The American Communications Association (ACA) was a telegraph and radio workers union, founded in 1931.
In 1931, ACA was founded as the American Radio Telegraphists Association (ARTA) by Mervyn Rathbone.
The union had previously been involved in a Supreme Court case regarding the use of strikebreakers in strikes (NLRB v. Mackay Radio & Telegraph Co., 304 U.S. 333 (1938)), which it had lost.
In 1937, the union changed its name to the American Communications Association and affiliated with the newly formed Congress of Industrial Organizations.
[4] In May-June 1951, the United States Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security (SSIS) held hearings on "Subversive Infiltration in the Telegraph Industry."