The American Communications Association, a labor union representing workers in the telegraph, radio, airline, and other communications industries, began as an organization of marine radio operators. In March of 1931, Mervyn Rathborne, an unemployed radio operator in San Marina, California, began to publish CQ, a magazine by and for commercial radio operators, which sponsored the formation of the Commercial Radiomen's Protective Association. About the same time, a similar group on the East Coast formed the American Radio Telegraphists Association (ARTA). The two groups with a combined membership of about 450 merged on April 8, 1932, adopting the name of the latter group. In 1933, ARTA elected its first president, Hoyt Haddock, admitted its first non-marine radio operators, granted its first charter to Local 1 in Boston, and granted its first West Coast charter to Local 3 in San Francisco. Mervyn Rathborne followed Haddock in the presidency in 1936.
The union was divided into departments each of which dealt with a different communications division. The departments included at various times telegraph, marine, radio and cables, telephone, and broadcast. The departmental structure changed with the changing composition and needs of the industry. The Telegraph Department, at one time the largest department, faded with the increased reliance on the telephone, and the Telephone Department developed as the ACA gained a foothold in American Telephone and Telegraph. The Telephone Department, however, was dissolved in 1948 when the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), over ACA objections, approved formation of a separate Telephone Workers Union. In 1947, the Marine Department left the ACA, with union approval, to join a union designed to unite all maritime employees. The Broadcast Department organized radio station engineers and technicians; in 1941 all locals east of the Mississippi River were organized into Broadcast Local No. 1 with headquarters at Philadelphia under the direction of ACA Vice-President William Bender.
1937 was an eventful year for the union which by then had 4,200 members. On April 14, ARTA affiliated with the CIO. In August, the organization decided to change its name to American Communications Association. National Labor Relations Board elections in 1937 resulted in ACA victories at Globe Radio and RCA Communications.
The ACA's first major breakthrough was a closed shop agreement with the Postal Telegraph Company in 1939. That same year, the ACA challenged Western Union Telegraph Company's historic resistance to unionization by organizing a messengers' strike which forced the company to deal with ACA even though it did not lead directly to the ACA's recognition as a bargaining agent for the Western Union (WU) employees. Subsequently, the ACA instituted a successful National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) action against WU charging that the company had violated the Wagner Act by penalizing employees for union activity and fostering a company union, the Association of Western Union Employees.
Elections held during the 1940s divided representation of WU employees between the ACA and the Commercial Telegraphers Union (AFL), with the ACA strongest in New York City. Even before the Federal Communications Commission approved the merger of Postal Telegraph and Western Union in 1943, the ACA, led by its dynamic president Joseph Selly and advised by well-known labor lawyer Victor Rabinowitz, began an opposition that was to last over two decades. They fought to prevent the consolidation of telegraph operations without strong protection of the rights of the employees of companies to be merged.
In 1943 the Teleregister Employees Union affiliated with the ACA. Other firms with whom the ACA held contracts included Mackay Radio Telegraph and All America Cables (both International Telephone and Telegraph companies), French Cables, and Press Wireless.
Accusations of communist infiltration plagued the union throughout its history. The Dies Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives leveled accusations at President Rathborne, and Martin Dies cited President Selly as a leading communist. The accusations were used by rival unions and corporations in attempts to oust the ACA and finally resulted in 1950 in the ACA's being deprived of its affiliation by the CIO. In the 1950s various officers and other union members, including President Selly, were called before both the House Committee on Un-American Activities and the Senate Sub-Committee on Internal Security and asked to testify concerning communist affiliations. Many refused to answer, claiming immunity under the First and Fifth amendments of the Constitution. Several workers were suspended from their jobs and threatened with termination because of their refusals to testify, and the union expended much time and money fighting court battles for its members. Finally a series of court decisions, in which the ACA was not directly involved, called the tactics of HUAC into serious question, and the union was relieved of the worst of this pressure.
The years of fighting for members' rights and the loss of CIO affiliation took a heavy toll on the union's membership and resources. A severe blow came with the loss of the 1966 election at Western Union to the Communication Workers of America. In a referendum later that year, the membership voted to affiliate with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters as the Teamsters' Communications Trade Division. At this writing (1975), the organization, while a Teamster affiliate, continues to be known as the ACA and to be headed by President Joseph Selly. It maintains its headquarters in New York City.
