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Abbreviation | CWA |
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Predecessor | National Federation of Telephone Workers |
Formation | 1947 |
Type | Trade union |
Headquarters | Washington, D.C., US |
Location |
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Membership |
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President | Claude Cummings Jr. |
Secretary-treasurer | Ameenah Salaam |
Affiliations | |
Website | cwa-union |
The Communications Workers of America (CWA) is the largest communications and media labor union in the United States, representing about 700,000 members in both the private and public sectors (also in Canada and Puerto Rico). [1] [2] The union has 27 locals in Canada via CWA-SCA Canada (French: 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 Strategic Organizing Center, [3] the Canadian Labour Congress, and UNI Global Union.
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. [4] 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". NFTW was a federation of sovereign local independent unions that lacked authority over the affiliated local unions leaving it at a serious organizational disadvantage. After losing a strike with AT&T in 1947, the federation led by Joseph A. Beirne, [5] reorganized as CWA, a truly national union, which affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1949. The union's Canadian members split away in 1972, forming the Communication Workers of Canada. [6]
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 (now renamed The NewsGuild-CWA). In 2004, the Association of Flight Attendants merged with CWA, and became formally known as the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, or AFA-CWA. In 2020 CWA launched the Campaign to Organize Digital Employees (CODE-CWA) initiative to unionize tech, video game, and digital workers which has led to CWA becoming a major union for US and Canada tech worker organizing, [7] [8] [2] including organizing all non-management workers at the Hawaiʻi digital wireless carrier Mobi in 2022. [9]
Following is a partial list of contracts and strikes that the Communications Workers of America were involved in: [10] [11] [12]
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. An expensive strike due to significant number of illegal firings and civil suits from Southern Bell. Out of 200 fired strikers, 150 were reinstated following legal action, with over $200,000 in back pay awarded. [13] AT&T was forced to acknowledge the union. |
1968 | AT&T | 200,000 | 18 days | Wage increases to compensate for cost of living, and medical benefits won |
1971 | Bell System | 400,000 | 9 months | Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) won for workers |
1983 | Bell System | 600,000 | 22 days | 1983 AT&T strike: 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 days | Strike was due to mandatory overtime demands and forced pay-for-performance plan. Overtime caps were won. [14] |
2000 | Verizon | 80,000 | 18 days | Verizon strike of 2000: 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. |
2012 | AT&T | 20,000 | 2 Days | AT&T West; California, Nevada, and AT&T East; Connecticut - Unfair labor practice strike during contract negotiations. [15] |
2016 | Verizon | 40,000 | 49 Days | Verizon strike of 2016: Issues include healthcare and pension costs, moving call center jobs overseas and temporary job relocations. [16] Call center jobs were returned to the bargaining unit; pension increases won; healthcare reimbursement added and first Verizon Wireless contract reached. [17] |
2019 | AT&T | 20,000 | 5 days | 2019 AT&T strike: AT&T Southeast - Unfair labor practice strike during contract negotiations. [18] |
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According to CWA's Department of Labor records since 2006, when membership classifications were first reported, the total reported membership has varied greatly and unpredictably due to the addition and removal of reported membership categories. [19] As of 2014, around 27%, or a fourth, of the union's total membership are classified as "non-dues-paying retirees", and not eligible to vote in the union. The other, voting eligible, classifications are "active" (65%) and "dues-paying retired" (8%). CWA contracts also cover some non-members, known as agency fee payers, which number comparatively about 7% of the size of the union's membership. This accounts for 166,491 "non-dues-paying retirees" and 52,240 "dues-paying retirees", plus about 43,353 non-members paying agency fees, compared to 404,289 "active" members. [1]
Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is a labor union representing almost 1.9 million workers in over 100 occupations in the United States and Canada. SEIU is focused on organizing workers in three sectors: healthcare, including hospital, home care and nursing home workers; public services ; and property services.
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The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) is the second largest teacher's labor union in America. The union was founded in Chicago. John Dewey and Margaret Haley were founders.
Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada was a largely private-sector labour union with 150,000 members, active from 1992 to 2013. It was created in 1992 through the merger of three unions: the Canadian Paperworkers Union, the Communications and Electrical Workers of Canada, and the Energy and Chemical Workers Union. See below for some other unions that were merged into the CEP. CEP was affiliated to the Canadian Labour Congress.
The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA is a union representing flight attendants in the United States. As of January 2018, AFA represents 50,000 flight attendants at 20 airlines. Since 2004, AFA has been part of the Communications Workers of America (CWA), an affiliate of AFL–CIO. AFA is also an affiliate of the International Transport Workers' Federation.
Transport Workers Union of America (TWU) is a United States labor union that was founded in 1934 by subway workers in New York City, then expanded to represent transit employees in other cities, primarily in the eastern U.S. This article discusses the parent union and its largest local, Local 100, which represents the transport workers of New York City. TWU is a member of the AFL–CIO.
The NewsGuild-CWA is a labor union founded by newspaper journalists in 1933. In addition to improving wages and working conditions, its constitution says its purpose is to fight for honesty in journalism and the news industry's business practices. The NewsGuild-CWA now represents workers in a wide range of roles including editorial, technology, advertising, and others at newspapers, online publications, magazines, news services, and in broadcast. The current president is Jon Schleuss.
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Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) is a labor union in the United States and Canada. Founded in 1937, the RWDSU represents about 60,000 workers in a wide range of industries, including but not limited to retail, grocery stores, poultry processing, dairy processing, cereal processing, soda bottlers, bakeries, health care, hotels, manufacturing, public sector workers like crossing guards, sanitation, and highway workers, warehouses, building services, and distribution.
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) is the largest trade union of public employees in the United States. It represents 1.3 million public sector employees and retirees, including health care workers, corrections officers, sanitation workers, police officers, firefighters, and childcare providers. Founded in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1932, AFSCME is part of the AFL–CIO, one of the two main labor federations in the United States. AFSCME has had four presidents since its founding.
Joseph Anthony Beirne was an American labour union leader.
The National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians (NABET-CWA) is a labor union representing employees in television, radio, film, and media production. A division of the Communications Workers of America (CWA), NABET represents about 12,000 workers organized into about 35 local unions ("locals").
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But despite this swell in labor activism, employees at no major video game studios and only a handful of tech offices have formally voted to form or join a union.
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