Fighting the Union in a "Union Friendly" Company: The AT&T/NCR Case

Abstract

This article examines the efforts of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) to organize the workers of the NCR Corporation after it had been acquired by AT&T. It documents extreme "union busting" mea sures by the corporation at the same time AT&T was engaged in a "part nership" with the union in the already unionized parts of the parent com pany. Three issues are analyzed from the case: (1) the failure of U.S. labor law to protect workers wishing to organize into unions; (2) impli cations for unions dealing with "union friendly" companies like AT&T; (3) implications for organizing strategy for unions. The article concludes with some thoughts on union organizing and the power relationship be tween unions and large employers in the United States today.