Union Telephone Company history

In 1919, IBEW’s telephone department claimed 200 telephone locals with 20,000 members.

In December 1920, the Chicago Telephone Company bought the Illinois assets of Central Union Telephone, creating a new company, Illinois Bell Telephone.

In 1921, Cleveland Telephone became incorporated as The Ohio Bell Telephone Company, an identity that remained for over 70 years.

By 1923, IBEW had been ousted in every location except Montana and the Chicago Plant.

In the Cleveland area alone, over 188,000 people used Ohio Bell's services in 1940.

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.

By the end of 1861, Western Union had built the first transcontinental telegraph line. It grew rapidly and absorbed more than 500 other companies, including its chief competitor, Postal Telegraph Inc., in 1943.

On December 29, 1944, the National Telephone Panel (later to be renamed the National Telephone Commission) was established.

While a major victory was won in the 1946 negotiations, the basic weakness of the NFTW had revealed itself.

First known as the National Federation of Telephone Workers, the union became the Communications Workers of America in 1947.

The 1949 convention mandated that the Executive Board establish a special Constitution Committee to investigate the possibility of setting up a two-level structure.

When the national organization restructured in about 1950, Texas became part of District 6, and the Fort Worth local became Local 6201.

In 1951, after two days of heated debate on the issue, the delegates to the annual convention voted to establish a national defense fund with contributions of 50 cents per member per month.

* When CWA changed to a two-level structure, eleven Districts were created (9 geographic Districts and Western Electric Sales and Western Electric Installations). In 1953, Districts 10 and 11 were dissolved.

In October, 1963, CWA members went on strike against General Telephone of California for wages and benefits comparable to those enjoyed by Bell employees in the state.

Ten years later the company operated about 600,000 phones in the city and surrounding suburbs, and by 1965 that number had reached one million.

The local bought a building in 1973 at 421 S. Adams.

A second consent decree signed on May 30, 1974, provided $30 million back pay and wage adjustments to 25,000 employees in lower management positions.

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

The Committee on the Future was created in July, 1981 by action of the CWA convention.

Following years in court in the biggest antitrust case in United States history, AT&T agreed to divest its operations in 1982.

In 1983, only months before the Bell system was to be broken into separate companies, CWA opened national contract negotiations.

On January 1, 1984, The Ohio Bell Telephone Company became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ameritech Corporation.

In 1985, Present Glenn E. Watts and Secretary-Treasurer Louis Knecht retired after serving eleven years in these offices.

The national CWA reorganized again in 1986, and Texas rejoined District 6.

In 1988, CWA celebrated its 50th anniversary.

CWA Mobilization was kicked off at the ’88 convention in preparation for a major round of bargaining in 1989.

In 1990, the company announced the reduction of about eight percent of their workforce, or approximately 1,000 jobs, through early retirement, hiring freezes, and resignations.

The company entered bankruptcy proceedings in 1993 and shortly thereafter sold the last of its major holdings, Western Union Financial Services Inc., to First Financial Management Corp.

Members of The Newspaper Guild (TNG), representing 40,000 news industry workers in the United States and Canada, vote overwhelmingly to affiliate and eventually merge (in 1997) with CWA. Linda K. Foley is elected TNG’s first woman President.

The members of Local 3028 voted to join the CWA, and their group became CWA, Local 2003.