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1891-1920 IBEW vs. The Corporations

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Portion of the striking operators during the 1919 New England Telephone strike. (The Boston Globe, as it appeared in Labor's Flaming Youth, Telephone Operators and Worker Militancy, 1878-1923, Stephen H. Norwood.)

Internal Strife

The Reid-Murphy Split in the IBEW’s leadership lasting from 1908 to 1913 not only resulted in a bitterly divided membership, but also affected the union’s ability to prevail in labor/management disputes. While some electrical workers and their employers continued their ongoing work arrangements, the Reid faction disrupted relationships among others. For example, Local 61 of Los Angeles reported in 1911 that the formation of a Reid local resulted in Local 61’s inability to improve working conditions for its members at Southern California Edison Company, Los Angeles Gas and Electric Company, and the Pacific Light and Power Company.

From June 1919 IBEW Journal

In many cases across the United States, each group engaged in strikebreaking against the other. ‘The Reid faction broke strikes and founded locals of members employed at lower wages than the McNulty group’s locals in Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Chicago, Gary, Dallas and other cities. During the secession period a strike demonstrating the legitimate (McNulty) Brotherhood’s influence on wages and working conditions in the electric light and power industry occurred against eh Pacific Gas and Electric Company.

The “Light and Power Council of California,” including workers aligned with the Reid faction, was formed in December 1912 to unite the different organizations working for PG&E, particularly for signing joint agreements. Reid electrical workers, some stationary firemen, gas workers and miscellaneous repairmen answered the strike call on May 7, 1913. Within two weeks Vice President Grasser of the McNulty group agreed to provide electrical workers to the company and had signed agreements covering wiring and conduit work and the construction, operation and maintenance of transmission, distribution and telephone lines and their connected apparatus. Although wages and working conditions weren’t significantly improved, the importance of these agreements was getting the company to “employ only members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, together with its subordinate local unions....”.Compared to destroying the Reid electrical workers, wages became secondary.

The strike also caused the splintering of several other unions and trade union groups, which supported one side or the other of the electrical workers’ dispute. The settling of the strike in January 1914 coincided with the return of most of the secessionist electrical workers to the IBEW led by President McNulty.

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Page 2 of 3
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1891-1920 IBEW vs. The Corporations

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