| Full name | Communications Workers of America |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1947 |
| Members | 549,791 (2008)[1] |
| Country | United States, Canada |
| Affiliation | AFL-CIO, CLC |
| Key people | Larry Cohen, president |
| Office location | Washington, D.C. |
| Website | cwa-union.org |
Communications Workers of America (CWA) is the largest communications and media labor union in the United States representing about 550,000 members in both the private and public sectors.[1] The union has 27 locals in Canada via CWA-SCA Canada (Syndicat des communications d’Amérique) representing about 8,000 members. CWA has several affiliated subsidiary labor unions bringing total membership to over 700,000. CWA is headquartered in Washington, DC, and affiliated with the AFL-CIO, the Canadian Labour Congress, and Union Network International. The current president is Larry Cohen, a member of the AFL-CIO Executive Council.
Contents |
In 1918 telephone operators organized under the Telephone Operators Department of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. While initially successful at organizing, the union was damaged by a 1923 strike and subsequent AT&T lockout. After AT&T installed company-controlled Employees' Committees, the Telephone Operators Department eventually disbanded.[2] The CWA's roots lie in the 1938 reorganization of telephone workers into the National Federation of Telephone Workers after the Wagner Act outlawed such employees' committees or company unions . After losing a strike with AT&T in 1947, the federation led by Joseph A. Beirne,[3] reorganized as CWA, a truly national union, which affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1949. CWA has continued to expand into areas beyond traditional telephone service. In 1994 the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians merged with the CWA and became The Broadcasting and Cable Television Workers Sector of the CWA, NABET-CWA. Since 1997, it includes The Newspaper Guild, and since 2000 it includes Human Rights Watch's support staff. In 2004, the Association of Flight Attendants merged with CWA, and became formally known as the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, or AFA-CWA.
Following is a partial list of contracts and strikes that the Communications Workers of America were involved in:[4][5][6]
| Year | Company | Number of Members Affected | Duration of Strike | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1955 | Southern Bell Telephone Co. | 50,000 | 72 days | Strike was in answer to management's effort to prohibit workers from striking. |
| 1968 | AT&T | 200,000 | 18 days | Wage increases to compensate for cost of living, and medical benefits won |
| 1971 | Bell System | 400,000 | 1 week | Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) won for workers |
| 1983 | Bell System | 600,000 | 22 days | Last contract with the Bell System before its breakup. Bell System sought givebacks. The contract resulted in Wage increases, employment security, pension, and health improvements. |
| 1986 | AT&T | 175,000 | 25 days | COLA clause suspended in contract - former Bell System contracts vary substantially from the AT&T contract. |
| 1989 | AT&T | 175,000 | n/a | Child and elder care benefits added to contract. COLA clause removed from contract |
| 1989 | NYNEX | 175,000 | 17 weeks | Strike was due to major health care cuts by NYNEX |
| 1998 | US West | 34,000 | 15 day | Strike was due to mandatory overtime demands and forced pay-for-performance plan. Overtime caps were won.[7] |
| 2000 | Verizon | 80,000 | 3 weeks | Strike was due to mandatory overtime demands. Provisions for stress were won. |
| 2011 | Verizon | 45,000 | 13 days | Strike was due to major wage and health care cuts by Verizon, a forced pay-for-performance plan and movement-of-work job security provisions. Contract extended. |