PG&E History 31 & 32

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

One Union (continued)

Staff of amalgamated Local 1245, in 1952, from left, front row: Ed Hanlon, Al Kaznowski, Hans Elliot, Business Manager Ron Weakley, Ed White, Howard Sevey. Back row, from left: Gene Hastings, Al Hansen, Paul Yochem, Don Hoebel, Senior Assistant Business Manager L. L. Mitchell, Jim Gibbs. Not present: Mert Walters, Paul Smith.

31. A MEETING OF THE MINDS

“By that time,” Hardie continues, “we had had enough meetings with the 1245 people to where there was—at least with some of us on both sides—a meeting of the minds. People like Mitchell, Hansen, other people, who began to start seeing eye to eye with us on things. It was coming.”

The IBEW International convention of 1950 in Miami provided an occasion for representatives of the two locals to get better acquainted. They had just pulled off a major organizing victory at PG&E, and according to Gene Hastings, who was one of the delegates, the PG&E delegation enjoyed something of a celebrity status at the convention:

“There’s no question about it. There was a camaraderie thing back at the convention. The IBEW was real proud of the fact that they were going to have a large local on the [PG&E] property. That was the beginning of Local 1245 as one identity with Local 1324.”

Ironically, while things seemed to be coming together inside the convention, things were falling apart outside: During the convention a hurrican struck Miami. Coconuts, according to one report, “were flying around like cannon balls.” Ray Michael remembers:

“Scared my wife to death, that storm that came through. It was bad. It tore up trees and took the top off one of the hotels and put it off across the street. It was a storm. Here we had three thousand electricians in town and they have a hurricane that wiped out all the electricity. They made quite a deal about that of course.”

Ron Weakley and Mitch Mitchell met for the first time at the Miami gathering, where they sized each other up and began talking about the future structure of the IBEW on the PG&E system. That discussion, begun in 1950 in the middle of a hurricane, would continue the following year during a different sort of storm. The UWUA in 1951 petitioned the NLRB for a new election at PG&E.

32. CONSOLIDATING THE UNIT

By this time the IBEW had put some of the key union activists at PG&E on the International payroll and given them the job of consolidating the unit. Among them were Weakley, Mitchell, Mert Walters, and Gene Hastings. It was during organizing trips to the North Bay that Mitchell remembers getting better acquainted with Weakley:

“He was from the Bay Area and I was from Humboldt, so we met in North Bay trying to convince these people to vote IBEW. We would meet somewhere and then we would go together. Riding from Santa Rosa to Healdsburg or wherever it was, you’d engage in all kinds of conversation. You learn each other’s backgrounds and what they’ve done and how well you do this and how well you do that.”

Obviously both men were bright and dedicated union men, each a leader in his own right. Although the International still had both local unions under supervision, the time would soon come, both men knew, when the two locals would be amalgamated. Several good men aspired to the leadership of the new organization that would be created by the amalgamation. But movements often find their own leaders, and by 1951 it was becoming clear that those leaders were Weakley and Mitchell.

Mitchell says Weakley’s political skills made him the logical choice for business manager. Mitchell became Weakley’s top assistant. Mitchell recalls:

“It was just a tacit understanding. It just sort of became a thing: this is what’s going to happen, you know. Not that you talked about it that way. It’s just something you understand. And the IO understood it, I guess, at the same time. Weakley was a leader.”

On February 28, 1951, the two locals were officially amalgamated and a new charter was issued by the International. Because it was the older of the two locals, Local 1245’s number was carried over to the new local. Don Hardie, who had been a trustee for Local 1324, believes it was the right choice:

“I think they chose wisely. I think historically the number had been established on the property, whether we liked it or not, or even if we felt we were better than they were, they had been here longer than 1324 had been here. So why not?

“The important thing was to finally get this company arguing with one union and no opportunity to split it. Even today, the fact that the clerical workers are part of the IBEW instead of being left out there in somebody else’s bailiwick makes a hell of a lot of difference for the kind of clerical conditions you have. They have more bargaining strength.

“I can remember a time,” Hardie continues, “when the linemen wouldn’t take their raise until the company took care of the other end of the line. When you get that kind of solidarity, you’ve got a winner.”