The executive committee of Local 39521 is expected to take steps this week to sever its affiliation with the California Federation of Interpreters.

A board vote asking CWA to step in and take responsibility for the unit will be scheduled soon. The CWA Executive Board has the power to reassign jurisdiction or impose trusteeship.

As leaders of The Newspaper Guild-CWA, we are supportive of this swift resolution to a situation that has become untenable.

Alongside local leaders, we had worked diligently over the past weeks to find options that would have allowed all current members to remain within this local, which for 20 years has fought for the needs of interpreters in California and beyond. Barring that, we had hoped for a referendum letting CFI members choose to stay or separate. However, there is no longer a viable path toward either outcome, and the current crisis must not be allowed to continue.

We had attempted to mediate a solution to this dispute, as a neutral. But we have always been on the side of our members, and all workers who need a union to improve their lives.

Bernie Lunzer
Sara Steffens
The News Guild-CWA