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Steve Early Communications Workers of America Papers

Call Number

TAM.603

Date

1987-2007, inclusive

Creator

Early, Steve
Early, Steve (Role: Donor)

Extent

6.25 Linear Feet in 6 record cartons and two folders.

Language of Materials

Materials are in English.

Abstract

Steve Early was an organizer, strike strategist, labor educator, and lawyer, and a national staff member of the Communications Workers of America. He is the author of Embedded With Organized Labor (2009) and his articles, reviews, and op-ed pieces have appeared in labor, progressive and mainstream periodicals and newspapers. This collection documents the struggles of the Communications Workers of America in New York, New Jersey, and New England with the NYNEX telephone company, SNET, SBC, and Verizon, and includes contract campaigns, strike, and organizing materials from the 1980s until 2007. Materials included in this collection are meeting notes, memos, newsletters, circulars, fliers, clippings, injunction-related legal materials, and several posters.

Historical/Biographical Note

Steve Early was an organizer, strike strategist, labor educator, lawyer, and a national staff member of the Communications Workers of America (CWA). CWA-represented telephone workers in the Northeast participated in national, regional or statewide strikes in 1983, 1986, 1989, 1998, 2000, 2004, and 2011. During these struggles the CWA cooperated with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which also represented some telecommunications workers. As many as 60,000 workers in New York and New England were involved in the anti-concession strikes during this period at NYNEX and other major telecommunications employers. The four month NYNEX strike in 1989 defeated health care cost shifting. The CWA also struggled against employers' give-back demands, including the demand for forced overtime, and struggled to defended defined benefit pensions and retiree health coverage. The CWA also fought for card check unionization, and for employer neutrality during organizing campaigns, especially at Verizon Wireless, the company's fast-growing and almost entirely non-union cellular subsidiary.

As a CWA representative in this region and telecommunications industry strike coordinator, Early was involved in local contract negotiations, helping to publicize strike issues, organize mass rallies and marches, pressure company and public officials for favorable settlements, and generate grassroots community-labor support. Early is also the author of Embedded With Organized Labor (2009) and his articles, reviews, and op-ed pieces have appeared in labor, progressive and mainstream periodicals and newspapers.

Arrangement

This collection has been arranged into four series:

Series I: Communications Workers of America Organizing Materials
Series II: NYNEX Strike
Series III: Southern New England Telephone (SNET)/SBC Communications Strikes
Series IV: Verizon Strike and Contract Campaigns

Scope and Contents

This collection contains files collected, and in some instances created by Steve Early in his roles as a Communications Workers of America (CWA) official and as a writer on labor topics. The collection documents the struggles of the CWA in New York, New Jersey, and New England with the NYNEX telephone company and other major telecommunications employers, such as Verizon and the Southern New England Telephone Company, including contract negotiations and strikes. These materials are from New York and New England CWA locals and CWA District 1, from the 1980s until 2007. Among the materials are meeting agendas and notes, internal union memos, strike strategy memos and training materials, injunction-related legal papers, daily newsletters on strike proceedings, flyers, clippings, circulars and other printed ephemera, and several oversized posters. The collection also documents Early's work as an organizer for the CWA and success in campaigning and collaborating with other unions and social justice groups to achieve change in the union.

Donors

Early, Steve

Conditions Governing Access

Materials are open without restrictions.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright (and related rights to publicity and privacy) to materials in this collection created by Steve Early was not transferred to New York University. Permission to use materials must be secured from the copyright holder.

Preferred Citation

Identification of item, date; Steve Early Communications Workers of America Papers; TAM 603; box number; folder number; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.

Location of Materials

Materials are stored offsite and advance notice is required for use. Please contact tamiment.wagner@nyu.edu at least two business days prior to research visit.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Donated by Steve Early in 2011. The accession number associated with this gift is 2011.139.

Separated Materials

A run of the Communication Workers of America District 1 Hot Line was separated for library cataloging. A copy of Billionaires for Bush: How to Rule the World for Fun and Profit was also separated to the library.

Related Archival Materials

His blog was archived by the Tamiment Library. A link can be found here: http://webarchives.cdlib.org/site/sw1h708z0m

Collection processed by

Nicole Greenhouse, 2013

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-20 16:38:38 -0400.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: Description is written in: English, Latin script.

Processing Information

In 2012, the collection was rehoused in archival quality folders. Folder titles provided by Early when the materials were donated were maintained and loose materials were put into folders and titles were supplied. In 2013, the materials were arranged and alphabetized in series based upon Early's original box inventory. The title of the collection was changed from the Steve Early Communications Workers of America Research Files to the current title.

Repository

Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
70 Washington Square South
2nd Floor
New York, NY 10012