AFL-CIO Honors CWA Member for Black History Month

Black History Month is not only a time to remember our shared American history but also to honor those making history today. This week the AFL-CIO featured CWA Local 7019 Area Vice President Vonda Wilkins in their Black History Month Profile series. We congratulate Vonda on her hard work and outstanding contributions to the labor movement.

Vonda has been working for Lumen Technologies for over 24 years and is a proud union member and labor activist at CWA Local 7019 in Phoenix, Ariz. Vonda started as a shop steward and has risen to Area Vice President.

Vonda's dedication and efforts to build an anti-racist union are genuinely inspiring. After completing the Minority Leader Institute (MLI) at CWA, she was appointed as a sitting member of CWA’s National Committee on Civil Rights and Equity. She has successfully facilitated training for more than 100 members across CWA on how to build an anti-racist union.

Vonda collaborated with District 7 members to demand that Lumen acknowledge Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day and designate it as a paid holiday for all employees. This demand was met without any concessions from CWA, and for the first time, in January 2023, all employees could observe Dr. King's day as a paid holiday.

Vonda's commitment to her community is evident from her involvement in various committees at her local, including elections, by-laws, community services, finance, and human rights committees. She is a member of the Minority Caucus at CWA, the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), the A. Philip Randolph Institute (APRI), and Unemployed Workers United. Vonda's story is a testament to the power of activism and dedication to social justice.

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This post originally appeared on cwa-union.org.