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A major change in the IBEW International leadership came in 1976 when Secretary Keenan retired. A tribute to Brother Keenan in the July ‘76 Journal read in part, “Brother Keenan served his fellow man, his union, and indeed the entire trade union movement and his country with dedication and devotion. The IBEW will long remember Brother Joe Keenan anti extends to him and his wile, Jeffie, many years of happy retirement. IEC Secretary Ralph Leigon was chosen to serve as International Secretary. Along with Brother Keenan’s retirement, six International Vice Presidents retired. Among those newly chosen Vice President in 1976 were, in the Third District, International Representative J.J. Barry, and in the Eleventh District, former IEC member, Jack F. Moore. Two years later (two months before the 31ist International Convention), President Pillard appointed Thomas P. Van Arsdale International Treasurer. Brother Van Arsdale, Business Manager of Local 3, succeeded his father, Harry Van Arsdale Jr., who retired after serving as Treasurer since 1968.
Change came also to the AFL-CIO. George Meany, AFL-CIO president since the two labor organizations merged, and before that president of the AFL, decided not to seek reelection at the federation’s 13th convention in 1979. The AFL-CIO turned to its secretary-treasurer, Lane Kirkland as president. Former Meany assistant, Thomas Donahue, was elected secretary-treasurer. Brother Meany, who stepped down as AEL-CIO president in November 1979 because of failing health, died two months later, January 10, 1980. lie was 86 years old. At both the 30th IBEW International Convention in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1974, and again at the 31st Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 1978, procuring jobs and Curbing inflation were recurring themes. Despite the hard economic times, in ‘78 President Pillard spoke with confidence and optimism. In his keynote address he said, “I am confident that the recession that is hindering us today will eventually end. That light at the end of the tunnel will be reached. And when that day comes, our Brotherhood will be stronger by having better control of our industry than ever before in its history....” To a large extent that light at the end of the tunnel,” of which president Pillard spoke still eludes us. The economy did pick tip at the end of the decade and into the 1980s, and inflation and unemployment did go clown. But America going into the ‘80s had lost something, something very hard to put a finger on—pride, respect. America, it seemed, couldn’t get it right, whether it was building cars or forging steel. More and more manufacturing capacity was moving overseas and to Mexico, and the Country turned to a man who promised to bring the pride back—Ronald Reagan. Reagan flirted with the presidency in 1976, hut in 1980 the time was right. A September 1980 IBEW Journal article entitled “Reagan: A Threat to Labor,” appearing the month before Reagan’s landslide victory, summed up organized labor’s opinion. The article started off, “Ronald Reagan is the Republican presidential nominee. As president, he would be a disaster for worker s and their unions.” During his two terms in office, Reagan, and those he brought with him to Washington, lived up to all of labor’s fears. But thanks to the IBEW’s foresight and planning, the Brotherhood, built to meet the needs of the future as well as the present, continued on.
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 President Pillard (left) swearing in International Treasurer Thomas Van Arsdale in 1978. 1976 In a 120-66 vote, the congregation of President-elect Carter's church ended an 11-year ban against attendance by blacks. The Labor Department reported that the national unemployment rate in November had risen to its highest level, 8.1 percent up from 7.9 percent in October. The U.S. celebrated its Bicentennial July 4, marking the 200th anniversary of its independence. 1977 Ending 10 years of discord over organization of agricultural workers in the West, Cesar Chavez's United Farm Workers and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters signed an agreement to organize workers. President Carter signed an act creating a new cabinet-level Energy Department. Canadians and Americans made up one of the largest delegations at the summer's triennial congress of the International Transport-Workers Federation in Dublin. 1978 Senator Hubert H. Humphrey (D.-Minn.) 66, lost his battle with cancer after 32 years of public service. A crippling 105-day strike by the 160,000 member United Mine Worker's Union ended April 4, with a final ratification |
