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December 7, 1941, the Japanese—who, over the previous few years, had invaded China and made aggressive moves in the Pacific—raided the American naval base at Peal Harbor, Hawaii. The United States was in the war for real.

The war meant different things to the membership. For over 35,000 members it meant joining the armed forces. For many it meant a tremendous jump in factory work, building the planes, tanks, trucks, ships and guns of war. And for others it meant working in a climate regulated by the U.S. War Production Board, the National War Labor Board, the War Manpower commission; restrictions by dozens of other local and national boards and offices; and rationing of basic foods and materials. Nevertheless, it was a time of explosive industrial growth.

For Local 205, Detroit, Press Secretary W.L. Ingram, writing in the IBEW Journal of Electrical Workers and Operators in May 1941, private business was coming back after years of depression. “ Detroit has become alive with the recuperation of local industry….” He said.

Where materials could be had, construction in the United States was booming. And a new type of lighting was finding its way into the large, wartime office buildings. Local 99, Providence, Rhode Island, Press Secretary Emil A. Cialledia wrote in the May ’41 Journal, “Everything is fluorescent….People are carried away by the reported efficiencies of operating…. Fluorescent-lighting shops and stores are mushrooming in this town.”

As more and more men were being shipped overseas, the war opened the way for women to enter the work force in numbers they never had before. Unions also used their newfound political clout to advance the cause of civil rights. A. Philip Randolph, head the predominantly black Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, helped move President Roosevelt and other union leaders to positive gains in civil-rights policies.

The first few years of the war were very bleak for the Allied armies. The Germans moved with lightning speed and by 1940 captured all adversaries in Europe except Great Britain. The Soviet Union had signed a non aggression pact with Hitler which allowed the German army to concentrate on crossing the English Channel and securing the whole continent. In the Pacific, the Japanese had demonstrated great strength and projected military power from India, to Midway Island, halfway across the Pacific.

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1940-1945 The American Century