Does anyone know the Union structure before 1983? Were wirelines contracts united across regions, and were Legacy T and Western Electric included or separate contracts?
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strike of 1983, The rest of the story:
Yes, it was a 22 day strike that gained us, the workers, essentially not much. It was a way for the companies to save a lot of payroll so they could finance divestiture. That was pre-planned and agreed to by the company and CWA.
You first must have an understanding that the employer, any employer, is not going to pay (payroll and benefits) more than they will pay. Won't ever happen no matter how long a strike lasts..
We walked pickets for the entire 3 weeks. The managers almost never left the garage to go on jobs. They did go home around 5 or 6 each day monday thru friday, and go for their free breakfast and lunch at the restaurant where the company arranged to pick up all the cost for all strike duty managers. Other than that all the managers almost never left the property. We had pickets up the whole time and we watched and kept track of them not doing much at all.
The reports from the company to the public said that the management was able to handle the work load and the customers should not worry about their service and the management is keeping up just fine. BUT.........
When the strike was over and we returned to work we found out that every new install had been cancelled and ZERO new orders got worked. There were ZERO orders for new service taken. Almost all repair orders were cancelled or postponed indefinitely. The only repair reports that were even accepted were if it were necessary for some kind of medical equipment. If you were a business and you had more than one telephone line you were directed to call back after the strike was over. But the press was constantly being told "all is well and running normally"......
It was the biggest load of cr@p anyone has ever heard.
In our garage we had 2 sc@bs and 1 non-member that crossed and worked the whole strike, and they were the only ones that were actually doing any work.
Those days managers knew the jobs, I can only imagine what this bunch of know-nothing managers did but I bet it was even less than got done in 1983.
@dpx+1uyIv6Wi I remember this. I was a relatively new C&P Telephone of MD craft employee and to me that strike seemed way longer. It was so stinkin' hot. Based on what I thought the union gained for us, I was determined to never walk a picket line again and was promoted into an IT job 3 years later.
the national contract was from 1974 to 1983. prior and after that it was broken into regions with the IBEW representing a majority before CWA.
it would have probably been better with IBEW.
According to the CWA website:
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. 700,000 CWA members went on strike on August 7 for better wages, employment security, pension plan changes, and health insurance improvements. The strike lasted 22 days when the telephone industry agreed to meet the union’s demands. This would be the last time that CWA would be able to negotiate at one national table for all its Bell System members because divestiture was only a few months away.
So yes. 1 national contract with huge concerns for the impact the break-up would cause to members and their families due to relocations etc
Second