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Making It Real: Merged IUE and CWA Work As One Union
CWA and new merger partner IUE — at the international, district and local levels — are rapidly finding ways to work together on legislation and politics, in organizing and in other programs to better represent all members of the now 740,000-member union.
The entire CWA Executive Board, including IUE’s president and three district vice presidents, met in Washington, D.C., Jan. 10-12, to explore their common experience and to forge new bonds and understandings.
“IUE, with its presence at huge multinational corporations such as General Motors, Delphi Automotive Systems and GE, brings a wealth of experience in representing manufacturing workers,” said CWA President Morton Bahr. “That experience and the organizing leads that come from IUE-CWA members will help us, together, to build our Industrial Division.”
“IUE, already a strong and vibrant union, sought this merger because CWA, with its commitment, resources and expertise, will enable us, together, to build an even stronger union,” said IUE-CWA President Ed Fire. “We want to have a forceful presence in manufacturing to be effective in the entire labor movement.”
The merger of IUE and CWA became effective on Oct. 1 after Bahr and Fire met to sign the merger agreement.
The International Union of Electronic, Salaried, Machine and Furniture Workers (IUE) brings to CWA 110,000 new members working predominantly in the manufacturing sector and increases the combined union’s total membership to more than 740,000.
IUE History & Structure
IUE came into existence when hundreds of local unions of the United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers (UE) left to form IUE. The union celebrated its 50th anniversary at its 2000 convention in Cleveland. At its peak, IUE had over 300,000 members. During the 1990s, IUE, like the Steel Workers, Auto Workers and others, was hit hard by the globalization of manufacturing, with a shift in the U.S. economy toward greater “off-shore” production, as well as imports.
IUE-CWA’s current members work in the electrical industry, in automotive parts manufacturing and in automotive assembly. They make automotive and industrial batteries and computer circuit boards. They manufacture, among other products, furniture, air conditioners and refrigerators.
Two IUE-CWA conference boards — GE and Delphi/GM — participate in coordinated bargaining with other AFL-CIO unions. The GE and Delphi/GM boards each represent about 20,000 members. These are similar to CWA national units at AT&T, Lucent, Avaya and Sprint.
Most IUE-CWA locals, especially its furniture workers, bargain locally, without the help of conference boards. Locals range from fewer than 100 members to several thousand. Delphi Local 717, Warren, Ohio, has over 5,000 members, while GM Local 798, Dayton, Ohio, has 4,200.
Pursuant to the merger agreement, IUE has streamlined its formerly 25-member board. The IUE-CWA Executive Council consists of the president and three vice presidents, one for each IUE district.
Sal Ingrassia is IUE-CWA vice president for IUE District 3, the northeastern United States; Mike Bindas, for IUE District 7, the eastern Midwest — Pennsylvania and Ohio — the Middle Atlantic states and the southern states east of the Mississippi River; and Bruce Van Ess, IUE District 8, all states west of the Mississippi, and Illinois and Indiana. These districts will fully merge into CWA’s current geographical districts following the expiration of the terms of office of the current IUE-CWA vice presidents.
“It was exciting to learn how our locals overlap,” said CWA Executive Vice President Larry Cohen, referring to the map above. “This will make us stronger together in key communities from Los Angeles to San Antonio to Dayton and Boston.”
Rich Trumka, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, urged the executive board of the newly merged union to concentrate resources on organizing in the manufacturing sector. Where unions 10 years ago represented 6 million of 19 million manufacturing workers in the United States, they represent only 3 million today.
“Organizing the manufacturing sector is a challenge we must meet,” Trumka said, applauding the executive board’s commitment to promote an “organizing model” for IUE-CWA locals.
Works in Progress
Work has already begun at CWA headquarters, in district meetings and in coalitions of CWA and IUE-CWA locals on a range of union programs.
