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Ray Murray, Long-Time Staffer, Dies
Raymond Joseph (Ray) Murray, who served the union in a pivotal role during the pattern bargaining era that eventually led to national bargaining with AT&T and the Bell System, died on Jan 29.
Murray, 77, died following surgery on an aneurism at the Forsyth Medical Center in Winston Salem, N.C., near his home in Kernersville, N.C.
He retired from CWA on Sept. 1, 1985, as assistant to the national director of Western Electric Installation, CWA’s pattern-setter in negotiations with AT&T and the Bell System in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Pattern bargaining, in which one Bell System unit would be chosen by CWA to establish a pattern that could be followed by other Bell System units, gave way to national bargaining in 1974.
National bargaining between CWA and the telecommunications companies prevailed until the breakup of AT&T and the Bell System a decade later. The late Joseph A. Beirne, CWA’s founding president, and the union’s executive board, designated the Western Electric installers as the pattern-setters because they were considered a highly-mobile, militant and nationwide unit.
Murray, a former president of CWA Local 2591 (now 13591) in Pittsburgh, Pa., joined the union staff in 1961 and was assigned to an organizing project in Indianapolis, and eventually he transferred to New York City as a CWA representative.
The late Patrick J. Morgan, then Installation director, chose Murray as his assistant in 1963 — a position Murray held until the day he retired. The Installation office moved from New York City to Greensboro, N.C. in 1977.
Survivors include his wife, Marcella Eadie Murray, a daughter, Jeannine Janosko Murray of Medina, Ohio, a son, Alan Mullins of Cary, N. C., and four grandchildren.
Murray, 77, died following surgery on an aneurism at the Forsyth Medical Center in Winston Salem, N.C., near his home in Kernersville, N.C.
He retired from CWA on Sept. 1, 1985, as assistant to the national director of Western Electric Installation, CWA’s pattern-setter in negotiations with AT&T and the Bell System in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Pattern bargaining, in which one Bell System unit would be chosen by CWA to establish a pattern that could be followed by other Bell System units, gave way to national bargaining in 1974.
National bargaining between CWA and the telecommunications companies prevailed until the breakup of AT&T and the Bell System a decade later. The late Joseph A. Beirne, CWA’s founding president, and the union’s executive board, designated the Western Electric installers as the pattern-setters because they were considered a highly-mobile, militant and nationwide unit.
Murray, a former president of CWA Local 2591 (now 13591) in Pittsburgh, Pa., joined the union staff in 1961 and was assigned to an organizing project in Indianapolis, and eventually he transferred to New York City as a CWA representative.
The late Patrick J. Morgan, then Installation director, chose Murray as his assistant in 1963 — a position Murray held until the day he retired. The Installation office moved from New York City to Greensboro, N.C. in 1977.
Survivors include his wife, Marcella Eadie Murray, a daughter, Jeannine Janosko Murray of Medina, Ohio, a son, Alan Mullins of Cary, N. C., and four grandchildren.