125 Years Strong – An IUOE History

INTERNATIONAL UNION OF OPERATING ENGINEERS
Members of I.U.O.E. Local No. 37 in Baltimore and their guests attend the local’s first-ever 30-Year Club
banquet on May 3, 1945, at the city’s Emerson Hotel. The Local 37 30-Year Club continues to operate in 2021.
after renamed Oak Ridge National Laboratory)
in Tennessee, where the enriched uranium used
in the first atomic bomb, dropped on Hiroshima,
Japan, on August 6, 1945, was produced.
The I.U.O.E. was singled out on various
occasions for its support of the war effort,
including a special citation from the U.S.
Treasury Department in October 1942
for distinguished services rendered to the
National War Savings Program. Then in
March 1943, U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Ben
Moreell – who was best known as the “Father
of the Navy’s Seabees” – presented an Award
of Merit to the union in acknowledgment of
its efforts to enlist recruits for service in the
Navy’s Construction Battalions.
As the war dragged on, the I.U.O.E. held its
convention in Chicago in April 1944, by which
time the union’s membership had reached
a peak of about 130,000 before declining
somewhat. The wartime convention was
strictly business, with delegates endorsing the
six-hour workday, disapproving government
interference in employment and resolving to
campaign for national voter registration so that
the membership could vote in full strength.
Following the conference, all general officers
were re-elected by member referendum.
The union won an important jurisdictional
decision that December in a dispute with the
International Association of Machinists over
repairs on machinery operated by engineers
at worksites where they were being used. The
A.F.L. Executive Council approved a special
committee’s recommendation that jurisdiction
over all repairs necessary to keep machines that
were operated by members of the I.U.O.E. on
worksites belonged to the operating engineers.
After nearly six years of war, the I.U.O.E., all
of labor and all of North America celebrated the
end of hostilities in Europe on May 8, 1945. The
war ended completely when Japan surrendered
on August 14, 1945, bringing total victory for
the United States, Canada and their allies.
Nearly 18,000 members of the I.U.O.E. had
served in the armed forces during World War
II, 273 of whom were killed.
At the close of the war, the contributions
and sacrifices of the union’s membership were
recognized in a letter of appreciation and praise
from Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal,
who wrote:
“I am addressing this letter of appreciation to
the I.U.O.E. on the day of the surrender of the
last of our enemies. Among the unions which have
worked with the Navy to build our enormous
chain of bases at home and abroad, your union
has been outstanding. Your members deserve to
carry with them into peace, therefore, a special
sense of pride in a great national achievement. On
this day of final victory, the Navy sends to all of
you its sincere thanks.”
Golden Benchmark Anniversary
“The term ‘Engineer’ today means
a great deal, for engineers are men
above the average in intelligence
and mechanical ability. Today,
the engineer to be a success in his
profession must be technical as
well as practical; he must be a
good mathematician, draftsman,
understand steam, gas, diesel
engines, electricity, hydraulics and
also be an all-around mechanic.
The improvement of engineers along
these lines has long been fostered by
the International Union.”
– The International Engineer, December 1946
I.U.O.E. 50 th Anniversary Issue
Brother Carl Gillespie (standing) and Brother Lindsay Bade (seated in cab) of I.U.O.E. Portlandbased
Local No. 701 work on a project on Sauvie Island on the Columbia River circa 1946.
By the end of the Second World War and for
some time afterward, heavy and highway work
was the primary source of employment for
the operating engineers, with construction of
airports, dams, reservoirs, railroads, pipelines,
subways, sewers, bridges, water treatment
plants and highways furnishing from 70 to 90
percent of their jobs. Civilian infrastructure
that had been put on hold during the war,
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