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The Telephone and the Unions

By Esper Fogh

In 1910 and during the subsequent years a small war was fought between the telephone compa-nies and their employees. The battle was about the right to organize and it was fought with drastic means, not least in Copenhagen where the chief opponent was director of the telephone company, Fr. Johannsen. He prohibited the female telephone operators to organize and they were not allowed to talk about union at the workplace.


Part of the battle was fought in the newspapers, especially in "The Social Democrat". Alfred Nielsen, business manager of Danish Telephone Workers’ Union, wrote here on 5th Novem-ber 1910 among other things:

The state monopolized telephone company headed by director Fr. Johannsen is now acting in the aggressive towards the telephone workers. Mr. Johannsen has drawn up a slave contract which he presents to every worker for signing. The contract reads as follows: "The undersigned binds himself not to be a member of any union of telephone employees or workers whose rules and statutes have not been approved by the company". ... Yesterday a telephone worker was summoned to the office. The contract was presented to him. But next to it lay a notice of dismissal. Now the worker could make his own choice: Either unemployment or his signature on the slave contract.

At this time about 300 workers were employed with the telephone company and all apart from four or five had joined the union. These last ones were under very heavy pressure to join as well. In order to avoid membership they tried instead in collaboration with the telephone company to establish an alternative union with rules mentioning that "No member must be member of Danish Telephone Workers’ Union at the same time. Alf Nielsen wrote about this in "The Social Democrat" on 6th November 1910:

"The telephone worker who is head of the splinter union and who has proved himself a particularly efficient tool in the hand of director Johannsen has number 345 and his name is Aage Hillestrom. He is much disliked by his fellow workers".

In the same article four other telephone workers were denounced by name as leaders of the "Splinter Union". As it appears rather tough means were used in the fight for the right to organize. Director Johannsen fired e.g. Alf Nielsen and the chairman of the union just like that and refused later to negotiate with them because "they are no longer in the company’s service". There were others, however, who were willing to plead the telephone workers’ cause, namely Member of Parliament Th. Stauning, who was quoted as follows in "The Social Democrat" from a meeting with the telephone workers:

"It is due to the fact that in defiance of section 87 of the Constitution the director of the telephone company tries to prohibit the employees to form a union. ... It is strange that an enlightened man like Mr. Johannsen would even think of trying to prevent the workers from organizing. About 30-40 years ago it was common that employers availed themselves of slave contracts by which the workers were prohibited to organize. This belongs in a past era..."

The director of the telephone company replies:

"At the telephone workers’ meeting yesterday you are said to have declared that I have summoned workers individually to my office and presented them with a contract to sign accompanied by a notice of dismissal. However, this has not taken place. The signatures were made to an assistant at the line office and according to an investigation I instituted your statement must be considered as pure fabrication..."

and Stauning counters:

"Director Fr. Johansen, Copenhagen Telephone Company Ltd. In your letter of today an attempt of objection is made against a point I stated at the telephone workers’ meeting on 7th inst. to which I have to remark as follows: It is evidently immaterial whether the prohibition of membership of a trade union was signed in the line office or in the director’s office as we are all well aware that the signature was demanded by the director…"

More letters were exchanged between Stauning and Johannsen during the following days. A week later at a negotiation meeting with the telephone company Stauning was among the negotiators representing the workers. The result of the meeting was that Fr. Johannsen acknowledged the workers’ right to membership of their trade union. But the dispute was not over yet because the director refused subsequently to take part in introducing rules for negotiation.

The female telephone operators at KTAS who had the specific problem that they were to stay unmarried if they wanted to be employed with the telephone company organized in 1913 despite strong opposition from director Johannsen. He thought that they had been led on by the men as they would be effective in a strike situation. In May 1919 it was very close that a strike was called against the telephone company. However, it was averted in the last moment. (See article in MuseumsPosten vol. 1/1999). On that occasion Fr. Johannsen was interviewed in Folkets Avis [The People’s Newspaper] where among other things he declared:

"It is all wrong that the young ladies marry, and mainly for their own sake! I dare say it is downright reprehensible that a young lady should marry a man who is unable to provide for her; it is utterly outrageous! And it is a crying shame for the young lady in question. I consider it the height of scandal that a man should first marry and then breed the idea that his wife is not serving enough by taking care of husband, children, and home. In my opinion she has the right to demand the appreciation she deserves – but if she also has to be e.g. a telephone operator, that is the limit!"

In 1920 a strike broke out which lasted for six weeks and it turned out that the director was right when claiming that the female telephone operators would be effective in that situation. Telephone workers of both sexes got substantial wage increases and the young ladies got permission to marry.

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