The entire ORTT collection covers the years 1919 –1993 and includes materials from several different labor organizations. The bulk of the collection however, covers the years 1939 -1947 and focuses on the organizations that were competing to unionize the telephone industry’s repeatermen and toll testboardmen on the west coast. Included in the collection are: meeting minutes, letter and telegram correspondence, wage records, grievance-related materials, union election materials, National Labor Relations Board transcripts and decisions, National War Labor Board transcripts and decisions, many different labor magazines, newspapers and newsletters, transcripts of union radio broadcasts, and Bell company literature.

The ORTT collection is unique in content and coverage as it contains the records not only of the Order of Repeatermen and Toll Testboardmen but of the “company unions” that preceded the ORTT and several other related (and sometimes competing) telephone industry unions on the west coast. The collection was assembled by Albert S. Kanagy, the historian and first president of the ORTT and a life-long labor activist in the telephone industry. Kanagy also wrote a “Repeaterman’s Log” (Accession # 1991/099) -- a diary-like history of labor relations and events that researchers should consult in conjunction with the ORTT collection. Mr. Kanagy organized the ORTT materials chronologically and by organization and this arrangement has been maintained for the most part.

The ORTT collection is important and useful for a number of reasons. AT&T (and the associated Bell companies) was the largest corporation in the world during the early part of the 20th century and the communications industry was the only major U.S. industry not yet unionized. The collection documents the efforts of the Bell companies to fight the formation of genuine worker-elected labor unions and the dedication and drive of the David-like unions as they struggled against the wealthier and better connected Goliath-like telephone industry. The ORTT files also offer a rare glimpse of the evolution of a labor organization from company union to fledgling independent union, followed by regional consolidation and finally national affiliation. The documents reveal the struggle that new unions go through as they deal with everything from disagreements among the rank and file, to the organizing of social activities and purchase of office supplies. The materials reveal the high level of competition among competing organizations as they fought for members, made and broke alliances and quelled disputes within their own ranks. Moreover, the records reflect the awareness of union members that this was a special and unique period for American labor organizations. The National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act) has been called the Magna Carta of organized labor. The correspondence in the ORTT files reveal the extent to which the workers were aware of the impact of the new law and the uncertainty of whether it would first be passed and later upheld by the Supreme Court.

The collection documents the activities and position of organized labor on many issues during the Great Depression and World War II and as such, reflects the greater issues of the period. The collection also documents the internal struggles between various factions of telephone unions as they fought to either maintain their unique identities or to form one big telephone union. It also provides an intimate glimpse of how “craft” versus “industrial” union philosophy played out in the internal struggle between factions. The major telephone industry in the United States today is the Communication Workers of America (CWA) and the collection illuminates, to some degree, the process leading to the formation of that union and the efforts of the ORTT and other smaller organizations to avoid being swallowed or dominated by the CWA.

The Pre-ORTT Materials consist mainly of meeting minutes for toll or long lines departments within the telephone companies. The telephone companies referred to these company dominated “unions” as the Plan of Employee Representation and the minutes of these meetings clearly show the powerlessness of the rank and file as they attend meetings that were run and controlled by management.

The ORTT Office Files series is the heart of the ORTT collection and includes the files of several different, often competing telephone industry unions arranged chronologically and alphabetically by organization. This series primarily covers the years 1937 –1947 when the organizations were competing for members and jurisdiction. The records for any particular union in this series have not been combined into folders containing records for several years and instead have been left in a year-by-year arrangement. The materials for 1947 are especially extensive, as there was a major telephone strike that year. The files after 1949 are very sketchy and mainly contain a few contracts, negotiations and agreements.

These files have not been further separated by types of materials. Thus, researchers will find that the folder containing the materials for the United Brotherhood of Telephone Workers (UBTW) for any given year, for example, is likely to contain a mix of meeting minutes, correspondence, grievance materials and contracts – all in one folder. The materials appear to be more useful and understandable when integrated holistically in this way. A researcher could, for example, track union meeting minutes related to a contract dispute and find in the same folder correspondence with union members and/or company representatives regarding that dispute.

The Communication Industry Newspapers and Newsletters series are useful as the public record of union activities. They have been separated out from the files of each individual union because of their larger and bulkier format and to aid in preservation. Several of the publications include many, if not most, of the issues published during the life of the publication and as such represent a permanent official record of the unions’ activities at the time. The struggle of these labor organizations as reflected in the tone and feel of these publications is in marked contrast to the look and feel of the Bell company publications which are also included in this series.