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Key Goal is Renewed Industrial Organizing Push: 113,000-Member IUE Votes Merger with CWA
CWA and the 113,000-member IUE, two unions with shared roots in the organizing struggles of the CIO in the 1930s and ‘40s and with a common tradition of social activism, have joined forces.
Formally named the International Union of Electronic, Electrical, Salaried, Machine and Furniture Workers, the IUE officially became CWA’s Industrial Division on Oct. 1, following a vote by IUE convention delegates to approve the merger on Sept. 21.
IUE President Ed Fire noted that, “IUE doesn’t have to merge — it could continue to exist as an autonomous union.” But, “We want to merge so our members can have the strongest possible voice, not only at the bargaining table, but in organizing and politics.”
CWA President Morton Bahr, speaking to delegates at IUE’s 27th constitutional convention in Cleveland, said: “We don’t see this merger as the end of the IUE — we see this as opening a chapter that will begin a new and great history for the IUE.”
Bahr noted that there are just as many manufacturing jobs in the United States today as in 1989 — 19 million — but the difference is that today only half as many, about 3 million, are unionized. “President Fire and I are totally committed to begin to turn those numbers around,” Bahr said.
He said CWA envisions the new Industrial Division as the vehicle to begin organizing thousands of high-tech manufacturing workers and “make sure the New Economy is a union economy.” And he said CWA and IUE have been discussing a campaign with support from the AFL-CIO to “reorganize General Electric,” the nation’s leading example of a corporation bent on keeping its growth operations unorganized.
GE is the biggest employer of IUE members, and CWA also represents members at GE’s NBC television network. IUE members also work in the automobile, defense, furniture and other manufacturing industries.
IUE conference boards, which will continue to function within the new division, coordinate bargaining with such major corporations as General Motors, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Delphi and DMAX in addition to GE. IUE also represents workers in the public sector.
Like CWA, IUE has members in Canada and is affiliated with the Canadian Labour Congress as well as the AFL-CIO. Fire serves alongside Bahr as a vice president and member of the executive council of the AFL-CIO.
Under the merger agreement, the IUE president becomes a CWA vice president and head of the IUE-CWA Industrial Division, and the current IUE secretary-treasurer and district vice presidents will serve out their terms, after which those offices will be phased out. IUE’s district structure will be merged with CWA’s as the district officers’ terms expire over the next four years.
CWA locals with manufacturing members — who total about 30,000 union wide — may participate in the Industrial Division, and IUE’s nonindustrial locals may participate in CWA’s other sectors for public and health care, broadcast, printing, publishing and media.
Union Reborn
The IUE was founded in 1949 from locals that had previously been part of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers, which was expelled from the CIO for alleged communist domination.
In the words of IUE’s Fire at CWA’s convention in August: “For IUE and a handful of other CIO affiliates, that era can best be described as the time that the American labor movement made its peace with the capitalist system. Our predecessors dropped their feuding over ideology and concentrated on collective bargaining and aggressive organizing to strengthen that bargaining, and the political action essential to protect both.”
In the early 1950s, founding presidents Jim Carey of the IUE and Joe Beirne of CWA were considered two of the most dynamic and socially progressive of the young labor leaders emerging in the postwar era. Brash and outspoken, both men were to clash publicly with AFL-CIO leader George Meany over the years.
At its peak in the 1960s, IUE represented 400,000 members. In later years, membership declined steadily with the erosion of America’s unionized manufacturing base and strategies by employers such as GE to shift jobs overseas and keep unions out of new operations.
IUE leaders decided several years ago to look for a larger merger partner to bolster efforts to mount a re-energized organizing thrust. “We looked at many fine, outstanding unions,” Fire said. “But after careful deliberation, we believe that CWA is the best fit to secure IUE members the best possible future.”
Formally named the International Union of Electronic, Electrical, Salaried, Machine and Furniture Workers, the IUE officially became CWA’s Industrial Division on Oct. 1, following a vote by IUE convention delegates to approve the merger on Sept. 21.
IUE President Ed Fire noted that, “IUE doesn’t have to merge — it could continue to exist as an autonomous union.” But, “We want to merge so our members can have the strongest possible voice, not only at the bargaining table, but in organizing and politics.”
CWA President Morton Bahr, speaking to delegates at IUE’s 27th constitutional convention in Cleveland, said: “We don’t see this merger as the end of the IUE — we see this as opening a chapter that will begin a new and great history for the IUE.”
Bahr noted that there are just as many manufacturing jobs in the United States today as in 1989 — 19 million — but the difference is that today only half as many, about 3 million, are unionized. “President Fire and I are totally committed to begin to turn those numbers around,” Bahr said.
He said CWA envisions the new Industrial Division as the vehicle to begin organizing thousands of high-tech manufacturing workers and “make sure the New Economy is a union economy.” And he said CWA and IUE have been discussing a campaign with support from the AFL-CIO to “reorganize General Electric,” the nation’s leading example of a corporation bent on keeping its growth operations unorganized.
GE is the biggest employer of IUE members, and CWA also represents members at GE’s NBC television network. IUE members also work in the automobile, defense, furniture and other manufacturing industries.
IUE conference boards, which will continue to function within the new division, coordinate bargaining with such major corporations as General Motors, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Delphi and DMAX in addition to GE. IUE also represents workers in the public sector.
Like CWA, IUE has members in Canada and is affiliated with the Canadian Labour Congress as well as the AFL-CIO. Fire serves alongside Bahr as a vice president and member of the executive council of the AFL-CIO.
Under the merger agreement, the IUE president becomes a CWA vice president and head of the IUE-CWA Industrial Division, and the current IUE secretary-treasurer and district vice presidents will serve out their terms, after which those offices will be phased out. IUE’s district structure will be merged with CWA’s as the district officers’ terms expire over the next four years.
CWA locals with manufacturing members — who total about 30,000 union wide — may participate in the Industrial Division, and IUE’s nonindustrial locals may participate in CWA’s other sectors for public and health care, broadcast, printing, publishing and media.
Union Reborn
The IUE was founded in 1949 from locals that had previously been part of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers, which was expelled from the CIO for alleged communist domination.
In the words of IUE’s Fire at CWA’s convention in August: “For IUE and a handful of other CIO affiliates, that era can best be described as the time that the American labor movement made its peace with the capitalist system. Our predecessors dropped their feuding over ideology and concentrated on collective bargaining and aggressive organizing to strengthen that bargaining, and the political action essential to protect both.”
In the early 1950s, founding presidents Jim Carey of the IUE and Joe Beirne of CWA were considered two of the most dynamic and socially progressive of the young labor leaders emerging in the postwar era. Brash and outspoken, both men were to clash publicly with AFL-CIO leader George Meany over the years.
At its peak in the 1960s, IUE represented 400,000 members. In later years, membership declined steadily with the erosion of America’s unionized manufacturing base and strategies by employers such as GE to shift jobs overseas and keep unions out of new operations.
IUE leaders decided several years ago to look for a larger merger partner to bolster efforts to mount a re-energized organizing thrust. “We looked at many fine, outstanding unions,” Fire said. “But after careful deliberation, we believe that CWA is the best fit to secure IUE members the best possible future.”