125 Years Strong – An IUOE History

INTERNATIONAL UNION OF OPERATING ENGINEERS
UNION’S JOURNAL INFORMING SINCE 1902
The International Union of Steam Engineers published the
very first issue of The International Steam Engineer, the union’s
official journal, in 1902 with the debut of the July magazine that
year. Initially a monthly publication, the journal was circulated
“with the purpose of enabling members to win success in their
chosen calling.”
The earliest magazines continually aimed to inform readers
of the latest developments in the engineering field and offered
complete and detailed courses in mechanical drawing and
mathematics. The very first issue of The International Steam
Engineer gave a detailed account of work being performed by
steam engineers who were excavating New York’s first subway
and helping to build ships in Newport News, Virginia.
Like the union it serves, the magazine evolved greatly over the years.
Its name was changed in the late 1920s to simply The International
Engineer to reflect the changing industry (as did the union’s name to
the International Union of Operating Engineers in 1927), and it was
changed again with the May 1956 issue – the “25 th Convention Issue”
– to The International Operating Engineer, its title (sans “The”) as the
union celebrates its 125 th anniversary in 2021.
The February-March 1998 issue of the International Operating
Engineer introduced a new, quasi-tabloid-style newspaper format
to readers that expanded news, information and features for and
about the union’s members as workers, consumers and citizens.
Then the Winter 2006 issue again unveiled a new-look magazine,
this time a more-visually appealing oversized-magazine format,
with full color throughout, that would be published four times each
year: winter, spring, summer and fall.
The Reception Committee for the 1912 International Union of Steam Engineers Convention held in St. Paul, Minnesota, in September of that year.
The implementation of the resolution was
a monumental decision for the union, about
which The Economic History of a Trade Union
even declared:
“The greatest heritage from the
I.U.S.E. and the most important
single event in the union’s history
was the A.F.L. decision of November
1907. … Had the jurisdiction of the
I.U.S.E. remained limited to steam
engine operation, the organization
would have withered and died.”
The union during its own convention that
year also increased the per-capita tax on its
locals to 20 cents per member, 3 cents of which
was assigned to a defense fund – although while
that represented a doubling of the tax, the
receipts from locals to the international office
did not immediately increase by more than
25 percent. However, from 1908 to 1912, the
union was able to keep up to four organizers in
the field throughout North America. (1)
The engineers’ union also began to actively
participate in politics during that time
to further its own objectives and those of
organized labor overall. In the fall of 1908, the
union endorsed and vigorously campaigned for
the Democratic ticket and William Jennings
Bryan for U.S. president (although Republican
William Howard Taft won the election).
In April 1910, troubles arose between the
I.U.S.E. and miners in Montana, a source of
friction that lasted several years. In the end, the
miners’ union forced the dismissal of some 400
steam engineers by claiming that the miners’
agreement with the Amalgamated Copper
Company covered steam engineers as well as
other mine employees.
In addition to the union’s dispute with the
Western Federation of Miners, delegates to
the 12 th Annual I.U.S.E. Convention held
in Denver beginning September 12, 1910,
discussed jurisdictional quarrels it was having
with unions of electricians, longshoremen,
steam railway engineers, ironworkers and
LABOR OMNIA VINCIT
WORK CONQUERS ALL