125 Years Strong – An IUOE History

INTERNATIONAL UNION OF OPERATING ENGINEERS
Members of I.U.O.E. Local No. 772 of Hamilton, Ontario, participate in the City of Hamilton’s Labour Day parade in 1999 while also on strike
against the city’s Hamilton-Wentworth Water and Wastewater Treatment facilities and operator Azurix Corporation of Houston, Texas. The
16-week strike ended soon after with the local securing a settlement agreement that contained many of the terms it had sought.
City and immediately discharged I.U.O.E.
members who were long-time employees in
the maintenance unit at Delta Airlines and
hired replacement workers at reduced wages
and benefits. After a protracted campaign, the
union won a new contract with the company
on October 25 that recognized the I.U.O.E.
as the exclusive collective-bargaining agent for
regular employees of the company. As part of
the settlement, the company would also rectify
a similar situation at Newark Airport.
Plentiful work and conditions for the vast
majority of I.U.O.E. members and their
families continued into the next year as the
result of a robust national economy and the
impact of I.U.O.E. legislative and political
activities. The international’s tireless work in
Congress that resulted in more than $37.6
billion in federal funds being appropriated for
the fiscal year for highways, bridges and other
transportation projects translated into jobs for
operating engineers.
I.U.O.E. members from Local No. 14, Local
No. 15 and locals from across the United States
and Canada were the first building-trades
craftspeople at “Ground Zero” following the
September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the
World Trade Center. That morning, Islamic
militants hijacked four commercial passenger
airliners and flew two of them into the Trade
Center’s Twin Towers and a third into the
Pentagon just outside Washington, D.C.,
while the fourth plane crashed in a field near
Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers
overtook their hijackers.
The attacks killed a total of 2,977 people,
including seven total members of I.U.O.E.
Local No. 15, Local No. 94 and Local No. 138
of Long Island who lost their lives when the
Trade Center towers collapsed.
Soon after the attack, operating engineers
were at the Ground Zero site of the destroyed
towers, volunteering their skills and services
to help in rescue efforts. Ultimately, more
than 500 I.U.O.E. members operated and
maintained approximately 175 pieces of heavy
equipment for recovery and cleanup at the
site, and another roughly 100 members from
Members of I.U.O.E. Local No. 148 of St. Louis and their families rally during an
extended contract disagreement with the Fairview Heights public-sector municipality
in mid-eastern Illinois that the local represents. The union eventually won the dispute.
As I.U.O.E. Local 825, New Jersey, member Brother Tony Maglionico works on the construction site of the new Goldman Sachs
Tower in Jersey City in August 2001, his machine frames the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers in Lower Manhattan, which
would be destroyed the following month when terrorists flew commercial airliners into the buildings on September 11.
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