125 Years Strong – An IUOE History

INTERNATIONAL UNION OF OPERATING ENGINEERS
our brother and sister I.U.O.E. members, our
sister local unions and our international union.
Your outpouring of kindness, caring and assistance
was truly moving.”
Business Manager Schiro went on to tell
those attending the meeting and, in essence,
the entire union:
“You opened your hearts and
extended your hands to those
members in dire need. That is what
the I.U.O.E. is all about.”
Up & Down: Jackpot to Slump
Addressing a growing national healthcare
crisis became another chief objective
of the I.U.O.E. during the 2000s, and
into the second half of that decade the union
was working intensely to resolve the issue
through collective action such as informationsharing
and coalition-building. To support those
Among the many women who have impacted their locals
throughout the I.U.O.E., Sister Diane Smalec of Local No. 399 in
Chicago was a pioneer in many ways, having started her career
as Local 399’s first female trainee engineer at Chicago’s Hyatt
Regency Hotel and later becoming the first female engineer
employed at that hotel, the first female chief engineer at Chicago’s
McCormick Place Convention Center and the first female to serve
on the local’s Executive Board. Sadly, Sister Smalec was killed in an
automobile accident on April 7, 2006, at age 50.
efforts, the union established a new Health Care
Initiatives Department in 2006 to work with its
locals to confront challenges facing their health
and welfare funds. The department did this by
assisting locals in making informed decisions,
offering cost-cutting opportunities for healthcare
services, and facilitating communication and the
exchange of key information.
Meanwhile, work in the pipeline industry in
both the U. S. and Canada was thriving – and
would continue to flourish for many years to
come as, beginning in 2006, related jobs already
scheduled for the next three years in the U. S.
consisted of 63 projects with a total of more
than 10,000 miles of pipe. What’s more, in
Alberta, Canada alone, some 12 projects with
a total of 2,200 miles of pipe were scheduled at
the time.
To prepare for that work and more, the
international union increased its skills training
endeavors and placed particular emphasis on
the pipeline sector. In doing so, from November
2006 to April 2007, the union would conduct
14 three-week-long pipeline training programs
at different sites around North America.
Citing the need to respond to “today’s
construction industry,” on March 1, 2006,
the I.U.O.E. withdrew from its affiliation on
an international level with the A.F.L.-C.I.O
Building and Construction Trades Department
and joined the Laborers’ International Union
and the United Brotherhood of Carpenters in
forming the National Construction Alliance
(N.C.A.). In explaining the union’s separation
from the Trades Department, General President
Giblin noted in the Winter 2006 International
Operating Engineer that through the N.C.A.,
the I.U.O.E. would have the “four critical
standards” that it could not get in the Trades
Department and which eventually led to the
disaffiliation: weighted voting by member
unions; expedited resolution of jurisdictional
disputes; strict budgetary controls; and decisive,
effective leadership.
Members of I.U.O.E. Local No. 66 of Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania and their families
participate in the city’s 2006 Labor Day parade, which is one of the largest in the country.
The broad goals of the newly created N.C.A.
were lifting working and living standards for
all construction workers, increasing the union
share of the construction market and helping
union contractors compete in the construction
industry by forging more cooperative working
partnerships. In particular, the organization
would focus on expanding union presence
through organizing in areas where there was
little or no union influence; establishing a
credible influence on Capitol Hill through
enhanced legislative-political activities; and
making union contractors more competitive
by delivering skilled, quality labor in a moreefficient
manner.
However, two years later the I.U.O.E.
General Executive Board voted on February 28,
2008, to withdraw from the N.C.A. should the
laborers “prove unwilling to suitably resolve”
jurisdictional disputes with the operating
engineers. Subsequently, soon afterward the
I.U.O.E. and the carpenters’ union formed the
National Construction Alliance II.
(The I.U.O.E. would re-affiliate on an
international level with all the building-trades
unions in 2012 when it rejoined the A.F.L.-
C.I.O. Building Trades Department, which
would be renamed North America’s Building
Trades Unions [NABTU] in 2015. N.C.A.
II would end on December 16, 2013, and be
replaced in 2014 by the National Infrastructure
Alliance, which would be responsible for
the administration of the National Heavy &
Highway Agreement negotiated between the
National Infrastructure Contractors Association
and the ironworkers, carpenters, laborers and
operating engineers unions.)
Back during the mid-2000s, operating
engineers with Local No. 12 “hit the jackpot,”
as the Winter 2007 International Operating
Engineer declared, when construction started
in 2006 on MGM Mirage’s massive new
$7.4-billion CityCenter on a 76-acre site in the
heart of the Las Vegas Strip. The largest privately
financed project in the history of the United
States, the 17-million-square-foot CityCenter
construction required the use of more than 150
operating engineers working three shifts, six
days per week, to complete its six structures,
including a 60-story 4,000-room hotel and
casino, for its opening in December 2009.
LABOR OMNIA VINCIT
WORK CONQUERS ALL