Applications are now being accepted through March 31 for the CWA Joe Beirne Foundation's annual scholarship offerings for the 2010-2011 school year.

The Foundation's Board of Directors has approved the awarding of fifteen (15) partial college scholarships of up to $3,000 each, and the winners also will receive second-year scholarships for the same amount, contingent upon satisfactory academic achievement.

Eligible for the scholarships are CWA members, their spouses, children and grandchildren, including the dependents of retired, laid-off, or deceased members. Applicants must be high school graduates or high school students who will graduate during the year in which they apply. Undergraduate and graduate students returning to school may also apply.

Applications will be available solely online for completion and submission to the Foundation's website:  http://www.cwa-union.org/members/beirne .

The winners will be chosen by lottery drawing. Further information about the program can be found at the website.

This valuable scholarship program is made possible by the funding of CWA locals.

Who Was Beirne?

Joseph Anthony Beirne is considered CWA's founding leader.

The son of Irish immigrant parents – his dad was a union railroad worker – Beirne grew up in Jersey City, N.J. and went to work in 1927 for Western Electric, the Bell Telephone System's manufacturing arm. With the New Deal labor reforms and passage of the Wagner Act in 1935, Beirne and others were inspired to begin organizing the nation's phone workers.

After the National Federation of Telephone Workers was formed in 1938, the fiery and charismatic Beirne soon ascended to the presidency in 1943 at the age of 32. He set himself the mission of molding this loose federation of autonomous unions into a true international union. That goal, forged in the fires of a tough nationwide strike by 350,000 Bell System workers in 1947, was achieved the following year with creation of the modern Communications Workers of America.

With a strong new national structure and affiliation with the militant CIO in 1949, CWA under Joe Beirne's leadership broadened its organizing focus, grew steadily in numbers and strength, and used an innovative pattern bargaining strategy to raise wage and benefit standards throughout the communications industry. The union also became a leading force in the political and legislative arenas, community services, the civil rights struggle, and global labor affairs.

When Beirne, who was seriously ill, stepped down from the presidency in June of 1974, CWA had become recognized as one of the most dynamic and progressive unions in the world – qualities that also described its leader for more than three decades.

Joe Beirne died on Labor Day 1974. The Joseph A. Beirne Foundation honors his lifelong commitment to education and progressive social causes.