PG&E History 33 & 34

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

One Union (continued)

33. ‘ONE UNION ON THE SYSTEM’

On June 29, 1951, the IBEW entered the home stretch in its bid to have “one union on the system” at PG&E. On that day, the UWUA petitioned for a separate system-wide election for approximately 2500 clerical workers. The IBEW, which already represented clerical workers in five PG&E divisions (Sacramento, Humboldt, Shasta, Colgate and Coast Valleys) promptly intervened. Ultimately the election would cover both clerical and physical, but with separate balloting for each.

As part of its campaign, Local 1245 offered a specific program for clerical workers. The union’s priorities were: 1) Wage security; 2) Working conditions, including a job bidding procedure to insure that classification and company seniority rights would be protected in awarding jobs; 3) Job security, including setting the steps of demotion in cases of layoffs and cutbacks so that employees go down in the order they came up; 4) Pension security.

As with the first election, the NLRB took a long time to sort out the issues and set a date. In the meantime, on December 3, 1951, the International ended Local 1245’s supervision and restored its autonomy. Also that month two International representatives were assigned to assist the clerical organizing drive: Merritt Snyder and Della E. McIntyre. McIntyre, a 14-year member, was one of the first women to have a prominent role in IBEW’s long history of organizing on PG&E.

The clerical bargaining committee for units which had already achieved representation consisted of: George Pappani, payroll clerk, Salinas; Al Shoof, meter history clerk, Marysville; Edith Shook, clerk B, Red Bluff; and Al Kaznowski, former payroll clerk and in 1951 a business representative for Local 1245.

In early 1952, the San Francisco Area Group of Professional Employees Association petitioned to represent the “professional” and “technical” employees of PG&E, employees who were included in the IBEW’s physical unit in the 1950 election. Local 1245 charged that PG&E was behind this effort to split the professional and technical people—about 300 workers—out of the unit. While Local 1245 didn’t oppose establishing a professional unit within IBEW, it opposed any arrangement that would create more than one union on the property. Unfortunately, UWUA’s bid for a new election had given PG&E an opportunity to carve away at the unit.

On March 19, 1952, the ballot tally was announced. IBEW again had won the physical unit. The vote was 5072 for the IBEW, 3158 for the UWUA, 156 for “no union.”

But no party got a majority in the clerical election, where the results were 994 for the IBEW, 716 for the UWUA, and 364 for “no union.” A runoff would be needed.

On April 28, 1952, the clerical runoff election vote tally was announced: IBEW-1327, UWUA-436. On May 5, 1952, IBEW was certified as representative for the clerical unit. Clerical agreements at the districts represented by Local 1245 prior to the election were extended to all clerical workers at PG&E. Two new representatives were added for the clerical unit: Elmer Bushby, clerk A, from Colgate, and Richard Prothero, clerk C, from Humboldt.

There was, in the end, a blemish on the victory. On May 13, just a week after IBEW was certified as representative for the clerical unit, ballots were counted in the separate election for professional and technical employees. IBEW received 205 votes, the UWUA received only nine votes, but the San Francisco Area Group of Professional Workers—later to become Engineers and Scientists of California—received 390 votes.

But it was only a small blemish. After a half-century of trying, the IBEW had won an enormous victory. For all practical purposes, there was indeed “one union on the system.” PG&E workers had a unified voice at last.

Line crew in San Francisco, California. 1953. (Courtesy Leonard Hansen)

34. EMPOWERING THE RANK & FILE

The job of the union did not end with the election victories of 1951 and 1952. It was, in fact, just beginning.

Deprived now of its International subsidy, Local 1245 members had to put their organization on a sound financial footing by enacting a dues increase. Relations with the UWUA, which still represented workers at other utilities, had to be repaired. And there was a constant need to sign up members because the contract contained no union security clause.

Just putting a roof over the organization’s head was an issue. Having had temporary headquarters at the Sailors Union of the Pacific in San Francisco during the election campaigns, Local 1245 now was in search of new office space, which it found in May of 1952 at IBEW Local 595 in Oakland.

Creating a structure for the amalgamated union was also a great challenge. The old Local 1245 had been a typical AFL union, with power concentrated at the top. The Bay Area people who crossed over to the IBEW in 1948 brought with them the democratic ideals of the CIO, which emphasized empowerment of the rank and file. Together they hammered out a new structure that preserved positive elements of both traditions. The business manager was given broad authority to conduct the business of the union, insuring that the union could speak with one voice in dealing with the outside world. But control over finances was vested in an elected Executive Board, whose decisions in turn were subject to review by an elected group of rank and file members called the Policy Committee. That committee was later renamed the Advisory Council and continues to serve that function to this day.

But probably the largest problem of all coming out of the gate was combining the two contracts. The two groups—AFL and CIO—may have been amalgamated in name, but their contracts reflected very different philosophies. Reconciling their differences, and then getting PG&E’s agreement, was a major undertaking.