TELEPHONE WORKERS LOCAL NO. 7110

TELEPHONE WORKERS LOCAL NO. 7110. Unionization of the telephone industry during the first three decades of this century was confined to a few scattered pockets of organized workers. The first union to attempt to organize telephone workers — the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) — achieved limited success during these years. These early organizing efforts did not include women who worked in the telephone industry. It was not until 1912 that the IBEW accepted telephone operators — generally women — as members. In 1919, IBEW’s telephone department claimed 200 telephone locals with 20,000 members.

During WORLD WAR I, on July 22, 1918, under a Presidential order, the telephone and telegraph system was placed under the control of the federal government and the Postmaster General Albert S. Burelson. In 1919, Burelson was faced with a strike by the IBEW that tied up phone service in New England and threatened to become nationwide. In an attempt to end the strike, Burelson issued a government bulletin acknowledging the rights of workers to bargain through committees “chosen by them, to act for them.”

Frightened by the prospect of legitimate unionism on a large scale as a result of Burelson’s statement, AT&T encouraged employees to form and join company dominated unions (usually called associations or committees). The company associations succeeded in destroying the existing IBEW telephone locals. By 1923, IBEW had been ousted in every location except Montana and the Chicago Plant. Company associations dominated the telephone industry until 1935.

In 1935, with the passage of the National Labor Relations Act (more commonly known as the Wagner Act), the situation changed for telephone workers. The Wagner Act did several things:

                   It prohibited the employer from engaging in certain activities which were defined 
                   as unfair labor practices (this included setting up and promoting company unions).

                   It protected union and collective activity. In addition to organizing, it protected 
                   workers who take part in grievances, on the job protests, picketing and strikes.

                   It established an agency, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), to enforce the 
                   above provisions.

Strengthened by the new rights gained under the Wagner Act, new independent unions developed across the country. As the number of independent unions grew, their leaders recognized the need of joining together in an organization where they could exchange ideas and coordinate national activities.

After preliminary meetings in St. Louis and Chicago, representatives of 31 telephone organizations, representing a total combined membership of 145,000, assembled in New Orleans in November, 1938, and adopted a constitution and established the National Federation of Telephone Workers (NFTW). The preamble of the NFTW Constitution clearly stated the reason for creating the union:

                       We, the Telephone Workers of America, mindful of the fact that many conditions 
                       necessary to our economic security and general welfare can best be effectively 
                       secured by united, cooperative and continuous action on a nationwide scale, do 
                       hereby combine and organize under the name of the National Federation of Telephone 
                       Workers.”

NFTW, never a national union, was a federation of sovereign local independent unions. NFTW’s lack of authority over the affiliated local unions left it at a serious disadvantage in dealing with AT&T.

In December 1941, following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the AFL and CIO voluntarily gave no-strike pledges to the federal government for the duration of the war. In January, 1942, President Roosevelt created the National War Labor Board (NWLB). The NWLB was charged with settling all disputes between labor and management that threatened war production.

The NWLB and twelve Regional War Labor Boards were composed of an equal number of representatives from management, labor and the private sector. All of the labor representatives appointed to the Board came out of the AFL and CIO. This was a great concern to the NFTW which was not affiliated with the AFL or CIO and felt that the National War Labor Board and Regional Boards would not effectively protect the interests of telephone workers and that the wages of telephone workers would suffer greatly during the war.

The concerns of the NFTW were realized by events. The average real wage of a telephone worker dropped from 83 cents an hour in 1939 to 70 cents an hour in 1943. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, telephone workers in 1939 occupied the twenty-second place on a list of average weekly earnings of workers in 123 industries; by early 1945, they had fallen to eighty-sixth place on this list.

At hearings before the War Labor Board, NFTW’s Ohio Federation presented a report revealing the starting and top rates of telephone operators in 17 Bell System companies. The report showed that in 1944, starting operator rates varied from a low of $16 a week to a high of $23 with top rates ranging from $26 a week to $34. A Wisconsin operator starting at $16 a week could not reach the top rate of $27 in less than 16 years!

As a result of these wage disparities, telephone unions brought numerous cases before the National War Labor Board and the Regional Boards. Response to these appeals was exceedingly slow, and by mid-1944, there were 85 cases brought by telephone unions still waiting to be ruled upon.

The continuation of inadequate wages and the failure of the Boards to respond to union appeals led to increasing dissatisfaction on the part of telephone workers. These feelings came to a head in November, 1944, when the Dayton telephone workers went out on strike. Within 3 days the strike had spread to 25 cities in Ohio and within 6 days to Washington, D.C., Chicago and Detroit. At that point the government cagreed to establish a national board modeled on the NWLB that would only handle the cases of telephone workers.

On December 29, 1944, the National Telephone Panel (later to be renamed the National Telephone Commission) was established. It had two members each from the public, industry and telephone labor sectors. Its purpose was to hear and adjudicate all telephone cases and to formulate basic telephone wage policy.

The Telephone Panel was much more effective that the National War Labor Board. By the end of 1945, when it was terminated, it had heard 55 disputes involving 180,000 workers.

When WORLD WAR II ended in August, 1945, the wages of telephone workers remained below those of many industries. Contract negotiations stalled and the presidents of the NFTW affiliates authorized the Union’s Executive Board to call a nationwide strike at 6:00 a.m., March 7, 1946. In the early morning hours of March 7, workers around the country prepared to walk the picket lines.

At 5:30 a.m., after 20 hours of bargaining, NFTW President Joseph Beirne and Cleo Craig, AT&T Vice- President in charge of negotiations, signed the Beirne-Craig memorandum. A strike had been avoided and for the first time in history, AT&T had negotiated a national agreement with the Union and committed its associated companies to that agreement.

While a major victory was won in the 1946 negotiations, the basic weakness of the NFTW had revealed itself. During negotiations, 34 of 51 affiliated unions broke away and signed separate agreements.

This weakness in the NFTW structure was exposed with devastating consequences in the 1947 strike. In 1947, AT&T was not only prepared for a strike, it forced NFTW into strike action. AT&T was determined not to repeat the Beirne-Craig type of national settlement. It flatly refused to bargain on an industry-wide basis. AT&T approached bargaining with a divide and conquer strategy. The company did not make a wage offer until three weeks into the strike and made the offer contingent upon the affiliates agreeing not to clear it with NFTW’s policy committee. Five weeks after the strike began, seventeen contracts had been signed. The strike collapsed and the NFTW was finished.

During the 1947 strike, AFL and CIO unions lent their moral and financial support despite the fact that NFTW was not affiliated with either the AFL or the CIO at the time. International unions in both the AFL and the CIO aided the strikers with contributions totaling $128,000. This support was very important in helping NFTW workers survive the strike and regroup into a strong and truly national union.

In June, 1947, a truly national union, the Communications Workers of America, came into being. The first CWA convention took place that month in Miami with 200 delegates representing 162,000 workers. The delegates adopted the first CWA constitution which converted the former autonomous organizations of the NFTW into a three-level union: the National Union, 39 Divisions and the Locals. Joseph Beirne was elected President; Carlton Werkau, Secretary-Treasurer.

The 1945 Dubuque City Directory listed 290 W. 4th.

The 1964 through 1968 Dubuque City Directory listed 111 W. 6th. St.

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Source:

CWA History. Online: https://cwa-union.org/about/cwa-history