Unions Struggle as Communications Industry Shifts - NY Times Business

By MATT RICHTEL
Published: June 1, 2005

SAN FRANCISCO, May 31 - Lisa Morowitz, a longtime union coordinator, knows the taste of defeat.

She spends her days trying to organize Comcast cable workers. But not only are the workers declining to sign up, they have in many cases voted to end existing union ties.

"We're not winning, we're losing," said Ms. Morowitz, who works for the Communications Workers of America, the dominant union in telecommunications. "If we don't move the direction this industry is moving, we could become obsolete."

Even as unions struggle nationwide, with just 12.5 percent of the total work force unionized in 2004 compared with 22 percent in 1980, they face a particularly bleak future in the telecommunications industry.

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