1971: Biggest Settlement In CWA History — Task Force ‘71 Receives Credit

In addition, wage progression schedules were shortened to 5 years and vacation time was improved to 2 weeks after one year's service. The total wage benefit package amounted to more than 33.5% over the life of the agreement. A large share of the credit for those successful negotiations went to the Task Force ‘71 Mobilization Program that President Beirne set up to activate the membership in support of CWA's bargaining objectives.

Task Force ‘71 consisted of 50,000 local union leaders (one for every 10-15 members) who led training sessions, put up informational posters, passed out bargaining leaflets and worked to keep their members informed and activated. The Task Force ‘71 participants wore "small potato 71" pins to identify themselves as part of this important corps of local leaders.

While the 1971 strike lasted one week nationally, for 37,000 New York Tel plant workers it lasted 218 days. This unit achieved a breakthrough in union security by obtaining an agency shop that was later extended in 1974 to the entire Bell System.

1971 proved a busy year for CWA but did not deter more than 1,500 delegates, alternates and guests from attending the first "special convention." The delegates adopted several constitutional amendments at this convention. The most important of these was the adoption of a constitutional amendment dealing with the duties and responsibilities of locals. The amendment required all locals to carry out the union's policies, participate actively in political and legislative activities, participate in local officers and stewards' training programs, and attend all district, state and area meetings.

Also adopted at the convention was a constitutional amendment creating CWA Retired Members Clubs and providing three-year terms of office at both the International and Local level. (Prior to 1971 there were two-year terms.)

It's been awarded annually since to local officers and staff who make an outstanding contribution to organizing. The award is a replica of the Stetson hat worn by President Joseph A. Beirne.

In 1973, 6,000 CWA members in Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky went on strike against the General Telephone companies of those states. The strike lasted two months in Indiana and Ohio before settlement was reached, but the workers in Kentucky were on the picket line for five moths before their contract demands were met.

During the 1973 CWA convention, extensive discussions were held on the methods by which CWA dealt with the problems of women and minority members. As a result of these discussions, the National Executive Board established a Blacks and Other Minorities Structure Study Committee and a Female Structure Committee. In November 1973, these committees convened at CWA headquarters and prepared reports for the Executive Board that included recommended policies and procedures.

Extended discussions at the Executive Board meetings in January and February of 1974 led to a resolution recommending that the President develop a "Committee on Equity" concept from the national to the local level of the union. The Executive Board authorized the appointment of a National committee on Equity consisting of rank and file members from each district that is still in place today.

The Federation of Women Telephone Workers of Southern California (FWTW) merged with CWA. Its President, Dina Beaumont, became the first female CWA Vice President in over two decades.

1974 was a historic year for CWA. For the first time, the Bell System agreed to conduct unified national bargaining. The company had finally given up the charade that claimed its operating companies were independent, self-controlled businesses. The new bargaining was structured so that wages, benefits and contract language would be negotiated at one national table. The 1974 bargaining session was significant because unlike its 1968 and 1971 predecessors, it did not result in a CWA strike.

In January 1974, President Beirne left his sick bed to announce to the members of the Collective Bargaining Council that AT&T had agreed to his 28-year-old objective — national bargaining.

Joseph Beirne, who had pursued the goal of unified national bargaining for all of his 27 years as CWA President, did not seek reelection and died on Labor Day of 1974. He was succeeded by Secretary-Treasurer Glenn E. Watts, who had first gone to work for C&P Telephone in 1941.

Three of the most bitter CWA strikes of the 1970's took place at other independent telephone locations: a six month strike at Rochester, New York Telephone over an attack on wage levels, at General of Kentucky in 1976 over medical benefits and work rules, and a three month walkout at New Jersey Telephone over the issue of supervisors performing bargaining unit work.

CWA held its first annual National Women's Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Conference participants attended plenary sessions, workshops and discussion groups. Resolutions on the Equal Rights Amendment, child care and job pressures were presented to the CWA Executive Board.

On July 12, 1979, the Executive Board authorized President Watts to establish CWA's National Organizing Department.

Over the course of the decade, CWA began to expand into fields outside of telecommunications. In July 1980, the CWA Public Workers Department was created. One of the biggest successes in the public sector was the organizing of 34,000 New Jersey State workers in 1981. Today, CWA represents 100,000 public and health care workers across the country.

