Spirit Airlines flight attendants and other AFA-CWA members showed their support for striking Spirit pilots by joining them on picket lines at numerous airports during the pilots' five-day strike.

"Spirit flight attendants are committed to assisting  pilots in achieving the best contract possible," the Spirit AFA-CWA Master Executive Council said. The flight attendants are in mediation over their contract.

Workers at the Bo Robinson Community Education Center in Trenton, N.J., wanted a union and they overwhelmed management's efforts to stop them. The workers at the privately-run center that helps former corrections prisoners transition back into society voted unanimously, 54-0, last week, for CWA Local 1040. The unit has 69 workers total.

Management pulled out all stops to defeat the workers' campaign with regular captive audience meetings and multiple distributions of anti-union literature. Two weeks before the election, the company brought workers in from another location, claiming they were needed "if there was a strike."

The AFL-CIO's first-ever Young Workers Summit drew more than 400 young people to Washington, D.C., last week, generating ideas to mobilize younger workers and strengthen the union movement.

"It was an awesome experience," said Chris Lane, a "Next Up" conference speaker and the youngest-ever president of CWA Local 2201 in Richmond, Va. "I was so excited and motivated and recharged by it, especially with all the networking I was able to do."

Lane was 31 when he was elected Local 2201's president four years ago. "I talked about how the younger generation has a set of issues and concerns, wages are a big one, and the older generation may be thinking more about defined benefit pensions and health care," Lane said. "I told them that neither side can survive without the other, and together we can thrive."

CWA's AT&T Internet bargaining committee will begin negotiations with AT&T for a new contract covering nearly 5,400 workers in Districts 3, 4, 6 and 9. Bargaining will take place in Dallas; the current contract expires July 17.

Key issues include wages, protecting and improving benefits, job security, protections against subcontracting, improved scheduling and time off.