PG&E History 11 & 12

HISTORY FOCUS: •PACIFIC GAS AND ELECTRIC •SACRAMENTO MUNICIPAL UTILITY DISTRICT •SIERRA PACIFIC POWER

Fanning the Flames (continued)

11. FISTFIGHTS ON THE DOCKS

As the 1940s approached, competition between IBEW and CIO unionists sometimes grew fierce. When Mitchell was transferred from Modesto to Stockton in the late 1930s, he discovered that the workforce was evenly split between the IBEW and the CIO:

“You’d have fistfights on the docks over it. In those days, if you were a CIO member you were [considered a] commie. It was just that simple. This would lead to all sorts of trouble on the docks. The crews in the morning would all come in and of course they all left from a single place. And in those days the crews were much larger than they are now. We had eight, 10, 12, 15 people on a crew, large crews…And you’d have one crew that would be solid CIO. One crew would be solid AFL. And in some cases you’d have a split crew, and that would really create problems. It was just not pleasant at all.”

About the time that IBEW was chartering Local 1245 in 1941, Mitchell got an opportunity to become a lineman by transferring to Humboldt. The IBEW existed in Humboldt but it wasn’t very strong. The UWOC was non-existent. The lack of a strong union presence in Humboldt made itself felt very quickly to Mitchell when he arrived from Stockton. It became an opportunity for him to grow into his role as a union man:

“That was an isolated place when I moved up there. You could shoot a cannon down the street and never hit anybody. Grass growing, boardwalks, and the whole bit. There were very few linemen.

“In Stockton, we didn’t work when it rained; we came in and played cards. When I went to Humboldt, hell, that was just another day. We went out and worked in the rain.

“The first time was when we were going out to what they called the ‘high line.’ It was the line between Eureka and Junction City, which is on the other side of the mountain, over by Redding. We were going out there and it started to rain. Everybody jumped out of the truck and started getting tools and stuff. You had to walk in there because that was across rough country. You couldn’t get within a mile or so of the pole line, so you’d have to pack all your stuff in on your back and do your work. I just refused to get out from under the canvas. So the foreman told me if I didn’t get out he was going to can me. ‘Well, to can me you’ve got to take me back to the hall then.’ So it just went from bad to worse and finally when they saw I could get away with it, it was just follow-the-leader.

“As punishment, they tried to force me to clean the toilets. I refused again. ‘I’m not a janitor. I’m a lineman; I just don’t do that. If you want that done you hire a janitor.’“

12. ESTABLISHING THE UNION IN RURAL CALIFORNIA

During the summers, line crews working on a high line used mule trains to pack in everything they needed, including equipment for raising poles. Out in the middle of nowhere, the crews worked seven days a week straight through the summer. No Saturdays or Sundays off. No holidays off. And no overtime pay, although they got compensatory time off once they got back to town.

Although they worked under a union contract, clearly it afforded the workers only limited protections. In fact, sometimes the best protection was simply to have a steward who wasn’t afraid to speak up for what he thought was right. Under such conditions the steward pretty much was the union. In Humboldt, Mitchell was that steward:

“When we were in town, they had this mule barn where they kept the mules. There was one fellow I remember in particular who had been working for a big lumber outfit. He came to work for PG&E,came into Eureka. Not having six months they could lay him off because he wasn’t a permanent employee. He didn’t get the benefit of the rainy-day clause. So when it rained [the foreman] would hide him out in the mule barn, make him stay out in the mule barn. That way he still got paid.

“Well, it was colder than a welldigger’s nose out there. I didn’t know what was going on, but I discovered it one day. I told the foreman, ‘Look, if the guy’s going to get paid, bring him in here. What the hell difference does it make whether he’s here or out in the barn? It’s just insane to keep him out there in the cold.’ We had a big round of that until finally they let him come in.”

Sometimes Mitchell was able to protect workers’ interests by invoking the contract’s “savings clause.” Even if a specific condition—like company-provided gloves—wasn’t spelled out in the contract, if the company had traditionally provided the item then the company had to continue providing it. Sometimes Mitchell was able to get unfavorable decisions by the local boss overturned by appealing to the division manager, with whom he made it a point to become acquainted.

In this way, employing five parts tenacity and five parts common sense, men like Mitchell in the early 1940s established the union in rural areas of California—from Humboldt to Sacramento, from Drum to DeSabla, and in General Construction.