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Anti-Labor Legislation

Between our 1946 and 1948 Conventions, the Taft-Hartley Act was passed, creating vexing problems for the labor movement and severely hampering our efforts to organize new members.

In 1947 the National Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee was established. Arrangements were made to expand our apprenticeship program to increase the number of trained electrical workers supplied to the construction industry.

In September 1948 our 23rd Convention was held in Atlantic City. Considerable attention at this Convention was focused on the Taft-Hartley Act and anti-labor legislation being promulgated in several states.

Our 24th Convention took place in Miami, Florida, in 1950. Again, anti-labor legislation and its effects dominated the Officers' Reports and floor discussions.

International President Tracy and the IEC unequivocally stated in May 1950 that the IBEW preferred private ownership of utilities to public ownership because of the more favorable climate for collective bargaining with privately owned companies.

Following the 1950 Convention, which was an expensive one for our union, a referendum vote of our membership established conventions every four years instead of every two, as our Constitution previously directed.

In October 1952 the IBEW and NECA appointed a full-time director of apprenticeship and training.

``B" membership was eliminated on January 1, 1953, as a result of a referendum vote; and all members were required to transfer to either ``A" or ``BA" membership.

On April 15, 1954, President Tracy resigned; and Secretary Milne was appointed by the IEC to take his place. Brother Tracy became President Emeritus. President Milne appointed a longtime member of the Brotherhood, Joseph D. Keenan, to serve as International Secretary. These two officers were at the helm when our Chicago Convention met in 1954.

A Time of Innovation

It was the largest Convention of our Brotherhood and, as a matter of fact, the largest labor union convention ever held in the world up to that time. Three thousand one hundred thirty delegates attended, representing a membership of 625,000.

A referendum vote reduced the number of delegates to all subsequent Conventions. Otherwise, the steady increase in the number of our members soon would have made it impossible to locate cities with adequate accommodations to handle our future Conventions.

Reports of the officers to the 1954 Convention still emphasized the sinister effects of the Taft-Hartley Act and the ``right-to-work" laws it had spawned in 16 states. On the other hand, the reports and Convention discussions also profiled the progress achieved in membership growth and improved collective bargaining agreements despite these damaging laws.

Less than a year later, on July 20, 1955, International President Milne died. Five days later our IEC appointed Vice President Gordon M. Freeman of the Fourth District to the post of President.

A number of innovations were initiated in the International Office by Presidents Milne and Freeman. These included training classes for representatives and establishing individual departments of manufacturing, utility and telephone operations to assist local unions and our representatives in the field.

The years 1955 and 1956 brought considerable gains in the telephone field, with sizable groups of independent telephone unions electing to join the IBEW. This was an era of gains for railroad workers, culminating with the declaration by the U.S. Supreme Court on May 21, 1956, that the union-shop amendment to the Railway Labor Act was constitutional. Following the Supreme Court decision, union-shop agreements were negotiated with all but three major carriers in the United States.

There were innovations in our apprenticeship program. A full apprenticeship training program for outside electrical apprentices became available in January 1957. Because the number of apprentices in the construction field had increased by 46 percent since 1952, when the first director was appointed, an assistant director of apprenticeship and training was appointed in 1957.

A full-time International Representative was appointed to handle matters in the atomic-energy field because of the IBEW's increased participation in this area.

Pension Funds

Major changes were made in pension rights. In 1957 the National Labor Relations Board ruled that limiting NEBF pension benefits to IBEW members only was illegal. Until then, nonmembers working for contributing contractors were not eligible for NEBF pension benefits and received no coverage.

To correct this situation, the provisions of the NEBF plan were revised to permit all employees working for participating employers to be covered by the NEBF. The NEBF provides eligible employees with a monthly pension based on a specific amount per month for each completed year of credited service. The accompanying table depicts the basis for monthly pension benefits earned by participants retiring under the plan. A participant retiring on or after the dates shown will receive a benefit based on the amount to the immediate right of that date.

``A" members of the IBEW also participate in the Pension Benefit Fund (PBF). Through December 1991 the PBF provided benefits computed on the basis of $2.00 per month for each year of continuous good standing as an ``A" member. Effective January 1, 1992, the computation of this benefit increased to $3.50 per month for each year of continuous good standing earned as an ``A" member after December 31, 1991. The fund also pays a death benefit of $5,000 upon death by natural causes or $10,000 upon accidental death to beneficiaries of active ``A" members. The NEBF and PBF, as supplements to Social Security or Railroad Retirement benefits, provide retired members who participate in these plans with the means to live in moderate comfort after their years of labor.

The four years following our 1958 Convention in Cleveland were not easy ones for any segment of the labor movement. We experienced the most virulent wave of antiunionism since the open-shop movement after World War I.

Already beset by the effects of the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 and ``right-to-work" laws in 18 states in the United States, with laws equally damaging to labor in effect in Canada, our efforts in organizing and collective bargaining were more difficult, to say the least.

Then, in September 1959 the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA), also known as Landrum-Griffin, took effect. The International and our local unions have faced considerable difficulty and expense living with the LMRDA and its regulations.

The Constitution

Since it was first drafted more than 100 years ago, our Constitution has provided organizational stability while ensuring the democratic principles for which it stands.

As a result of the LMRDA, the IBEW has been forced to spend considerable membership funds to defend our Constitution against actions, many of them frivolous and without merit, which aim to destroy or impair our organization. While we have been successful in upholding our Constitution in the majority of cases, our victories have not come without damage to our structure. However, those who believed such laws would destroy the labor movement cannot be considered ``visionaries"; organized labor has learned to adapt in the face of challenges to its existence.