Managers at the switchboard: 1946
Supervisors work the switchboards at the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company building at 725 13th Street NW January 10, 1946 after regular operators walked off the job to hold a union meeting.
The “continuous meeting” ended up lasting eight days.
The 3,000 switchboard operators were fed up with rules like requiring a supervisor present before changing a headset from one ear to another or having to call a supervisor before taking an aspirin.
Mary Gannon led the local operators union from the time it was a company union in 1935 through militant strikes in the 1940s and up until 1950--after the Communications Workers of America was formed. She was one of the few women union leaders in the Washington, D.C. area at that time. Margaret Gilmore at the Bureau of Engraving was another.
She led as many as 200 strikes—most for an hour or two—during her career, including a one-day strike that disrupted White House communications during World War II. Many of the strikes were sympathy strikes helping other telephone unions around the country and helping to lay the basis for a national union.
She was in the late stages of pregnancy with her son Tommy during the six-week 1947 strike, and put in the long hours and picket duty required of a union leader. Her son was born near the end of the strike and Gannon returned to the bargaining table after giving birth to conclude the contract agreement that would end the strike.
Gannon said of her decision to resign at age 38 in 1950, “I was torn between two children, for I feel like the union was my child too. But in the end I felt like I must give more attention to Tommy.”
During her tenure, the telephone operators were known as “Gannon’s girls” by news reporters.
For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHsmbnHJap
For a blog post on the Washington Telephone Traffic Union, see washingtonareaspark.com/2022/02/08/the-washington-telepho...
The photographer is unknown. The image is courtesy of the D.C. Public Library Washington Star Collection © Washington Post.
Managers at the switchboard: 1946
Supervisors work the switchboards at the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company building at 725 13th Street NW January 10, 1946 after regular operators walked off the job to hold a union meeting.
The “continuous meeting” ended up lasting eight days.
The 3,000 switchboard operators were fed up with rules like requiring a supervisor present before changing a headset from one ear to another or having to call a supervisor before taking an aspirin.
Mary Gannon led the local operators union from the time it was a company union in 1935 through militant strikes in the 1940s and up until 1950--after the Communications Workers of America was formed. She was one of the few women union leaders in the Washington, D.C. area at that time. Margaret Gilmore at the Bureau of Engraving was another.
She led as many as 200 strikes—most for an hour or two—during her career, including a one-day strike that disrupted White House communications during World War II. Many of the strikes were sympathy strikes helping other telephone unions around the country and helping to lay the basis for a national union.
She was in the late stages of pregnancy with her son Tommy during the six-week 1947 strike, and put in the long hours and picket duty required of a union leader. Her son was born near the end of the strike and Gannon returned to the bargaining table after giving birth to conclude the contract agreement that would end the strike.
Gannon said of her decision to resign at age 38 in 1950, “I was torn between two children, for I feel like the union was my child too. But in the end I felt like I must give more attention to Tommy.”
During her tenure, the telephone operators were known as “Gannon’s girls” by news reporters.
For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHsmbnHJap
For a blog post on the Washington Telephone Traffic Union, see washingtonareaspark.com/2022/02/08/the-washington-telepho...
The photographer is unknown. The image is courtesy of the D.C. Public Library Washington Star Collection © Washington Post.