IBEW 1245 HOME |
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HISTORY FOCUS: •PACIFIC GAS AND ELECTRIC •SACRAMENTO MUNICIPAL UTILITY DISTRICT •SIERRA PACIFIC POWER
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The Great Defection (continued) |
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23. PG&E COUNTERATTACKS Despite this creative money management, the growing band of Local 1324 members faced significant obstacles on three fronts: First, they had to keep the peace with Local 1245, which was none too happy about having another IBEW local organizing on PG&E. Second, they had to convince more UWUA members to come over to the IBEW. Understandably, the UWUA national leadership was extremely hostile to these efforts. And despite losing control of some local treasuries, the UWUA was still able to collect union dues from IBEW supporters through a dues checkoff provision in the contract. That meant that IBEW members were still having to pay dues to the organization they were trying to oust.. Third, there was PG&E to think about. The company employed several strategies to combat the union election drive. For starters, PG&E continued to honor the UWUA dues checkoff in the hope that the IBEW would be provoked into filing unfair labor practice charges. That in turn would delay the election, something that PG&E wanted to do at all costs. But the IBEW didn’t fall for it. Next, early in 1949, the company attempted to have 51 classifications eliminated from the proposed bargaining unit. If the company succeeded in this maneuver it would blow an enormous hole in the IBEW’s dream of “one union on the system.” The UWUA mounted token opposition to the company’s proposal, but by this time the UWUA was more concerned about fighting the IBEW than fighting PG&E. It was up to the IBEW to keep the 51 classifications in the bargaining unit.. Ron Weakley and Don Hardie testified on this issue at great length during the NLRB hearings. According to Stanley Neyhart, the union’s attorney, these union men were subjected to violent red-baiting by the company. The company’s behavior prompted Neyhart to declare that, in all his years of hearings before the NLRB up to that time, he had never seen a corporation display such a vicious and vindictive attitude toward its employees. |
24. THROWING GAS ON THE FIRE
PG&E, of course, knew exactly what it was doing. By red-baiting the witnesses, the company was simply throwing gasoline on the firefight that was already raging between the two unions. National UWUA officials had already been using red-baiting in an effort to discredit their IBEW opponents. That prompted the following remarks from C. P. Hughes, an IBEW International representative in charge of the organizing drive, to UWUA national representative Edward Shedlock: “Administrator Shedlock, by his irresponsible red-baiting is casting a shadow on the loyalty and Americanism of every honest PG&E union man who now considers himself an IBEW member... It is high time that these malicious attacks cease. I therefore demand that Mr. Shedlock either make public a list of all PG&E personnel accused of communistic connections together with specific charges against each, or stop this slander.” The UWUA was apparently unable to produce such a list. And the UWUA had other problems. Many of the members of IBEW Local 1324 continued to hold membership in their old UWUA locals. When they attended UWUA meetings, they naturally tried to convince the UWUA loyalists to come over to the IBEW. This tactic infuriated the UWUA. On February 8, 1949, for example, an IBEW supporter named Al Tiegel attended a meeting of UWUA Local 133 in San Francisco. Edward Shedlock, the UWUA national representative, challenged Tiegel’s right to be there since Tiegel was known to support the IBEW. Tiegel responded that he was still a paid-up member of Local 133 because of the dues check-off enjoyed by the UWUA. Shedlock finally allowed Tiegel to stay, but said that he wouldn’t be permitted to speak. That tactic didn’t work either. The members called for a vote and promptly voted to let Tiegel speak. Shedlock set aside the vote on the grounds that his rights as a national representative superseded those of the membership. Shedlock then declared a “parliamentary emergency” and adjourned the meeting. Refusing to leave, the members elected a new chair and continued the meeting long enough to condemn the previous chair’s actions.
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