Series includes histories of the CTU, and the Association Western Union Employees, brief histories of technology and the technological changes that affected the telegraph industry; and materials relating to the various organizations which were competing for membership in the telegraph industry. Includes election materials, War Labor Board and National Labor Relations Board cases; arbitrations, articles of agreement, mergers and amalgamation agreements.

Series includes materials related to the structure, the numerous reorganization plans, and records relating to the various divisions within the union. These include the Southern, Southwestern, and Western Union Divisions, the Canadian Pacific Division and the Press Divisions, representing the Associated Press (A.P.) And the United Press International (U.P.I.). Materials include correspondence, election, bargaining and strike materials.

Series includes the Presidents' correspondence, Executive Board correspondence, and correspondence of the divisions. This section includes only those materials from the E. L. Hageman and D. J. Beckstead administrations.

Issued by the national office, the collection includes bulletins from 1959 to 1989.

The proceedings date from 1928 (the 14th Regular Convention) and end with 1994's Special Convention. The CTU Western Union Division Convention Proceedings follow, beginning with 1942 and ending in 1975. The materials include typescript proceedings, reports, miscellaneous documents..

The bulk of the materials in the series relates to the effort to implement a job classification system through collective bargaining. Western Union successfully avoided this standard corporate practice until the 1940's. While collective bargaining materials related to other employers such as the Bendix Field Engineering Company (satellite tracking at Goddard Space Center, near Washington, D.C) is included, the bulk of the materials relate to Western Union. Collective bargaining materials related to the divisions are included (e.g., Canadian; Press). Strike materials (bulletins, correspondence, press releases) are included in this section. Two boxes at the end of the series contain Exhibit materials, and Western Union bargaining records, 1946-1949, originating with CWA District 6 (Texas).

The materials related to the 53 day strike in 1952 are of exceptional depth. Materials include correspondence, strike bulletins, notes, news clips, company and union financial data, and public relations materials, such as radio broadcasts.

The union and the company's effort to manage the failing fortunes of the telegraph industry are reflected in this series. The Task Force and programs related to the Joint Labor Management program include correspondence, drafts, memos, working papers, and other materials related to the QWL program devised for Western Union The agreement between the company and the union to establish the Joint labor management Board was signed in October 1985. Materials date from 1985 to 1989.

Legal materials relating to the "subsidiaries" case wherein Western Union maintained that its divisions constituted separate corporate entities. The records follow the case through the early correspondence, charges and complaints, from the NLRB to the U. S. Supreme Court.

This series contains photographs documenting the history of the Commercial Telegraphers Union/United Telegraph Workers from circa the early 1940s to the 1980s. Includes black-and-white and color group and documentary photographs from CTU/UTW conventions and meetings from the 1940s to the 1980s; black-and-white portraits and candids, with corresponding negatives, of union leadership and staff from circa 1973; circa 1940s small black-and-white prints from a CTU and AFL strike; an undated group portrait of the AFL-CIO Executive Council; and a portrait of Samuel Gompers.