IUE-CWA will, for now, continue to operate from its own headquarters in downtown Washington, due to constraints at CWA’s headquarters building until expiration of the union’s lease of space to the Environmental Protection Agency. However, several IUE-CWA staff and accounting personnel have moved into CWA headquarters.
With the help of IUE-CWA’s Joan Alford and Kim Ricio, Membership Dues, and Joe Takacs, Accounting, CWA has expanded its membership dues base to include IUE-CWA locals, processing units and individual member records, said Eileen Brackens, executive assistant to CWA Secretary-Treasurer Barbara Easterling. Dues reports are already being mailed to IUE-CWA processing units of fewer than 50 members, and for larger units, dues and deduction data has been requested from their companies. Locals will then receive a full accounting and dues remittance check. The secretary-treasurer’s office is also working with IUE-CWA locals to help them set up their own membership databases to exchange data with CWA headquarters.
“Combining IUE-CWA’s accounting systems with CWA’s will result in significant savings, which can be channeled into providing better service to all our members,” Easterling said.
Also, IUE-CWA’s Lynn Davis has joined CWA’s Human Resources Department. In addition to other responsibilities, she administers the IUE pension plan.
Charles Barrett, IUE-CWA health and safety director, is working closely with CWA Health and Safety Director David LeGrande, to administer two grants that will benefit CWA members.
CWA was awarded a five-year grant by the University of Alabama at Birmingham, to be used for hazard communication training. Funding for the first year of the grant is $60,409.
Health and safety representatives from IUE-CWA locals will participate in two-day training sessions over the next several months in Atlanta, Dallas, Boston, Buffalo and Cleveland.
Barrett said the program will benefit CWA members, especially those who perform dangerous jobs, running saws, lathes and other power tools, or working with hazardous chemicals.
“When something goes wrong, it is important for them to know what to do and how to get things changed so that further injuries do not occur,” Barrett said.
In addition, LeGrande said, CWA will invite IUE-CWA locals to participate in train-the-trainer activities under a five-year ergonomics grant from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
While IUE-CWA has labor-management health and safety programs in place at GE, Delphi/GM and other companies, LeGrande said, smaller locals in particular will benefit from learning how to structure their own.
“We’ll organize these training sessions at various labor centers across the country, and we’ll focus on the entire union,” LeGrande said. “IUE-CWA has more hazardous situations than many of our CWA people.”
The union has already conducted one such training class in Los Angeles, with about nine IUE-CWA participants.
Also, Kathy Wagner, CWA representative from IUE for COPE and politics, has moved to CWA headquarters to work with Hugh Walsh, assistant to Bahr with responsibility for the union’s overall political action program. The two were scheduled to meet with Fire as the CWA News went to press, planning to combine and reenergize the two unions’ COPE programs.
“IUE has always been supportive through our grassroots program, and we have good relationships with candidates and office holders who support working families,” Wagner said.
“Kathy’s going to be a big help as we integrate our two COPE programs,” Walsh said. “Our unions have an exciting future together.”
Districts, Locals Converge
With CWA District 1 and IUE-CWA District 3 overlapping, five IUE-CWA local presidents recently participated in CWA’s District 1 meeting in Hartford, Conn.
IUE-CWA locals will be invited to all future CWA district meetings and, to facilitate the transition, all IUE-CWA vice presidents have invited all CWA vice presidents to attend future IUE-CWA district meetings, said George Kohl, an assistant to Bahr.
IUE-CWA Vice President Bindas (IUE District 7) invited CWA District 3 Vice President Jimmy Smith to address his district meeting, and plans to follow up with a meeting with EVP Cohen to lay out organizing plans for his region. And, IUE-CWA Vice President Ingrassia has invited Cohen, CWA District 1 Vice President Larry Mancino and District 1 staff to attend a meeting of IUE-CWA District 3 locals in Albany, N.Y., Feb. 27 and 28.
Close coordination and cooperation is underway as well by IUE-CWA District 8 and its CWA counterparts west of the Mississippi, where CWA regional officers will discuss how to best support IUE locals in their areas at upcoming district meetings.
