A C&P Telephone line worker: 1929 ca.

A Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company line worker is shown in a 1929 photograph at an unidentified location.

During the period when telephone workers were organized under the umbrella of the National Federation of Telephone Workers (1939-47), the C&P line workers were in the Federation of Telephone Workers of D.C. along with others generally referred to as installers or plant workers.

The other local union at C&P, the Washington Telephone Traffic Union, was also affiliated with the NFTW and covered telephone operators, clerical personnel and cafeteria workers.

Other job classifications that fell under the WFTW were elevator operators and accounting clerks.

They were led originally by Helery Robinson who struggled to hold the unit together and was conservative in his approach to unionism.

During the 1947 strike about one-third of Robinson’s union crossed picket lines. After a settlement with C&P was reached, another one-third refused to honor the picket lines of Western Electric strikers and went back to work.

After the strike about half the membership dropped out of the union.

With the formation of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) that same year, Glen Watts, a future national CWA president, took the reins of the local union and began rebuilding it.

For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHsmbnHJap

For a blog post on the Washington Telephone Traffic Union, see washingtonareaspark.com/2022/02/08/the-washington-telepho...

The photographer is unknown. The photo is a National Photo Company image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Call Number: LC-F8- 43260 [P&P].

Some rights reserved

Taken on: January 1, 1929

Tags:

Chesapeake

Potomac

Company

C&P

line

worker

Washington

Federation

Workers

D.C.

District

Columbia

National

CWA

Communications

America

1929 « less

Sets appears in: • Telephone Traffic Union: 1944-47

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