while training a network of CWA health care activists. After the 1989 CWA strike against NYNEX, Novotny led the union's health policy program for a single-payer system. Novotny built alliances with other unions and health care reform groups around five principles for reform: universal, comprehensive, affordable, quality (with a union health care workforce), and accountable.

Pat Shea began work in the CWA legal department in 1980 and retired as CWA Legal Counsel four decades later in 2024, serving five CWA presidents (Glenn Watts, Morty Bahr, Larry Cohen, Chris Shelton, Claude Cummings). Shea became the leading expert on the CWA Constitution, presiding over CWA conventions as parliamentarian and as an invaluable resource to CWA leaders in bargaining, arbitrations, and internal matters.

Ralph Maly went to work at AT&T's Western Electric factory in Buffalo, NY in 1966 at age 19. From day one, he had union in his bones, joining Local 1162 and soon becoming the local organizer. Maly went on to organize Western Electric factories in Pleasanton, CA; Vancouver, WA; Dallas, TX; and Atlanta, GA. When the Buffalo factory closed, Maly transferred to a Western Electric facility in Atlanta, where he was elected Local 3263 president in 1985. Maly joined the CWA staff four years later, leading bargaining with Lucent Technologies (the spin-off from AT&T's Western Electric subsidiary), later merged with Alcatel and bought by Nokia. Maly's career spanned the growth and ultimate closing of the factories that he helped organize into the union.

Sandy Rusher helped tens of thousands of workers join CWA during her more than thirty years as an CWA organizer, first with the Texas State Employees Union (TSEU), then District 6 Organizing Director, and CWA national Organizing Director. At TSEU, she pioneered (with Danny Fetonte), the CWA model of organization of state workers without collective bargaining coverage. Rusher continued to work with Fetonte and District 6 vice-president Vic Crawley on a bargain to organize "Five Years to Card Check" campaign that won majority sign-up (card check)/neutrality for SBC (and after multiple mergers, AT&T) wireless workers. Among her many organizing achievements, Rusher led the long, ultimately successful campaign to support American Airlines customer service employees win their union.

Sara Nelson was elected president of the Association of Flight Attendants/CWA in 2014, the position she held at the time of this interview. The AFA joined CWA in 2003, and together with CWA's representation of customer service workers at American and other airlines, CWA now represents more than 75,000 aviation employees. Nelson has been a union Flight Attendant since 1996 when she started flying at United Airlines. During her tenure, Nelson negotiated many pathbreaking contracts and successfully moved federal legislation to improve job security, compensation, and a healthy and safe work environment for her members. During the Covid-19 pandemic that grounded airline travel, she played a key role in passage of a $54 billion congressional Covid relief package that provided pay, health care, and other benefits to aviation workers and saved the industry from collapse.

Velvet Hawthorne, who worked in a US Airways call center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, led the organizing campaign to bring 10,000 US Airways customer service employees into CWA. After three contested elections, the union was finally certified in 1999 and ratified the first contract that year. Hawthorne was appointed staff representative with responsibility for training stewards for the new union. She negotiated breakthrough contracts which faced challenges in response to mergers (American Airlines and America West) and shutdowns in the airline industry after 9/11 and the COVID pandemic.

Yvette Herrera held many positions, beginning in the former District 5 office. In 1987 she moved to Washington, D.C. to serve as the Education and Mobilization Director, after which she served as Assistant to the Executive Vice President and later Assistant to the President. Herrera was born in Cuba, and was responsible for the Minority Leadership Institute for 26 years, working closely with former CWA Human Rights Directors Drew Clark, Mary Mays Carroll, Leslie Jackson, and Gwend Johnson. Herrera also served on the national board of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA), and as the President of the International Labor Rights Forum.