Red Celebrates Life of CWAer Gerry Horgan Killed on Picket Line in 1989

We wear red to celebrate the life of CWA Local 1103 Chief Steward Gerry Horgan, who was run down over 20 years ago on a NYNEX picket line in Valhalla, N.Y.

Horgan was the first, and until 2003, the only CWA member killed while picketing. His death is the reason why CWA members still today wear red in solidarity on Thursdays.

The four-month strike over health care benefits was just two weeks old when the daughter of a plant manager hit Horgan, 34, with her car while breaking through a picket line. He died the following day, Aug. 15, 1989, leaving a wife and two small daughters. He is remembered in the video as a "natural born leader" and "the epitome of what a union representative should be."

In January 2003, in another strike over health care, Michelle Rodgers was struck by a police car while picketing the GE Appliance plant in Louisville, Ky. A member of IUE-CWA Local 83761, Rodgers was an enthusiastic union activist who was hit while crossing the street as strikers gathered before dawn. 

Keep wearing red on Thursdays!