IBEW Local Union 1011, the Order of Repeatermen and Toll Testboardmen (ORTT), had a long and storied history that persevered and survived through many difficult and challenging years.

There was great resistance from both labor and management for the Toll Men (those working on long distance equipment) to break away and form their own union. Following lengthy hearings before the National Labor Relations Board in 1940 the Toll Testboardmen were certified as a collective bargaining unit.

The 1940’s saw several successful contract negotiations for the California-Nevada and Washington-Idaho members. In 1953 ORTT leadership petitioned the NLRB to consolidate three certifications into one, and also for the right to represent additional PT&T employees.

The emphasis on the type of work performed by our members began to shift in the late 1960’s when the line between “toll” and “local” services began to blur. Companies began assigning work traditionally done by Toll Men to CWA workers.

The landscape shifted again in the early 1980’s when AT&T (parent company of the Bell System) took over the operation of many long distance sites in California and Nevada.

Merged with local 1269 in 2002, we have become a group of highly skilled technicians responsible for the maintenance of complex equipment and the fiber optic network for much of the West Coast.