Ed Sabol, administrative assistant to Mancino, pointed out that more than 30,000 IUE-CWA members live and work in CWA District 1: 15,000 in New York, 7,500 in New Jersey, 1,500 in Connecticut and 6,000 in Massachusetts. They are employed in a variety of industries and the public sector, at GE, Lockheed Martin, Trane, Frigidaire, Northup Grumman, and include county employees of Monroe County, N.Y., and Monmouth County, N.J.
Also last fall, CWA Local 1365, North Andover, Mass, and IUE-CWA Local 201, Lynn, Mass., collaborated to obtain a training grant from the Department of Labor that will benefit members of both locals.
Local 201 members who work for AMETEK Aerospace will upgrade their skills for higher paying assembler and technician positions, with the opportunity to earn a two-year degree from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. AMETEK recently outsourced 74 assembler positions to a company in Reynosa, Mexico. Local 1365 members will train for higher-paying technician jobs.
Local 1365 members employed by Lucent Technologies’ Merrimack Valley Works will train for higher paying technician and tester jobs.
The locals worked with Harneen Chernow, education and training director of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, who wrote the final proposal.
Lucent will provide a matching contribution of about $2.5 million by paying for time off the job, providing classrooms and maintaining a high-tech laboratory for the use of students.
CWA President Bahr and IUE-CWA President Fire obtained the support of Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Rep. John Tierney (D-Mass.), who wrote letters of support to the Labor Department. The H1-B funding will come from fees paid by companies to obtain visas to import high-tech workers from other nations.
The two locals held a joint meeting of their executive boards on Jan. 5.
“People enjoyed it,” said Local 201 President Jeff Crosby. “It was a chance to step back from our day-to-day activities, learn a little of what we’re both all about and to explore organizing opportunities.”
A week later Crosby, Local 1365 President Joe Kanan and Local 1400 President Melissa Morin met with CWA Research Economist Bob Master and CWA Representative Steve Early to identify ways in which their locals can work together politically.
The entire CWA Executive Board, including IUE’s president and three district vice presidents, met in Washington, D.C., Jan. 10-12, to explore their common experience and to forge new bonds and understandings.
“IUE, with its presence at huge multinational corporations such as General Motors, Delphi Automotive Systems and GE, brings a wealth of experience in representing manufacturing workers,” said CWA President Morton Bahr. “That experience and the organizing leads that come from IUE-CWA members will help us, together, to build our Industrial Division.”
“IUE, already a strong and vibrant union, sought this merger because CWA, with its commitment, resources and expertise, will enable us, together, to build an even stronger union,” said IUE-CWA President Ed Fire. “We want to have a forceful presence in manufacturing to be effective in the entire labor movement.”
The merger of IUE and CWA became effective on Oct. 1 after Bahr and Fire met to sign the merger agreement.
The International Union of Electronic, Salaried, Machine and Furniture Workers (IUE) brings to CWA 110,000 new members working predominantly in the manufacturing sector and increases the combined union’s total membership to more than 740,000.
IUE History & Structure
IUE came into existence when hundreds of local unions of the United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers (UE) left to form IUE. The union celebrated its 50th anniversary at its 2000 convention in Cleveland. At its peak, IUE had over 300,000 members. During the 1990s, IUE, like the Steel Workers, Auto Workers and others, was hit hard by the globalization of manufacturing, with a shift in the U.S. economy toward greater “off-shore” production, as well as imports.
IUE-CWA’s current members work in the electrical industry, in automotive parts manufacturing and in automotive assembly. They make automotive and industrial batteries and computer circuit boards. They manufacture, among other products, furniture, air conditioners and refrigerators.
Two IUE-CWA conference boards — GE and Delphi/GM — participate in coordinated bargaining with other AFL-CIO unions. The GE and Delphi/GM boards each represent about 20,000 members. These are similar to CWA national units at AT&T, Lucent, Avaya and Sprint.
