Gloria Middleton 
President

Gloria Middleton took the helm as President of Communications Workers of America Local 1180 in January 2018, and is the first African American and the first female to lead the 9,000 active member local. She was re-elected to serve a second term as President for 2021-2023.

Previously, she had been the Union’s Secretary-Treasurer since 2001. Under her leadership, the Local ’s finances were, and are now, the best they have ever been. Gloria has been the Local’s Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer. She is the Trustee for the Local’s Benefits and Annuity funds, which have accrued assets of more than $120 million. She advised and supervised the Fund Administrator in the day-to-day operation of the Benefits Funds and was the Office Manager for the Local.

Gloria has served on the bargaining committees for the PAA et al contract and was chief negotiator for bargaining at NYC Transit Authority. Since 2001, she has been the chief negotiator for the Local ’s and Benefit Funds’ employees’ contract. She has also served as an instructor in the test preparation for members taking the Principal Administrative Associate and Administrative Manager Civil Service exams.

Gloria was Chairperson for the Local ’s Civil Rights & Equity Committee, and served for 15 years as the Chair of CWA’s National Committee on Civil Rights & Equity. Before Gloria became a Local 1180 Staff Representative in 1995, she was a career civil servant working at the Human Resources Administration, where she developed impeccable skills in research, analysis, and administrative problem solving that were enhanced with her work at Local 1180 as a former Staff Rep and Secretary-Treasurer.

Gloria is a Steering Committee member of the Municipal Labor Committee and is also an Executive Board member of the NYC Central Labor Council. She was involved in the Union’s decision to file an EEOC charge against the Bloomberg Administration, and as President, successfully brought the lawsuit to conclusion, winning a $15 million settlement for Administrative Managers. Gloria also was instrumental in forming a School of Labor in NYC that now has become the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies.

As President, Gloria is committed to leading a politically progressive Local that organizes, mobilizes, and empowers members to improve their standard of living and that of all New Yorkers. Gloria continues to put Local 1180 on the map as one of, if not the most, progressive, outspoken unions as the voice of all working people. In 2020, with New York City about to lay off 22,000 workers right before the holidays, Gloria joined other top labor leaders in formulating an innovative cost-saving plan to stop the draconian move.

She was the facilitator for the Local ’s Manhattan Community Coordinating Committee; is Trustee and Treasurer of Mt. Paylor Baptist Church; and was President of the Shabazz Gardens Condominiums in Harlem. She has been honored in part by the Boy Scouts of America Greater New York Council; the Black Institute; NAACP; the Bill Lynch Democratic Club; and received Congressional recognition from Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee for her work with the CWA National Civil Rights and Equity Committee.