Minnesota native elected to top union position

Fridley, Minnesota, native Sara Steffens was elected secretary-treasurer of the Communications Workers of America, one of the largest labor unions in the country.

Steffens, 43, was sworn in at the union’s 75th convention in Detroit on June 8.

Steffens was previously acting secretary/treasurer of the NewsGuild-CWA, a sector representing journalists, language interpreters and others. A journalist and community activist, Steffens began her career as a reporter for the White Bear (Minnesota) Press.

While working at the Contra Costa (California) Times, she successfully led her co-workers and others at newspapers in the Bay Area in an organizing campaign. The group is now represented by the Pacific Media Workers Guild in San Francisco.

Steffens and her co-workers were fired by the Bay Area Newspaper Group in 2008 for their union activism, but she continued to work with the NewsGuild and CWA.

Steffens ran on a CWA slate with Christopher Shelton, a New Yorker and longstanding union activist who ran unopposed for president. Shelton succeeds Larry Cohen, who retired after serving as CWA president for 10 years.

CWA represents 700,000 workers in private and public sector employment in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.