125 Years Strong – An IUOE History

INTERNATIONAL UNION OF OPERATING ENGINEERS
I.U.O.E., Brother Giblin began his career
working in the stationary-engineering trade
in 1964 in his home state of New Jersey with
Local No. 68.
But before stepping down, in early 2005
General President Hanley joined the general
presidents of the United Brotherhood of
Carpenters, the International Association
of Ironworkers and the International
Brotherhood of Boilermakers and U.S. Labor
Secretary Elaine L. Chao in signing a pact
encouraging alcohol- and drug-free workplaces
in a cooperative effort to improve worker
health and safety. Through the alliance, the
organizations would be better able to provide
union members and the construction industry
with information, guidance and training
resources that communicate the benefits of
drug-free workplace programs and better
protect workers’ health and safety. To help
accomplish those activities, the unions would
focus especially on educating workers on safety
hazards created by the abuse of alcohol and
other drugs in workplaces.
That year, after more than two years during
which passage of a national infrastructure bill
was the primary focus of I.U.O.E. legislative
endeavors, the U.S. Congress finally passed
the largest infrastructure legislation ever, the
$244-billion reauthorization of the Federal
Public Transportation Act in the form of
the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient
Transportation Equity Act, which was signed
into law on August 10, 2005. An I.U.O.E.-led
coalition of building-trades unions successfully
lobbied to have comprehensive Davis-Bacon
prevailing-wage provisions in the measure to
protect members’ wages when working on
federally funded projects. Over the four-year life
of the bill, it would create an estimated 47,000
jobs, half of which would be in the construction
industry, for every $1 billion in funds.
The I.U.O.E. then took aim at alleviating
escalating healthcare costs for its members,
beginning with the union’s first-ever Healthcare
Initiatives Conference held August 17 and
18 in Washington, D.C. Approximately 150
international vice presidents and trustees,
local union business managers, union health
Members of I.U.O.E. Local No. 772 of Hamilton, Ontario, employed at the city’s water treatment plant and Business Manager Greg Hoath (center)
celebrate their successful 6-1/2-year legal battle over lost wages after an appeals court awarded the some 120 current and former members a
total of $800,000. The back-pay award came about as the result of a dispute with the City of Hamilton and American Water Services centered on
contractual wage obligations that were frozen and deferred under government legislation – for which Local 772 was the only union in Ontario to
successfully challenge the legislative implications on its negotiated agreement.
Members of I.U.O.E. Local No. 612 of Tacoma, Washington, work on construction of the new, eastbound, second
span of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge across the Tacoma Narrows strait of Puget Sound in 2004 for its opening
three years later (by which time the original bridge would be reconfigured to carry westbound traffic).
and welfare fund administrators and trustees
participated in the meeting, whose focus was to
provide a united effort to curb rising healthcare
prices. During the conference, the union
formally introduced four innovative healthcare
programs designed to ease the financial and
quality-of-services pressures adversely affecting
its Health & Welfare funds. While the programs
were strictly voluntary for its locals, one of the
key roles of the I.U.O.E. international office
would be negotiating pricing structures and
facilitating business arrangements between
participating locals and healthcare vendors.
Later that very month, the I.U.O.E.
again responded to a devastating crisis after
Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast region
on August 29, 2005. One of the worst natural
disasters in the history of the United States,
the storm affected to varying degrees more
than 1,300 I.U.O.E. members with Local
No. 406 in New Orleans; Local No. 407 in
Lake Charles, Louisiana; Local No. 624 in
Jackson, Mississippi; Local No. 653 in Mobile,
Alabama; and region-wide Marine Division
Local No. 25, based by then in New Jersey. In
response, the union established the I.U.O.E.
Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund soon after
the hurricane hit to help members and their
families who were victimized, and countless
other members and locals from throughout
the union generously answered the appeal for
assistance by donating a total of $2.3 million.
To recognize the support his local and the
others received, Local No. 406 Business
Manager Don Schiro addressed the 2006
I.U.O.E. General Executive Board open session
on behalf of those locals whose members were
affected by Hurricane Katrina and would
receive assistance from the relief fund, saying:
“I can tell you that the most uplifting thing to
happen to those operating engineers who suffered
from Katrina was the response to their plight of
LABOR OMNIA VINCIT
WORK CONQUERS ALL