Most IUE-CWA locals, especially its furniture workers, bargain locally, without the help of conference boards. Locals range from fewer than 100 members to several thousand. Delphi Local 717, Warren, Ohio, has over 5,000 members, while GM Local 798, Dayton, Ohio, has 4,200.
Pursuant to the merger agreement, IUE has streamlined its formerly 25-member board. The IUE-CWA Executive Council consists of the president and three vice presidents, one for each IUE district.
Sal Ingrassia is IUE-CWA vice president for IUE District 3, the northeastern United States; Mike Bindas, for IUE District 7, the eastern Midwest — Pennsylvania and Ohio — the Middle Atlantic states and the southern states east of the Mississippi River; and Bruce Van Ess, IUE District 8, all states west of the Mississippi, and Illinois and Indiana. These districts will fully merge into CWA’s current geographical districts following the expiration of the terms of office of the current IUE-CWA vice presidents.
“It was exciting to learn how our locals overlap,” said CWA Executive Vice President Larry Cohen, referring to the map above. “This will make us stronger together in key communities from Los Angeles to San Antonio to Dayton and Boston.”
Rich Trumka, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, urged the executive board of the newly merged union to concentrate resources on organizing in the manufacturing sector. Where unions 10 years ago represented 6 million of 19 million manufacturing workers in the United States, they represent only 3 million today.
“Organizing the manufacturing sector is a challenge we must meet,” Trumka said, applauding the executive board’s commitment to promote an “organizing model” for IUE-CWA locals.
Works in Progress
Work has already begun at CWA headquarters, in district meetings and in coalitions of CWA and IUE-CWA locals on a range of union programs.
IUE-CWA will, for now, continue to operate from its own headquarters in downtown Washington, due to constraints at CWA’s headquarters building until expiration of the union’s lease of space to the Environmental Protection Agency. However, several IUE-CWA staff and accounting personnel have moved into CWA headquarters.
With the help of IUE-CWA’s Joan Alford and Kim Ricio, Membership Dues, and Joe Takacs, Accounting, CWA has expanded its membership dues base to include IUE-CWA locals, processing units and individual member records, said Eileen Brackens, executive assistant to CWA Secretary-Treasurer Barbara Easterling. Dues reports are already being mailed to IUE-CWA processing units of fewer than 50 members, and for larger units, dues and deduction data has been requested from their companies. Locals will then receive a full accounting and dues remittance check. The secretary-treasurer’s office is also working with IUE-CWA locals to help them set up their own membership databases to exchange data with CWA headquarters.
“Combining IUE-CWA’s accounting systems with CWA’s will result in significant savings, which can be channeled into providing better service to all our members,” Easterling said.
Also, IUE-CWA’s Lynn Davis has joined CWA’s Human Resources Department. In addition to other responsibilities, she administers the IUE pension plan.
Charles Barrett, IUE-CWA health and safety director, is working closely with CWA Health and Safety Director David LeGrande, to administer two grants that will benefit CWA members.
CWA was awarded a five-year grant by the University of Alabama at Birmingham, to be used for hazard communication training. Funding for the first year of the grant is $60,409.
Health and safety representatives from IUE-CWA locals will participate in two-day training sessions over the next several months in Atlanta, Dallas, Boston, Buffalo and Cleveland.
Barrett said the program will benefit CWA members, especially those who perform dangerous jobs, running saws, lathes and other power tools, or working with hazardous chemicals.
“When something goes wrong, it is important for them to know what to do and how to get things changed so that further injuries do not occur,” Barrett said.
In addition, LeGrande said, CWA will invite IUE-CWA locals to participate in train-the-trainer activities under a five-year ergonomics grant from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
While IUE-CWA has labor-management health and safety programs in place at GE, Delphi/GM and other companies, LeGrande said, smaller locals in particular will benefit from learning how to structure their own.
