History Book

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Y E A R 100 S 1001921 2021 CONGRATULATIONS IBEW LOCAL UNION 1141

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Lonnie R. Stephenson, International President Kenneth W. Cooper, International Secretary-Treasurer Steven M. Speer, International Vice President, Seventh District www.ibew.org This book was proudly produced by

Head Historian: Calvin Jefferson I.B.E.W. Local 1141 and Union Histories give thanks to the following Research Assistant & Proofreader: Ann Wilkins Jefferson for their contributions to this book: Art Direction: Andy Taucher I.B.E.W. Local 1141 Dispatcher Brother Charles Milner I.B.E.W. Local 1141 Brother Martin Crain Jr. I.B.E.W. Local 1141 charter, dated April 19, 1921, Layout & Design: Steven Demanett and marked with various revisions throughout the I.B.E.W. Museum Manager and Curator Curtis Bateman years, signed by I.B.E.W. General President James Oklahoma Historical Society; Rachel E. Mosman, Digital Assets Manager P. Noonan (who served in that position from 1919 into 1929) and I.B.E.W. Secretary Charles P. Ford Oklahoma City Metropolitan Library System; Lisa Bradley, Special Collections (who served in that position from 1912 into 1925). Cleveland County Historical Society I.B.E.W. 1921 2021 I.B.E.W. 1921 2021

We All Got Local 1141 to 100 Years and Will Take it Beyond Here’s To The Future — But Don’t Forget About The Past

Union Brothers, Sisters and Family members, Signatory Contractors, In my time as business manager of I.B.E.W. Local No.1141, which Members of the Legislature, Vendors, and all of our Friends: has been just a brief moment in the local’s century-long history, I have On behalf of I.B.E.W. Local 1141, I welcome all of you to our come to truly appreciate how important each and every member, past celebration of 100 years of service to our community, and I thank each and present, is and has been to our enduring success. We all have our and every one of you for helping us to achieve this milestone. And favorite stories about the brothers and sisters who have helped us in our believe me, each and every one of you deserve thanks, because making careers and our lives, when someone went out of their way to assist us, it this far is not done alone. and when you put them all together, that is who we are. Just like our contractors need us, so do we need them. Just like our families need us, so do we need them. We need our friends in the Our brotherhood is more than just a random group of people who Legislature, our supply houses, our other locals, the locals of other work together in the same industry and gather once a month. We have endured and often thrived for trades and the wonderful staff at our local. 100 years because we have kept faith in the ideals of our founders, who understood that as long as we The English poet John Donne wrote 400 years ago, “No man is an island.” That is truer today than were unconnected individuals working at a trade, that is all we would ever be and we would never have it has ever been. All of us need all of us if we are to continue for another 100 years. We have had some the power to change lives and provide a better future for our families. trying times in the past, and while we celebrate the good things that we have accomplished, we must not forget what it took to achieve those accomplishments. We must not forget the people who made “To secure employment, to reduce the hours of daily labor, to secure adequate pay.” These things are us who we are today. certainly important, but what has built and sustained Local 1141 is the realization by its membership

Within the following pages is a list of the past presidents of I.B.E.W. Local 1141. In 1931, the Office that we are all in it together, union or not; that we are all sisters and brothers; and that for one to of Business Manager was created and the Office of President’s duties were changed to meeting chairman, prosper, we all must prosper. appointment of committees and expenditure approval. Still, president remains a very important position as the make-up of committees can influence the direction of the local, sometimes for decades. As I write, work has slowed, but while our industry is always cyclical, our commitment to each other and Local 1141 is not. As we pass this important milestone, the 100th anniversary of the chartering of All officers, president, vice president, recording secretary, treasurer, business manager, executive Local 1141, we are greater in number and more determined than ever. And so long as we remain true board members and examining board members take a vast amount of dedication in order to perform their duties and make our union run smoothly. As we enter our second century, please take a moment to our objectives and each other, I know that we will continue. Keep the faith. to remember our past officers as well as our members who dedicated their lives to our cause. Fraternally, Fraternally,

D. Dewayne Wilcox Scott Hammersberg President Business Manager and Financial Secretary I.B.E.W. Local No. 1141 I.B.E.W. Local No. 1141 The First 100 Years of I.B.E.W. Local No. 1141 A CENTURY-LONG POWER SOURCE FOR CENTRAL & WE STERN OKLAHOMA

A century after receiving its charter from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (I.B.E.W.) on April 19, 1921, Local No. 1141 is a “mixed-trades” local representing union inside electricians and electrical manufacturing, manufacturing office, radio-television service and sound- and-public-address workers throughout a large jurisdiction covering central and western Oklahoma. However, before the I.B.E.W. officially established the local in Oklahoma City that day, it struggled during the previous two decades to maintain a steady presence for organized inside electrical workers in the town as the result of a variety of internal and external factors …

