The Beginning of the Largest Electrical
Union in the World
By: T.J. Gruber
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers,
as we know it today, is a union of skilled electrical workers and technicians.
Since it's founding in 1891, the IBEW has grown to become the largest electrical
union in the world with about 1 million members. The men and women
who made the IBEW what it is today have turned the forces of electricity
toward forming a better life for all people.
During the experimental days of electricity,
there were no organized electrical labor groups. There was not even
enough work to form a small labor group. However, in 1844, wires
were strung between Baltimore and Washington to launch the first telegraph
message. The message of Samuel Morse that traveled through the lines
was, "What Hath God wrought?"(Groiler2000) The sending of this message
was the first electrical accomplishment of commercial importance and changed
the future of electricity forever (IBEW, 1988)
In 1848 the first telegraph station was built
in sweet home Chicago, Illinois. By 1861 a need for the stringing
of transatlantic cable had grown drastically and the demand for linemen
to string the wires had increased enormously. Young men flocked excitedly
to answer the call of a new and thrilling profession. (IBEW, 1988)
As a decade pasted, the public began to realize
the possibilities of electricity. With the help of Thomas Edison's
invention of the light bulb, young excited men dreamed about the opportunities
that they would encounter in the near future. The electric power and light
industry did in fact get under way when the Pearl Street Generating Station
in New York opened in 1882. When there was once just a hand-full
of linemen working with electricity just for fun, many new individuals
arrived seeking a profession.(IBEW, 1988)
The demand for electricity rose tremendously
and the number of electrical workers rose as well. However, the push
toward unionism was constructed because of the worker's desperate needs
and the hazardous safety conditions.
From the year 1870 on many weak and feeble
unions wear formed only to vanish. By the early 1880's there were
enough telegraph linemen organized to form their own local and affiliate
with the well-known Knights of Labor. Word spread fast and soon more
locals were established and a district council was formed. A strike
against the telegraph companies failed in 1883 braking up the first known
and recorded attempt to organize electrical workers. Even though
the first assembly was unsuccessful, the desire to join together was still
strong. A new, secret order of linemen was formed in Denver under
the name United Order of Linemen. This unit acquired some success
in the western portion of the U.S (IBEW, 1988).
In 1890 an exposition was held in St. Louis,
Missouri. Linemen and Wiremen, from around the country, traveled
to St. Louis to wire up new structures and buildings. At the end
of each workday many of the men sat and discussed the issues that revolved
around being an electrician. They discussed: wages, work hours, working
conditions and especially safety conditions. Many of the men worked
for only twenty cents an hour while bringing home a measly eight dollars
a day. At the end of each day, every worker was exhausted do to the
strenuous twelve-hour days in which they worked (IBEW, 1988).
However, the biggest concern of the workers was
safety. In the profession of electricity during the 1890's, the death
rate was one out of every two hired. There was no such thing as apprenticeship
training or safety standards and the national death rate for electrical
workers was twice that of the national average for any other industry.
The workers new that a union was the only logical answer so they turned
to the American Federation of Labor for help. Charles Cassel was
sent to help and he chartered them as the Electrical Wiremen and Linemen's
Union, No.5221 of the AFL (IBEW, 1988).
A St. Louis Lineman, (not left tackle Orlando Pace)
named Henry Miller
was elected as the first president of the union. To him, and other
members, it was obvious that their small union was just the beginning.
Small, isolated locals could accomplish almost nothing as a bargaining
agency. They felt that only a widespread, national agency could let
the workers receive the benefits and the treatment they deserved from the
other large widespread corporations (Barbash, 1861).
Miller packed up his tools and headed to work as
an electrician in many different cities across the country. Every
city that had the pleasure of working with him was organized into local
unions. Miller, full of energy, traveled "riding the rails" with
his tools and an extra work shirt. When arriving in certain towns,
he was often met by a policeman that would try to arrest him for his illegal
transportation methods (Barbash, 1961).
Much was accomplished in the Miller's first year,
despite the difficulties. Barbash (1961) states "Locals charted by the
AFL and other electrical unions were organized in: Chicago, Milwaukee,
Evansville, Louisville, Indianapolis, New Orleans, Toledo, Pittsburgh,
Cincinnati, Duluth, Philadelphia, and New York." (p. 45).
The first convention was called in hometown St.
Louis on November 21,1891. There were ten delegates representing
286 members in attendance. "The ten men who founded the union met in a
small room above Stolly's Dance Hall in a deprived section of St. Louis.
It was a humble beginning. In the IBEW Archives has a handwritten report
of Henry Miller's thoughts of the First Convention. ' At such a diminutive
showing, there naturally exists a feeling of almost despair. Those
who attended the convention will well remember the time we had hiding from
the reporters and trying to make it appear that we had a great delegation.'"(p.
45).
The name that the organization adopted was the National
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. The representatives to the First
Convention worked nonstop strait for days drawing up a Constitution, general
laws, rituals to be followed and an emblem.the well-known fist grasping
the lightning bolts. Henry Miller was then elected as the Grand President
of the NBEW. (IBEW Pg. 8)
The innovative national union started life without
a dime of it's own, being financed by a loan of $100 from the St. Louis
local. "This was the time and manner in which the Brotherhood was
born," wrote Charles P. Ford, long-term International secretary for the
IBEW, commenting on the birth of the union. "There was little to
encourage this small group of dedicated and determined men. The opposition
to unions at the time was active and bitter. The obstacles seemed
insurmountable. Hearts less courageous would have given up in despair."(Green,
1980)
At the First Convention, a motion that the Brotherhood
affiliate with the AFL was passed. The AFL was granted on December
7, 1891, and gave the NBEW sweeping jurisdiction over electrical workers
in every branch of the trade and industry (Green, 1980)
However, the man that did so much in order to obtain
his dream, Henry Miller, died on July 10, 1896. While repairing a
damaged wire caused by an electrical storm, the head lineman for the Potomac
Electric Power Company received a shock and fell from a pole, fatally striking
his head. Miller, only 43, had no money. The power company
covered the funeral and burial expenses. "The undertaker records
shows expenses of $63.50 for everything, including $1.50 for a shirt, collar
and tie, for Henry Miller, who gave so much of himself for others, had
not a decent outfit to his name." (Harper 51) Mr. Miller is buried
in section F, Range B, Site 179, Glenwood Cemetery in Washington, D.C.
Perpetual care of his grave is undertaken by the IBEW (IBEW, 1988).
It was not until the Sixth Convention, meeting in
Pittsburgh in 1899, changed the name of the union from National Brotherhood
of Electrical Workers to International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
The first local to be organized in Canada, on December 20, 1899, was Local
Union 93 of Ottawa, three years after the death of Henry Miller (IBEW,
1988).
Not only has the International Brotherhood of Electrical
Workers survived over the century, but it has also developed into one of
the largest union powerhouses in the world. The IBEW will continue
to expand its tradition of hard work and dedication as well as forming
a better life for all people.
References
1. Barbash, Jack.(1961). Labor's Grass Roots. New York:
Harper and Brothers.
2. Green, James R. (1980). The World of the Worker. New
York: Hill and Wang.
3. Groiler Multimedia Encyclopedia Deluxe Edition (CD-ROM). (1999).
Danbury, CT: Microsoft Corp.
4. International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers: History
and Structure. (1988). Washington: Allied Printing.
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