Community members turned out to support strikers all over the Southeast, but in South Carolina, one visitor had a special connection to CWA members on the picket line.

Christine Horgan-Klien was just two years old when her father, Gerry Horgan, was killed by a car being driven by a scab worker and daughter of a plant manager while walking on a picket line with fellow CWA members during the 1989 NYNEX strike.

“It was very moving to meet her on the picket line, she came out for two days in a row offering donuts,” said Local 3704 President Steven Auerbach. “I gave her a hug, thanked her for coming out and supporting us, and she said that CWA members were her family. I told her I’ve been involved in the labor movement for almost 16 years and I’ve heard all the stories about her father and it was an honor to meet her. She thanked us for what we were doing, and said she was behind us. We are so grateful to her for coming out and supporting us.”

Since Horgan’s tragic death thirty years ago, CWA members wear red on Thursdays in remembrance of him and to pay tribute to his sacrifice. That tradition has continued over the last three decades, and today CWA members throughout the country, including workers at AT&T Southeast, don red every Thursday to honor Gerry’s memory and to show that we are united in the fight for justice for all working people.