The CWA Committee on the Future was created in July 1981 by action of the CWA convention. The 14-member committee was composed of one elected representative from each District and a representative from the Public Workers sector, and was charged with evaluating CWA's structure in light of rapid technological change.

After a year and a half of study and debate, the Committee on the Future submitted its final recommendations to the delegates to the special convention in Philadelphia in March 1983. The 1,750 delegates adopted 10 resolutions and two constitutional changes proposed by the Committee on the Future.

The first National Conference on Minority Concerns was held in Dearborn, Michigan. Participants representing more than 100 locals attended workshops on assertiveness training, leadership skills training for minority workers, effective persuasion through verbal communications, building minority coalitions and coping with stress.

In 1983, only months before the Bell System was to be broken into separate companies, CWA opened national contract negotiations. Not surprisingly, it was a difficult round of negotiations. AT&T was demanding givebacks from workers and seeking substandard job titles. Seven hundred thousand CWA members went on strike on August 7 for better wages, employment security, pension plan changes and health insurance improvements. After a twenty-two day strike, the telephone industry agreed to meet the union's demands. This would be the last time CWA would be able to negotiate at one national table for all its Bell System members because divestiture was only a few months away.

In response to recommendations by the National Committee on Equity for training opportunities devoted to minorities, the Executive Board established the Minorities Leadership Institute — a three week intensive study program. The MLI is held annually with participants recommended by District Vice Presidents.

For CWA, the most significant event of this decade was the divestiture of AT&T on January 1, 1984. The breakup of the Bell System was of great concern to the union. CWA feared divestiture would bring relocations, personal hardship and repudiation of contract gains by the new independent Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs) and their subsidiaries. Personal hardship and relocation did, in fact, occur, forcing CWA to work hard to preserve the gains four decades of sacrifice and solidarity had achieved. Job security issues catapulted to the top of the list of bargaining priorities for 1986. During this difficult period, President Watts often reminded the members that it was AT&T that had broken up, not CWA. The union remained as unified, committed and strong as ever.

Also in this year, members of the Federation of Telephone Workers of Pennsylvania voted overwhelmingly to merge with CWA. The Executive Board created District 13 to accommodate the 12,250 newly affiliated men and women.

1986 presented CWA with its first negotiations with the post-divestiture telephone industry. Twelve years after CWA had achieved national bargaining, the union was forced back to the old multiple table way of bargaining. CWA had to bargain not only with AT&T, but with the independent RBOCs and their subsidiaries. National bargaining was replaced by 48 different bargaining tables.

In AT&T negotiations, the company attempted to take back health care benefits, lower clerical wages, and eliminate cost of living adjustments obtained in earlier contracts. CWA had no choice but to strike. The strike lasted 26 days and AT&T agreed to provide wage and employment security improvements and retain health care benefits intact. Although negotiations with the RBOCs were also difficult, they were less contentious than those with AT&T. Strikes were necessary against some of these operating companies, but none lasted more than a few days.

The first large-scale mobilization effort began with New Jersey clerical and professional state workers. Faced with no right to strike in New Jersey, state workers launched the Committee of 1,000 to involve members in mobilization activities aimed at pressuring the employer during bargaining. A strong mobilization system of organization, education and collective action resulted in gaining a breakthrough contract for state workers.

In 1987, members of the International Typographical Union (ITU) were welcomed into CWA. Members of the oldest union in the AFL-CIO representing union typesetters and mailers throughout the U.S. and Canada approved affiliation with CWA. Recognizing the distinct nature of the work these members perform, the union created a new Printing, Publishing and Media Workers (PPMWS) Sector and elected a Sector Vice President.

In 1988, CWA celebrated its 50th anniversary. The convention took place in New Orleans, the site of the NFTW's founding in 1938. From its roots in the NFTW, CWA has grown to become one of the most respected unions in the United States, representing telecommunications workers, state and local employees, printers and health care workers.

CWA Mobilization was kicked off at the ‘88 convention in preparation for a major round of bargaining in 1989. Mobilization — organization, education and collective action — was a way for CWA to get back to the basics of unionism. Members were recruited to work one-on-one to educate members about bargaining and workplace issues. Mobilization became a way of life for many CWA locals.

