CWA 1180 - News

1180 turns 40 fighting
January 2006

“If administrative professionals do not present a unified voice and unified demands across the bargaining table this year, but come as Beggars once more, we will be our own worst enemies,” read a recruiting leaflet distributed in the early 1960s by the new Municipal Management Society. “If you feel as we all do that the City should recognize our increasing administrative responsibilities; that we should not have to beg for a deserving salary; that we should not be shifted to the bottom of the budget heap; that we should be restored to our proper status of dignity in the city …YOU ARE AN IMPORTANT PERSON IN THIS DRIVE.”

By 1965 the Society had more than 1,000 members and, with its affiliation with the Communications Workers of America, joined the labor movement as Local 1180. Forty years and 6,500 members later, the union has never stopped its fight for decent salaries, sane budget priorities, and dignity in the workplace—but it has also taken on struggles against racial discrimination, for fair taxation, and against such unethical government policies as attempts to destroy Social Security and fighting unjust wars. “I’m proud that we’ve been able to grow the local, get some valuable legislation passed, and get our members the education and training they need to be effective on the job,” says 1180 president Arthur Cheliotes. “Most of all, I’m proud that we were able to make the local an effective labor organization where the members participate and advocate for themselves.”

The local has taken part in some significant battles over the years. Some it lost, such as the fight against “broad-banding” in the late 1970s, when three different civil service titles, each with their own exam for advancement, were collapsed into the single title of Principal Administrative Associates (PAA), giving managers discretion to promote from one level to another as they saw fit. Some it won, such as a fight in the mid-’80s to get the city to offer the exam for Administrative Manager. The test hadn’t been offered in a decade, creating a glass ceiling for PAAs and allowing management to appoint favorites. “We fought the city to get the exam, and then we ran an extensive training program to prepare our members to pass it,” recalls First Vice President Linda Jenkins. “Of course after that, when some 800 of our members passed, we had to fight to get the list used.” The city’s refusal to hire off a list now dominated by women and African Americans attracted the interest of the NAACP, which took on the legal case in conjunction with Local 1180—and won.

The local led labor efforts to elect David Dinkins, the city’s first African American mayor, even founding a regional labor committee to back his candidacy. “If we ever mobilized members for a political campaign, it was that one,” says Cheliotes. “The enthusiasm among the rank and file made it easy.” The local has weighed in on policy debates, issuing a 15-Point Plan to Rebuild New York during the recession of the early ’90s and proposing a fairer tax plan, including higher taxes on the wealthy, when Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg threatened social service cuts to fill yawning budget deficits. One year, 1180 members promoted these ideas at a raucous Tax Day protest at the U.S. Post Office. “We moved from a very parochial approach to a much broader one,” says Cheliotes. “We learned that if the city economy isn’t doing well, if officials don’t have a sympathetic agenda, we’ll have a difficult time negotiating a decent contract.”

“Within CWA and the labor movement as a whole, the union has developed a reputation for supporting a progressive agenda,” says Second Vice President Bill Henning, “whether it’s pushing for more racial diversity in the union or taking a position against the Iraq war.” The local helped to found the Labor Committee Against Apartheid in the 1980s and organized buses to Washington in support of the struggles in El Salvador and Nicaragua. And the local has backed workers trying to unionize—or out on strike—across the nation, sending representatives to support Hormel workers in Minnesota, miners in Virginia, and flight attendants on strike at JFK. The local has also developed a vibrant committee structure and the most extensive educational offerings and benefits of any union in the city.

The challenges ahead are significant—rising health care costs, assaults on public pensions, and conservative efforts to downsize government. But the local’s goals remain ambitious. “The future will require more broad-based participation by 1180’s members, with the goal of resisting concessions and givebacks,” says Henning. “At the same time, the union is the main force capable of transforming society, and that’s our responsibility, too.”

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