Setting the Stage in Oklahoma City

he I.B.E.W. first set up a local union for By 1937, all 20 of those locals formed prior electrical workers in decidedly anti-union to the founding of Local 1141 would either Tand, therefore, staunchly “open-shop” be merged into the local or would simply be Oklahoma City when it chartered Local No. rendered defunct (most often as the result 155 on May 23, 1901, to represent both inside of their charters being revoked after their electricians and outside linemen in the city. respective memberships dropped below 10 Nearly three years later, the international union dues-paying electrical workers). formed Local No. 456 on January 1, 1904, to solely represent the city’s inside electricians, The dissolution of Local 456 came about while reassigning Local 155’s trade jurisdiction as did that of many I.B.E.W. locals that sided to outside linemen only. with a seceding faction of the I.B.E.W. during a turbulent episode in the union’s history Over the ensuing nearly 17 years before Local beginning in 1908. That year, a large number 1141 would be established, the international of locals across the nation formed a competing union chartered another 18 locals within the I.B.E.W. bloc during a rift that would come to jurisdictional area covered by Local 1141 as be known as the “Reid-Murphy Split” after it marks its 100th anniversary in April 2021. the leaders of the break-away group. I.B.E.W. 1921 2021 I.B.E.W. 1921 2021

By that time, the rapidly expanding union was not able to hold together under the strain of I.B.E.W. founder and first president Brother Henry Miller several deep divisions within the membership, reportedly went without food and other necessities and including foundational issues such as the instead used his earnings to travel the country to I.B.E.W.’s priorities and organizational organize local unions in various cities after he and a small group had officially formed the National structure – making common ground Brotherhood of Electrical Workers during a increasingly harder to find. For example, convention on November 21, 1891 in St. members on the east coast often Louis. At its 1899 convention in Pittsburgh, disagreed with west-coast members on Pennsylvania, the union officially changed authority over the union, and highly its name to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers after it had added a local in organized inside wiremen supported Ottawa, Ontario. steep membership fees and rigorous examinations while outside linemen, who Brother Miller passed away on July 10, 1896, while working as head lineman for the Potomac Electric had a much harder time organizing, sought Power Company after he was shocked, fell from a ladder low initiation fees and traveling cards that and died the next morning from a concussion. He was only permitted members to work in the locations 38 years old. represented by locals other than their own. The dispute began evolving into a revolt during a 1906 I.B.E.W. strike against Bell Both I.B.E.W. locals in Oklahoma City, Telephone that was led by Jim J. Reid, a former outside linemen Local 155 and inside wiremen lineman from Ohio who became an I.B.E.W. Local 456, sided with the seceding locals vice president in 1905. When I.B.E.W. General that refused to recognize General President President Frank McNulty, an inside wireman McNulty and General Secretary Peter W. who had also been elected at the union’s 1905 Collins as the true officers of the I.B.E.W. convention, refused to take money out of its The union did attempt to establish a presence death benefit or convention funds to support in Oklahoma City when it chartered inside- the strikers, the Reid faction accused the electricians Local No. 692 on March 7, 1911, I.B.E.W. leadership of “saving its money for but faced with the challenges of the Reid- the dead instead of supporting striking linemen Murphy locals and the anti-union sentiment struggling to stay alive.” Consequently, each pervading the town, the local went defunct on side accused the other of corruption, and in December 31, 1912, after which Oklahoma some instances the two sides even engaged in City had no local affiliated with the original, physical confrontations. McNulty-led I.B.E.W. Driven by that discord between wiremen and After dual union conventions were held linemen, as well as disappointed office-seekers in 1911, a court decision in February 1912 and a former grand treasurer removed from declared the 1908 Reid-led convention illegal office in 1907 because of “irregularities,” as History of The I.B.E.W. describes, the splinter and its actions void, and the split came to an group elected Reid as its president and J. official end in August 1913 when the State W. Murphy as its secretary during a special of Ohio Supreme Court ruled in favor of the convention in 1908. For the next nearly five McNulty-led I.B.E.W. and ordered Reid to years, the two organizations – one led by stop using the I.B.E.W. name. Immediately General President McNulty and the other afterwards, the general president published an by Reid, claimed to be the true International invitation to the locals that seceded, inviting Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. them to re-affiliate with no repercussions.