“We’ll organize these training sessions at various labor centers across the country, and we’ll focus on the entire union,” LeGrande said. “IUE-CWA has more hazardous situations than many of our CWA people.”
The union has already conducted one such training class in Los Angeles, with about nine IUE-CWA participants.
Also, Kathy Wagner, CWA representative from IUE for COPE and politics, has moved to CWA headquarters to work with Hugh Walsh, assistant to Bahr with responsibility for the union’s overall political action program. The two were scheduled to meet with Fire as the CWA News went to press, planning to combine and reenergize the two unions’ COPE programs.
“IUE has always been supportive through our grassroots program, and we have good relationships with candidates and office holders who support working families,” Wagner said.
“Kathy’s going to be a big help as we integrate our two COPE programs,” Walsh said. “Our unions have an exciting future together.”
Districts, Locals Converge
With CWA District 1 and IUE-CWA District 3 overlapping, five IUE-CWA local presidents recently participated in CWA’s District 1 meeting in Hartford, Conn.
IUE-CWA locals will be invited to all future CWA district meetings and, to facilitate the transition, all IUE-CWA vice presidents have invited all CWA vice presidents to attend future IUE-CWA district meetings, said George Kohl, an assistant to Bahr.
IUE-CWA Vice President Bindas (IUE District 7) invited CWA District 3 Vice President Jimmy Smith to address his district meeting, and plans to follow up with a meeting with EVP Cohen to lay out organizing plans for his region. And, IUE-CWA Vice President Ingrassia has invited Cohen, CWA District 1 Vice President Larry Mancino and District 1 staff to attend a meeting of IUE-CWA District 3 locals in Albany, N.Y., Feb. 27 and 28.
Close coordination and cooperation is underway as well by IUE-CWA District 8 and its CWA counterparts west of the Mississippi, where CWA regional officers will discuss how to best support IUE locals in their areas at upcoming district meetings.
Ed Sabol, administrative assistant to Mancino, pointed out that more than 30,000 IUE-CWA members live and work in CWA District 1: 15,000 in New York, 7,500 in New Jersey, 1,500 in Connecticut and 6,000 in Massachusetts. They are employed in a variety of industries and the public sector, at GE, Lockheed Martin, Trane, Frigidaire, Northup Grumman, and include county employees of Monroe County, N.Y., and Monmouth County, N.J.
Also last fall, CWA Local 1365, North Andover, Mass, and IUE-CWA Local 201, Lynn, Mass., collaborated to obtain a training grant from the Department of Labor that will benefit members of both locals.
Local 201 members who work for AMETEK Aerospace will upgrade their skills for higher paying assembler and technician positions, with the opportunity to earn a two-year degree from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. AMETEK recently outsourced 74 assembler positions to a company in Reynosa, Mexico. Local 1365 members will train for higher-paying technician jobs.
Local 1365 members employed by Lucent Technologies’ Merrimack Valley Works will train for higher paying technician and tester jobs.
The locals worked with Harneen Chernow, education and training director of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, who wrote the final proposal.
Lucent will provide a matching contribution of about $2.5 million by paying for time off the job, providing classrooms and maintaining a high-tech laboratory for the use of students.
CWA President Bahr and IUE-CWA President Fire obtained the support of Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Rep. John Tierney (D-Mass.), who wrote letters of support to the Labor Department. The H1-B funding will come from fees paid by companies to obtain visas to import high-tech workers from other nations.
The two locals held a joint meeting of their executive boards on Jan. 5.
“People enjoyed it,” said Local 201 President Jeff Crosby. “It was a chance to step back from our day-to-day activities, learn a little of what we’re both all about and to explore organizing opportunities.”
A week later Crosby, Local 1365 President Joe Kanan and Local 1400 President Melissa Morin met with CWA Research Economist Bob Master and CWA Representative Steve Early to identify ways in which their locals can work together politically.