TSEU/CWA

I. Introduction: how things were when we started and how they got that way.
_____ TSEU was born at a time of change and challenge for the union movement. From the end of World War II in 1945 to the 1970's the U.S. enjoyed one of the longest economic booms in history. Although the biggest part of the riches that were generated went to major corporations and their stockholders, the boom was so strong and so long that many improvements did trickle down to working Americans. There was a general, often unspoken, peace treaty between corporations and unions as the corporations agreed to share some of the wealth and the unions agreed to back off on calls for real changes in society. Many unions and union members had grown comfortable with their ability to win regular improvements in their lives and jobs, and with their relationships with their employers. Very few unions placed a high priority on reaching out to unorganized workers. Although the U. S. labor movement had a proud history of being part of the fights for civil, political, and economic rights for all Americans, the vision of many unions and leaders had narrowed to a focus on pay for current members and "shop floor" issues in already-organized industries.
_____ After peaking in the 1950's, union membership compared to the total number of workers began to drop slowly, but steadily every year. Restructuring of industry in the United States, a severe economic downturn after the decades-long post-World War II boom, and a renewed assault on organized workers by major corporations after years of relative truce changed the realities that several generations had grown up with. New attacks began on the improved social safety net and on civil rights gains that had been won from the 1930's to the 1960's. Many corporations, feeling that they could no longer afford to honor the peace treaty with labor, began campaigns to drive unions out of long-organized industries. In telecommunications, hundreds of thousands faced layoff from long-secure, good-paying jobs when AT&T was broken up in 1981-83.

II. The early days of TSEU: 1979-1980
_____ TSEU was born when two key developments came together in 1979-80. In Texas, employees at several state agencies were growing frustrated with a falling standard of living; chronic understaffing and lack of other resources that would allow us to provide first-class services to the people of Texas; and oppressive, nonresponsive working conditions. Texas state employees began to look for ways to build organizations that would empower front-line state workers and lead to concrete improvements. A group of MHMR workers centered in Austin began to organize independently. They quickly realized that it would be difficult to build a completely new organization with the power to take on state agencies and politicians, and hoped to make organized Texas state workers a part of the overall family of organized workers in Texas and in our country. They began to contact unions who already had a presence in the state to ask how they could become part of the union movement.
_____ At the same time, the Communications Workers of America began to reach out to public workers as long-organized telecommunications workers began to realize that their own abilities to face new challenges depended on the overall strength of the labor movement and of CWA. Many CWA members and leaders realized that our ability to take on the telecommunications employers would be strengthened if they could bring new groups of workers in their communities into our union.
_____ In 1979 New Jersey state workers began an all-out organizing drive supported by CWA. As the New Jersey state employee and other organizing drives in the public and private sectors picked up speed, CWA created a national Public Workers Dept. in 1980. 32,000 New Jersey state workers became CWA members after a representation election in May, 1981.
_____ In Texas several CWA leaders realized the importance of building overall union power, and began to reach out to groups outside of the traditional telecommunications sectors. CWA was the largest union in the state, and the only one that had members in every city and town. In 1979 Texas CWA leaders, having been approached by frustrated state employees in several parts of the state, began a push to help state workers organize. Using the models of organizing and union structure that were familiar to telephone workers, CWA members across the state went out to state agency locations with leaflets and information. The MHMR workers who had already started to organize joined up with the CWA outreach project, and TSEU was born. From the beginning TSEU has been built around the ideas that our union must constantly grow stronger by reaching out to unorganized workers, and that we should be in the forefront of an overall movement for justice.

The fight for the future of Texas and the United States:
TSEU takes on welfare/employment services privatization and wins.