Minutes from the very first Local 1141 general membership meeting, held May 5, 1921. I.B.E.W. 1921 2021 I.B.E.W. 1921 2021

January 1, 1916, I.B.E.W. Journal, writing in a that they had the “approval of Local Union During subsequent weekly meetings, the LOCAL 1141 CHARTER MEMBERS letter, “It’s the hearty wish of this local that they 155” to form an inside local. local’s membership regularly discussed the need will now do something for themselves.” to ask the city’s contractors for a standardized These 10 men signed the Local 1141 charter application The union’s international office approved wage scale and working conditions. Then and their names were affixed to the local’s initial charter when The new local initially made some progress, the application on April 18 and subsequently during a special meeting on June 12, 1921, it was granted on April 19, 1921. particularly in dealing with the city’s non- issued the requested charter the following the local voted to maintain wages at $7 or Paul T. Blakeney union “open” shops, but it day, April 19, 1921, for Local No. 1141 in $8 per day while requesting an agreement on (a) generally encountered consistent Eugene L. Blakeley Oklahoma City. Concurrently, the I.B.E.W. conditions from all electrical-contracting shops “trouble” with the non-union Jason B. Briece re-assigned the mixed-classification Local in the city. sector and in a submission in George A. Buchanan 155, with which several of the 10 Local 1141 the April 1917 Journal admitted charter members had been affiliated, as solely However, its appeals were widely rebuffed, Joseph C. Collier to being “about the smallest and an outside-linemen local. and Local 1141 subsequently struggled during Joseph B. Evans weakest organization in this the 1920s to maintain its presence in the Robert V. Seymour city.” Ultimately, after operating The fledgling Local 1141 held its first general open-shop city while waging two strikes over Junius Grey Williamson Jr.(b) for barely more than two years, membership meeting on May 5 on the second wages and working conditions. As such, its E. Dean Woods Local 18 went defunct on floor of the Woolworth Building on West Main membership numbers remained stagnant and January 1, 1918. Street, during which 27 electricians each paid the J. Earl Young(c) Local 1141 charter member Brother relatively meager throughout the decade. Junius G. “Jay” Williamson Jr., $1 I.B.E.W. initiation fee. In order to improve (a) pictured in 1973. Brother Blakeley’s name was misspelled on the Local Again a mixed local of inside its lot, the local soon after affiliated with the Regardless, the local remained determined 1141 charter. and outside members, for Oklahoma City Building Trades Council. to prevail and endure. To those ends, the (b)Brother Williamson was initiated into I.B.E.W Local No. 155 on August the next three years Local 155 was once 29, 1919, when he was 30 years old; he remained a member of the union more the lone I.B.E.W. representative in and worked in the trade for 49 years before retiring on June 1, 1968. He Oklahoma City – although it would only passed away in 1984 at age 95. The Local 1141 annual “Outstanding survive another 17 years. Apprentice” award is named in honor of Brother Williamson.

(c)Brother Young was initiated into I.B.E.W. Local No. 716 of Houston (which was chartered in 1912 and remains active in 2021) on March 14, 1914. Scuffling to Secure a Permanent Local More than 100 of those locals ultimately “It is our hope and desire to re-joined the I.B.E.W., including Local 155, build up a strong organization of and nearly all of the locals that had broken electrical workers and have taken away attended the I.B.E.W.’s 12th convention the first steps as we see it toward in Boston in 1913. However, Local 456 was that end.” not among them and was officially declared defunct on December 31, 1908, while Local aving been appointed secretary of a 155 was re-designated in 1913 as a mixed local group of 10 electricians in Oklahoma again representing both inside and outside HCity who were seeking to become a electrical workers. local union of the I.B.E.W., Brother Paul T. Blakeney included that line in an April 16, Two years later, the local’s inside electricians 1921, letter to I.B.E.W. International Secretary struck out on their own and on December Charles P. Ford asking that the union approve 11, 1915, received another charter from the the group’s application for an inside wiremen’s I.B.E.W. designating them as Local No. 18. The charter. Along with the letter, the Oklahoma linemen of Local 155, which was subsequently City electricians included a money order for Members of Oklahoma City’s I.B.E.W. inside-electricians Local No. 456 pose during the city’s Labor Day celebration in 1910, at which time the local was affiliated with a breakaway faction of the I.B.E.W. Brother Opal V. “Si” Young, who would be the first president of I.B.E.W. Local No. 1141 when returned to an outside-only local, bid a fond $23.50 covering the initial charter-fee payment it was formed in 1921, is seated third from the right in the middle row. farewell to their departing brothers in the and a postscript note informing Secretary Ford I.B.E.W. 1921 2021 I.B.E.W. 1921 2021