Mobilization by CWA members around AT&T bargaining "proves how successful we can be when we stick together and fight together," said President Morton Bahr. Faced with the solidarity of mobilized workers, AT&T backed off health care cost-shifting demands. The settlement for 175,000 workers broke new ground on child and elder care by creating a $5 million fund to establish care centers and support facilities, granting parental and elder care leave with a job guarantee and paid medical and dental coverage for six months.

Mobilization also was key for NYNEX workers who spent 17 weeks on the picket line fighting management's attempts to shift health care costs. "Their victory in holding the line against concessions is a victory for tens of thousands of other telephone workers. Because of their sacrifice, others won't have to endure strikes in our next round of negotiations because we've sent a message throughout the industry — we're solidly united," President Bahr declared following the December 4 settlement.

But the strike was not without a price. Local 1103 member Gerry Hogan lost his life on the picket line when he was struck and killed by a scab driving a car at a NYNEX facility.

At the ‘89 convention, delegates voted to change the Defense Fund rules so strikers would receive a flat weekly payout beginning in ‘92 and continue a needs-based fund to provide emergency relief.

Delegates to CWA 53rd Convention resolved that the 1990s will be the decade of CWA Wall to Wall." Delegates reaffirmed their commitment to building the union by working to make every organized unity "CWA Wall to Wall." Delegates also made changes to the CWA Constitution to allow the Committee on Equity and the Women's Committee to give annual reports and recommendations to future conventions.

In an effort to put the bitterness of the ‘89 strike behind, CWA and NYNEX negotiated an unprecedented early settlement 11 months before contract expiration. The agreement called for a 13% wage hike, retention of COLA and fully-paid health care. It included a breakthrough agreement in company-wide organizing, neutrality and card check recognition.

1992: Membership Increases with Affiliations; CWA Elects 1st Woman Secy.-Treas.

The National Association of Broadcasting Engineers and Technicians (NABET) affiliated with CWA. NABET represents 10,000 engineers, technicians and other broadcast workers at NBC and ABC, television networks and 50 independent television stations and cable TV production companies.

Members at AT&T worked for six weeks beyond contract expiration during the summer of ‘92, carrying out an extensive mobilization strategy against the telecommunications giant. It was the largest bargaining unit ever to attempt a coordinated inside tactics strategy — 100,000 members, 500 locals, 50 states and thousands of work locations. The coordinated inside tactics by members and massive external mobilization efforts, including generating community and AT&T customer support, proved that sometimes applying pressure in different ways can work better than a strike.

After more than 30 years headquartered at the Mercury Building in Washington, D.C., the union moved to a new building across town, two blocks from the Department of Labor and four blocks from the Capitol.

The professional and technical workers hold non-academic positions throughout the nine Campus University of California system.

On June 30, CWA activists joined other trade unionists and community activists in a day of protest at 30 regional offices of the National Labor Relations Board demanding justice from regional directors, and labor law reform to protect the rights of workers to organize. The civil disobedience led to 500 arrests.

CWA's Barbara Easterling made history by becoming the first woman to fill the AFL-CIO's second highest post when she and new AFL-CIO President Tom Donohue won election at the Federation's Executive Council meeting.

After 5 months with no contract, Bell Atlantic finally fell in line with the mainstream of the telecommunications industry offering its 37,000 CWA workers double digit wage and pension increases, employment security protections and access to future jobs. Over 6,000 members were suspended for such actions as sickouts, refusing overtime and passing out "Block 900" flyers. The workplace mobilization effort was strengthened by a multi-million dollar advertising and corporate campaign.

In 1995 and early 1996, 7,800 professional and technical university workers joined the CWA family. In 1995, 4,000 technical workers employed by the University of California system voted to be represented by CWA in UPTE-CWA (Union of Professional and Technical Employees). Fifteen months later, in March 1996, 3,700 professional researchers throughout the University of California system voted overwhelmingly for CWA representation as part of UPTE-CWA.

A five year campaign that integrated continuous bargaining, membership education, political action, mobilization and strategic organizing, culminated in March 1997 with CWA and SBC (Southwestern Bell Corporation) signing the most far-reaching card check agreement in the union's history. A similar agreement was reached with PacTel in April.

In the aftermath of the 41-day strike and 2-day general strike against the privatization of the Puerto Rico Telephone Company, CWA entered into an alliance with the PRTC workers. The agreement calls for joint bargaining and organizing strategies in response to the acquisition of the PRTC by GTE.