1 October 1999

This paper, prepared by Rose Batt, Harry Katz, and Jeffrey Keefe for the “Symposium on Changing Employment Relations and New Institutions of Representation,” describes the Communications Workers of America’s (CWA) aggressive “triangular” agenda involving organizing, politics, and collective bargaining activities, which was developed in response to the challenges of massive industrial and technological restructuring. The activities in any one of these three dimensions often interact with and complement activities in another dimension. This linked agenda arises out of the natural interactions that surface across issues in today’s economic environment. In addition, such triangulation provides a way for the union to counteract the power imbalance that has been created by industry restructuring. The CWA was able to coordinate its activities effectively across dimensions because it had a legacy of such linkages, which were stimulated by historical factors, including the quasi-public sector nature of the former Bell system.

As the authors explain, although the CWA has done a masterful job of broadening its vision and strategies, the union has suffered overall membership stagnation. In its core sector, telephone services, the CWA has only been able to sustain sizeable representation among residential service providers and has not been able to organize those employers in the cable, cellular, Internet service provider, and long-distance sectors, which aggressively oppose unionization. Thus, the organizing challenge remains critical for the union, even as organizing activities increasingly interrelate with the union’s regulatory and collective bargaining efforts.

Paper presented at the Symposium on Changing Employment Relations and New Institutions of Representation