The Postal, Telegraph and Telephone International (PTTI) was a

global union federation A global union federation (GUF) is an international List of federations of trade unions, federation of national trade unions organizing in specific industry sectors or occupational groups. Historically, such federations in the social democratic t ...

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 ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

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

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, it expanded worldwide, and by 1994 had four million members from every continent except Antarctica. 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 Graphical Federation, and the Media and Entertainment International, to form Union Network International.

Affiliates

In 1998, the following unions were affiliated to the PTTI:

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. Born and educated in Gowerton in Glamorgan, Bowen left school aged eleven to work at the Post Office. He soon ...

:1949: Charles Geddes :1957:

William Norton William Joseph Norton (2 November 1900 – 4 December 1963) was an Irish Labour Party politician who served as Tánaiste from 1948 to 1951 and from 1954 to 1957, Leader of the Labour Party from 1932 to 1960, Minister for Social Welfare from ...

:1960: Carl Stenger :1966: Ron Smith :1967: Charles Delacourt-Smith :1969: Joseph A. Beirne :1974: Ivan Reddish :1979: Ernst Breit :1984: Glenn Watts :1985: Akira Yamagishi :1990: Curt Persson :1997: Kurt van Haaren

References

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