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Communications Workers of America Records Addendum

Call Number

WAG.124.001

Dates

1939-1998, (Bulk 1970-1995), inclusive
; 1970-1995, bulk

Creator

Communications Workers of America
Communications Workers of America (Role: Donor)

Extent

199 Linear Feet in 199 boxes

Language of Materials

English .

Abstract

The Communications Workers of America (CWA), founded in 1947 as an industrial union of telephone industry workers, is now one of the largest unions in the United States with a diverse membership, including an active public employees division. For the most part, this Addendum to the Archive's CWA collection (Wagner #124) documents the activities of the CWA from the 1970s to the mid-1990s. It includes records of organizing, bargaining, and technological advances in the telecom industry. It consists largely of President's Office records from the administration of Morton Bahr, as well as Secretary-Treasurer's Office records, Vice-President's Office records (John C. Carroll), files of presidential assistants (Lou Gerber and John Morgan), and records from the Contract Compliance, Printing, Publishing and Media Workers, Public Affairs, Public and Health Care Workers and Research sectors or departments. The records document all aspects of union operations: organizing, collective bargaining, contract administration, strikes, grievances, arbitrations, political action and relations with the AFL-CIO and with other unions. NOTE: This collection is housed offsite and advance notice is required for use.

Historical/Biographical Note

The organization of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) in 1947 was the culmination of nearly a half-century of struggle for telephone unionism. Until the middle 1890s there was very little union activity among telephone workers. In 1898 the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) began to try to organize some of the telephone linemen and cable splicers. Numerous strikes by the IBEW in the 1910s were unsuccessful as the Bell Telephone Company used its monopolistic control over the industry to defeat telephone unionism. However, during these years there was an upsurge of union membership among telephone operators mostly centered in Boston. A joint organizing campaign by the IBEW and Women's Trade Union League was very successful and won major concessions in 1914-1915. However, after a failed strike in 1919, the Bell Company began to aggressively promote company unions and aggressively fought all organizing drives.

Telephone unions found that it was very difficult to organize an industry in which the Bell Company had monopolistic control and almost unlimited resources. The company took advantage of the fact that telephone workers were geographically dispersed and the conversion to dial telephones made the system less vulnerable to labor slowdowns. Bell's hiring practices assured that the vast majority of telephone workers were relatively highly educated, native-born Caucasians who were well spoken in English. Telephone operators were predominately young women who tended to work for only a few years before marrying and having families. These workforce demographics made union organizing difficult.

The passage of the Wagner Act in 1936, which removed all the legal barriers to industrial union organization, reinvigorated the campaign for telephone unionism. However, progress was slow as telephone workers were for the most part insulated from the worst effects of the Great Depression. The Bell Company's response to the Wagner Act that outlawed company unions was to transform them into so-called independent labor organizations (non AFL or CIO) that could claim to be in compliance with national labor laws. During the early CIO years from 1937 through 1942 union organizing proceeded slowly in the telephone industry. The focus was on amalgamating the various local unions that were plant, craft, or district based into a national federation.

In 1939 the National Federation of Telephone Workers (NFTW) was formed but this organization was weak and decentralized. Stagnant wages and deteriorating working conditions during World War II stimulated telephone worker solidarity and union amalgamation. When Joseph A. Beirne was elected President of NFTW in 1943 the union began a full-scale organizing campaign. In 1946 there was a nation wide strike that led to the first national agreement with the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT & T). However, recognizing the weakness of the NFTW structure AT & T forced another strike in 1947. When this strike collapsed the NFTW structure fell apart and the CWA was born.

During the next twenty-five years the CWA under the leadership of Joseph A. Beirne moved aggressively to organize telephone workers across the United States. AT & T, with its monopolistic control of long-distance ("long lines") service, resisted. Not until 1974, after years of labor-management unrest and a series of strikes, did AT&T agree to system-wide collective bargaining. Shortly after the national contract was signed Joseph A. Beirne died. He was succeeded as President by CWA Secretary-Treasurer Glenn E. Watts.

In the 1980s the CWA began to expand beyond telecommunications creating a Public Employees Department that successfully organized 34,000 New Jersey state workers in 1981. In 1985 Morton Bahr became the CWA President. In 1987 the CWA merged with the International Typographical Workers Union. In 1992 both the National Association of Broadcast Employees and the Newspaper Guild became part of the CWA's Printing, Publishing and Media Workers division. As of this writing the CWA is one of the United States' strongest unions with more than 600,000 members.

Arrangement

Series are arranged alphabetically by topic within each series, and chronologically within topics.

