International Typographical Union - Fall

Fall

Concerned that the union did not have the economic strength to win good wages and benefits for its members and worried that further membership declines might threaten the viability of the union, the ITU leadership sought a merger with another printing union.

The ITU sought to merge with The Newspaper Guild but terminated negotiations in 1981 after nearly four years of talks. The ITU discussed merging with the Graphic Communications International Union, but the talks did not proceed very far. Later, the GCIU merged into the IBT.

Problems plagued the term of ITU President Joe Bingel 1978-1983. In a contested special election between Bingel and Robert McMichen, McMichen, the anti-Teamster candidate, won the election. However, the ITU was dying.

The ITU executive council subsequently required president Robert McMichen to enter into merger talks with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. IBT President Jackie Presser spoke of merger with the ITU; at the 1983 San Francisco ITU convention. ITU President Joe Bingle risked his leadership post on the ITU-IBT merger and lost. However, the ITU's 74,000 members turned down the merger two-to-one in a vote taken in 1985, fearing that the Teamsters could not be trusted to respect the terms of the merger agreement—which included the hallmark of the ITU: autonomy. The Mailers would later join the Teamsters; the Printers would not. The last ITU convention was held in 1984 in Hershey, Pennsylvania. By 1986, the ITU had only 44,000 active members.

On December 31, 1986, the Associated Press printed the following with a dateline of Colorado Springs, Colorado:

The International Typographical Union has ceased to exist, and most of its staff was laid off at national headquarters here. Most of the 60 workers are continuing on a temporary basis with the Communication Workers of America, with which the ITU merged, said ITU spokesman Bill Frazee. The ITU ended operations on December 31, 1986. On January 1, 1987, the union joined the CWA as its Printing, Publishing and Media Workers Sector. CWA has its headquarters in Washington, D.C. and employees working for the sector will transfer there in two to four months, Frazee said. The International Typographical Union was the nation's oldest union, charted nationally in 1852. Its membership peaked in the 1960s at 100,000 printers. But since computerization of the business, membership has dropped to 40,000 working printers and 35,000 retirees.

Finally, in 1987, the printers of the ITU merged with the Communications Workers of America (CWA). It is now the Printing, Publishing, and Media Workers Sector of the CWA. William J. Boarman is vice-president of the sector.

The Mailers were split between the CWA and IBT. In May 1986, many Mailer locals joined "The Mailers' Conference of the CWA". When the ITU ended, all Mailer locals merged into the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT). It is now the Newspaper, Magazine and Electronic Media Workers Division. Joe Molinero is the division director.

The ITU Fraternal Pension Fund was from 1908-1966. Elmer Brown created the Negotiated Pension Plan (NPP). Today, the pension for all ITU members before 1986 and CWA members since 1987 is the CWA/ITU Negotiated Pension Plan. This pension plan is located in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The Teamsters have the IBT Pension for members after 1987.