125 Years Strong – An IUOE History

INTERNATIONAL UNION OF OPERATING ENGINEERS
The I.U.O.E. commemorated its pending
100 th Anniversary on December 7, 1996,
with a week-long celebration in mid-January
that year, by which time the union numbered
about 360,000 members, making it the 12 th -
largest organization in the A.F.L.-C.I.O. The
dominant themes during the festivities were “A
Century of Craftsmanship” and “100 Years of
Service to the Membership.”
During the week, more than 1,300 operating
engineers, union officers, their guests and
dignitaries from labor, management and
government joined together for a banquet to
mark the historic occasion. In his keynote address
for the celebration, General President Hanley
highlighted the union’s advancement through
the years and outlined a blueprint for “an even
better next 100 years,” declaring the union’s
strength was its membership. “This celebration
is a tribute to the very lifeblood of the I.U.O.E.,
our members,” he stated. “They are the true
driving force behind all of our successes.”
HAZMAT TRAINING WAS
FOCUS OF CABLE SHOW
The revered I.U.O.E. National Hazardous-Material
(HAZMAT) Training Program was featured on a segment of
The Discovery Channel’s weekly “Today’s Environment” show
that aired in October 1994. A film crew from the show visited
the union’s National HAZMAT Training Center at the National
Mine Safety and Health Academy in Beaver, West Virginia,
in late August that year to document the center’s training
program, which prepares operating engineers to work in the
hazardous waste and environmental fields.
As part of the production, I.U.O.E. HAZMAT instructors and
members of local unions demonstrated training exercises
that featured removing radioactive rods from a simulated
nuclear facility; emergency response to a simulated accident
involving a trailer hauling hazardous waste; the rescue of a
worker trapped in a confined space; and the cleanup of a
simulated hazardous waste site. Local No. 18 of Cleveland,
Local No. 37 of Baltimore and Local No. 132 of Charleston,
West Virginia, provided heavy equipment used for shooting
the feature, which was available to over 100-million people
worldwide via The Discovery Channel network.
Through the I.U.O.E. National Training Fund, the HAZMAT
Training Program has been educating operating engineers,
stationary engineers and other workers since 1987 through
cooperative agreements awarded by the National Institute
of Environmental Health and Sciences Worker Training
Program. As the union celebrates its 125 th anniversary in
2021, its HAZMAT program has provided safety and health
training to more than 529,000 workers.
Members of I.U.O.E. Local No. 57 of Rhode Island help erect the Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge over
the West Passage of Narragansett Bay in 1989. Construction on the bridge, which carries a portion of
the cross-state Rhode Island Route 138, began in 1985 and was completed in 1992.
The general president further pointed out
that in its 100 th year since being organized by
just 11 men on December 7, 1896, the union
was in the “most solid financial shape” it had
ever been, thanks to its officers having “kept
a careful eye” on its finances and making
“carefully calculated, judicious investments” of
the members’ monies. He also noted that his
administration had cut out wasteful spending
LABOR OMNIA VINCIT
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