The Postal, Telegraph and Telephone International (PTTI) was a global union federation bringing together unions of communications workers worldwide.

History

While a meeting of unions of communication workers was held in Paris in 1911, no lasting organisation was established until 1920, when the PTTI was founded at a meeting in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

. Initially, the federation consisted entirely of European unions, but after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, it expanded worldwide, and by 1994 had four million members. By 1997, new forms of communication had grown in importance, and the federation renamed itself as the Communications International. At the end of 1999, it merged with the

International Federation of Commercial, Clerical, Professional and Technical Employees The International Federation of Commercial, Clerical, Professional and Technical Employees (FIET; french: Fédération internationale des employés, techniciens et cadres) was a global union federation bringing together workers representing cleri ...

, the International Graphical Federation, and the Media and Entertainment International, to form

Union Network International UNI Global Union, formerly Union Network International (UNI), is a global union federation for the skills and services sectors, gathering national and regional trade union. It has affiliated unions in 150 countries representing 20 million workers ...

Affiliates

In 1998, the following unions were affiliated:

Leadership

General Secretaries

:1911: Felix Koch :1919: Ludwig Maier :1936: Franz Rohner :1940: Fritz Gmür :1965: Stefan Nedzynski :1989: Philip Bowyer

Presidents

:1920:

John William Bowen Sir John William Bowen CBE (8 May 1876 – 1 April 1965), known as William Bowen, was a British trade unionist and politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in govern ...

:1949: Charles Geddes :1957: William Norton :1960: Carl Stenger :1966: Ron Smith :1967: Charles Delacourt-Smith :1969: Joseph A. Beirne :1974: Ivan Reddish :1979: Ernst Breit :1984:

Glenn Watts Glenn Ellis Watts (June 4, 1920 – August 30, 2002) was an American labor union leader. Born in Stony Point, North Carolina, Watts' family moved to Washington, D.C. during the Great Depression. He attended Wilson Teachers College. In 1941, he be ...

:1985:

Akira Yamagishi was a Japanese trade union leader who served as the first president of the Japanese Trade Union Confederation from 1989 to 1994. Born in Osaka, Yamagishi began working in a telegram office, and joined the Japan Telecommunications Workers' Union. ...

:1990:

Curt Persson Curt Persson (8 November 1938 – 23 November 2020) was a Swedish trade union leader. Persson started work in 1954 as a postman and joined the Swedish Post Union. In 1961, he became education officer for its Malmö branch, later serving as it ...

:1997: Kurt van Haaren

References

{{Authority control Trade unions established in 1920 Trade unions disestablished in 1999 Global union federations Communications trade unions