Ralph Maly went to work at AT&T’s Western Electric factory in Buffalo, NY in 1966 at age 19. From day one, he had union in his bones, joining Local 1162 and soon becoming the local organizer. Maly went on to organize Western Electric factories in Pleasanton, CA; Vancouver, WA; Dallas, TX; and Atlanta, GA. When the Buffalo factory closed, Maly transferred to a Western Electric facility in Atlanta, where he was elected Local 3263 president in 1985. Maly joined the CWA staff four years later, leading bargaining with Lucent Technologies (the spin-off from AT&T’s Western Electric subsidiary), later merged with Alcatel and bought by Nokia. Maly’s career spanned the growth and ultimate closing of the factories that he helped organize into the union.
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