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1919-1924 On the Move

At its 1919 International Convention, the IBEW was an organization on the move. Directions within the Brotherhood were on the move; attitudes within the Brotherhood were on the move; and the union voted at the Convention to move its headquarters out of Springfield, Illinois. With International President J.P. Noonan’s inauguration in 1919, a new era in the IBEW’s history was born. And with the ending of the Great War, named before anyone knew to number them, there was an outward optimism and sense of beginning pushing North America into the Roaring ‘20s which barely masked a deeper slide in the quality of life for most working people.

‘The direction the IBEW took on strikes changed radically in the 1920s. From its start leaders of the IBEW tried to control strikes. Strikes have always been looked at as a necessary component in the strategy of organized labor. But the IBEW has been of the view that the strike should only be an option of last resort. Under the strong leadership of President F.J. McNulty (1903-1919), unauthorized strikes were reduced, but still constituted a major problem for the Brotherhood. In 1919 the IBEW moved in a new and revolutionary direction to curb strikes by voting at its Convention to create the Council on Industrial Relations.

In the years right before World War 1, a group of electrical contractors began to meet socially to talk about various topics of mutual interest. A topic which came up again and again was how to improve relations with electrical workers. This group came to call itself the Conference Club.

After the war one of the club’s more active participants, L.K. Comstock, brought up the possibility of meeting with the IBEW leadership to draft a national labor agreement to address the needs of both the union and the contractors. A joint committee of IBEW representatives, led by International Secretary Charles Ford, and contractors, led by Comstock, met in March 1919. A Joint Declaration of Purpose was signed, with the National Association of Electrical Contractors and Dealers (“dealers” was later dropped from the title) joining the Conference Club members as the management-side signatory group. The proposal was ratified by the NAECD Convention in July and the IBEW Convention in September.

Since that time the CIR, made up of equal numbers of IBEW and NECA representatives, has met regularly to hear cases and settle disputes. The CIR’s decisions are unanimous and binding, and to this day not one has been violated. The CIR’s method of providing negotiated settlements to complicated labor disputes has become a model for all industries, and it remains a vivid symbol of the IBEW’s commitment to improving the conditions of its membership while providing the best service to the public.

Attitudes in the Brotherhood were also changing as the IBEW moved into the ‘20s. Society, so concerned with ending the war in Europe before 1918, found itself confronting several divisive issues after the war. Public morality was at stake with the Prohibition Movement. (Communism’s rise and its association with some radical labor leaders hurt the public image of even the most anticommunist unions. But it was the Open Shop Movement which hurt organized labor the most.

Big Business’s biggest, such as U.S. Steel Chairman Elbert Gary, said after the First World War that unions were obsolete, that “they may have been justified in the long past, . . . I think workmen were not always treated justly . . . .But now there is no necessity for labor unions....” Other corporate leaders joined in the call to stop organized labor under the banner of “The American Plan,” and with an extremely well-financed and -managed campaign came very close to doing so. Employees were forced to sign “yellow Dog” contracts stating they didn’t belong to, or intended to join, any union. And businessman after businessman made promises to his employees about how well he intended to treat them. IBEW membership fell, as did membership in unions across America.

Labor was hurt. Being caught up in the Red Scare, followed by the Open Shop Movement, then the Great Depression a few years later, brought organized labor into one of its darkest periods ever. Unions ere able to meet the challenge and move beyond the bad times, but it would take the next 20 years to do so.

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1919-1924 On the Move