Communications Workers of America. Local 1180 (New York, N.Y.)

CWA Local 1180 had its origins in the Municipal Management Society, a group founded in 1954 to represent Grade 5 Clerks in the New York City civil service who were considered to have managerial responsibilities. The new organization soon had about 120 members, drawn from nearly every agency in city government.

In 1960 New York City agreed to collective bargaining with unions representing specific classes of workers employed in more than one department, and this ushered in a decade of rapid organization of municipal employees by several unions. The MMS, under president James Gaffney, launched a campaign to become the bargaining unit for adminstrative employees; this required affiliation with an AFL-CIO international union. After discussions with several unions, the MMS membership voted to join the CWA. In May 1965, the MMS was chartered as CWA Local 1180, the first public employees' local in the CWA. The new local proceeded to bargaining, and its first contract was approved in April 1967.

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