The files are grouped into 11 series:

Missing Title

  1. I, Files of the President's Office (Morton Bahr)
  2. II, Files of the Secretary-Treasurer's Office
  3. III, Files of Vice-President John C. Carroll
  4. IV, Correspondence of Lou Gerber, Legislative Staff
  5. V, Files of John Morgan, Legislative Assistant to the President
  6. VI, Files of the Contract Compliance Section
  7. VII, Files of the Internal Communications Section
  8. VIII, Contract Correspondence of the Printing, Publishing and Media Workers Sector (PPMWS) Section
  9. IX, Files of the Public Affairs Section
  10. X, Files of the Public and Health Care Workers Section
  11. XI, Files of the Research Section

Scope and Content Note

The CWA Records, Addendum is arranged in 11 series, described below:

Series I: Files of the President's Office, 1970-1997:

Sub-series I:A: Correspondence, 1985-1997 includes incoming and outgoing correspondence between CWA national headquarters and districts, local officers, members, and other individuals and organizations.

Sub-series I:B: Bargaining Files, 1982-1997, includes notes on meetings and correspondence with management, contracts, negotiations materials, and data relating to other labor organizations.

Sub-series I:C: General Files, 1970-1996, includes files on the AFL-CIO, CWA committees, conferences, financial contributions, conventions, CWA departments and divisions, Executive Board minutes, U.S. government departments, legislation, political action, organizing, and public relations.

Sub-series I:D: consists of records relating to the J.A. Beirne Foundation and the Joseph A. Bierne and Ray Hackney Scholarship Funds, 1977-1998, including files on grants, scholarships awarded, and student correspondence.

Sub-series I:E: Membership Files and Staff Activity Reports,1980-1988, includes files on dues-related matters, and district and national staff Activity Reports.

Series II: Files of the Secretary-Treasurer's Office, 1939-1993, includes material on relations with the AFL-CIO, the Democratic National Committee, and CWA Districts, as well as financial statements, pension files, strategic planning files and records of the Budget Review Committee and Ways and Means Committee.

Series III: Files of Vice-President John C. Carroll, 1958-1992, includes material on the AFL-CIO, AT&T, arbitrations, bargaining, the Bell System, divestiture, grievances, health care, "Jobs with Justice," the CWA Legal Department, and memoranda of agreement, as well as general correspondence.

Series IV: Correspondence of Lou Gerber, Legislative Staff, 1973-1982. Chronological file of legislative correspondence.

Series V: Files of John Morgan, Legislative Assistant to the President, 1966-1996, includes correspondence, files on Federal Communications Commission Hearings, legislative material and files relating to foreign trade issues.

Sub-series V:A: Correspondence, 1969-1994.

Sub-series V:B: FCC Hearings, Rulings and Court Cases, 1966-1995.

Sub-series V:C: General Files, 1973-1996.

Series VI: Files of the Contract Compliance Section, 1971-1995. Files relate to Alltel, AT&T, Bell System, Centel, Contel, GTE, NYNEX, United Telephone Company, US West, and Western Electric

Series VII: Files of the Internal Communications Section, 1986-1988. Includes files relating to Communications School, general correspondence, newsletters, and staff personal histories

Series VIII: Contract Correspondence of the Printing, Publishing and Media Workers Sector (PPMWS) Section, 1986.

Sub-series VIII:A: Mailers Unions, Local 3-Local 167.

Sub-series VIII:B: Typographical Unions, Local 1-Local 969.

Series IX: Files of the Public Affairs Section, 1983-1991, includes material relating to AT&T, bargaining, conventions, Northern Telecom, public relations, as well as clippings, press releases and news summaries.

Series X: Files of the Public and Health Care Workers Section, 1986-1995, includes material on the AFL-CIO, the A. Philip Randolph Institute, conventions, CWA district, Executive Board meetings, CWA locals, pay equity, public and health-care workers, and the Texas State Employees Union, as well as general correspondence.

Series XI: Files of the Research Department, 1947-1998. Primarily bargaining-related records.

Sub-series XI:A: AT&T, Ameritech, Bargaining, Bell System, Correspondence, Council on Wage and Price Stability, Employee/Salary Reports, MCI, National Information Infrastructure, NYNEX, Northern Telecom, Occupational Job Evaluation, Pacific Telecom, Quality of Work Life, Strike Press Coverage, Technology, Wage-Price Guidelines, Western Electric.

Sub-series XI:B: Arbitration Cases (Microfiche).

Conditions Governing Access

Materials are open without restrictions.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright (or related rights to publicity and privacy) for materials in this collection, created by the Communications Workers of America was not transferred to New York University. Permission to use materials must be secured from the copyright holder.

Preferred Citation

Published citations should take the following form:

Identification of item, date; Collection name; Collection number; box number; folder number;
Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
70 Washington Square South
New York, NY 10012, New York University Libraries.

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 the Communications Workers of America, 2002. The accession number associated with this gift is 2001.174.

Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements

Sub-series XI:B: Arbitration Cases contains microfiche

Collection processed by

Marcia Bassett and Adam Schafenberg, 2005-2006

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-20 16:30:31 -0400.
Language: Description is in English.

Edition of this Guide

This version was derived from CWA Addendum.doc

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