membership during its May 24, 1923, requests for complete, union-only “closed” meeting assigned Brother Opal V. Young, shops and 44-hour workweeks. According the local’s president, to serve as a business to the July 29 Daily Oklahoman newspaper, LOCAL 1141 UNION HALLS/OFFICES agent and attempt to organize electricians and the local had sent a letter to all contractors in contractors in Oklahoma City “for a couple of the city on July 25 that “demanded that the Local No. 1141 Offices Bricklayers’ Union Hall Carpenters’ Union Hall 212-1/2 West Main Street 110-1/2 South Hudson Avenue 916 West California Avenue weeks.” After Brother Young reported during contractors sign an agreement to employ only Oklahoma City Oklahoma City Oklahoma City the August 28 general meeting that he was union electricians and to inaugurate a 44-hour 1921 into 1922 1929 1936 into 1941 making progress in that role, the membership week, with Saturday afternoons off.” Local No. 1141 Offices Oklahoma City Labor Temple Local No. 1141 Union Hall voted to “continue his services as business 208-1/2 West Main 516 West California Avenue 1141 Northwest First Street agent,” meeting minutes recorded. After one full week, the strike was settled and Oklahoma City Oklahoma City Oklahoma City all union electricians returned to work when 1922 1929 into 1932 1941 into 1951 But after two more years of posturing for a the local and contractors reached agreement Judge A. T. Earley’s Courtroom Local No. 1141 Offices Local No. 1141 Union Hall (new) wage agreement and union conditions, Local on a two-year journeyman wage scale that Woolworth Building 132 Northwest 10th Street 1141 Northwest First Street 1141 went on strike beginning August 1, 1925, would reach $1 per hour. However, open-shop 210-1/2 West Main Street Oklahoma City Oklahoma City after contractors reneged on a promise from a conditions among the electrical contractors Oklahoma City 1932 into 1933 1951 into 2003 1922 into 1926 year earlier to provide a $1.05-per-hour wage in Oklahoma City remained in place when Building Trades Hall Local No. 1141 Union Hall to the local’s journeymen electricians for eight- the electricians agreed to be the only union to Painters’ Local No. 807 Hall (Meetings at Labor Temple) 1700 Southeast 15th Street hour workdays. The union electricians walked work alongside non-union electricians under 8-1/2 South Robinson Avenue 426-1/2 Northwest Second Street Oklahoma City Oklahoma City Oklahoma City 2003 to present off their jobs after contractors also denied their a so-called “open-shop plan” – which would 1926 into 1927 1933 into 1935

Culbertson Building, Room 210 Local No. 1141 Offices 30 West Grand Avenue 18-1/2 North Lee Avenue Oklahoma City Oklahoma City 1927 into 1929 1935 into 1936

Local 1141 held its union meetings from 1922 into 1926 in Judge A. T. Earley’s Courtroom, which was located on the second floor of the Woolworth Building on West Main Street in Oklahoma City and can be seen in this photo (the row of four windows on the right) of a World War I victory parade in 1918. (Photo courtesy of Oklahoma City Metropolitan Library System, Special Collections.) Members of Oklahoma City’s I.B.E.W. outside-linemen Local No. 155 pose during the city’s Labor Day celebration in 1917, just a few months before the local would become a mixed inside/outside unit representing many union wiremen who would form Local 1141 in 1921. The Local No. 1141 Union Hall at 1141 Northwest First Street in Oklahoma City in which the local was located from 1951 into 2003. I.B.E.W. 1921 2021 I.B.E.W. 1921 2021

torment the local just two years later and throughout the balance of the decade. LOCAL 1141 LEADERSHIP THROUGH THE YEARS During the first two decades after Local 1141 was chartered by the I.B.E.W., a president ran the business of the local, Decrying contractors’ ongoing disregard for often using committees to assist with tasks such as formulating policies or organizing members. When further help was the August 1925 contract and abuse of open- required to carry out those duties and others, the local’s members would vote to hire a paid, temporary business agent shop conditions, through which they were from the membership, often selecting the president in that capacity. hiring non-union electricians at wages well below the union scale, Local 1141’s nearly 100 member electricians went on strike again Arthur E. “Art” FIRST OFFICERS on May 2, 1927. “We have worked with non- Harry L. “Slim” True Edwards Tom M. Rushing union men and have been taken advantage of The very first slate of officers elected by Local 1141 during its first-ever general membership meeting on May 5, 1921, were: at every turn,” Local 1141 Business Agent/ Opal V. “Si” Young, President Gillespie A. Brown, Vice President Charles C. Elmore, Trustee President Fred A. Michel declared in the May Paul T. Blakeney, Secretary Junius Grey Williamson Jr., Trustee Harry J. Albee, Recording Secretary 4 Oklahoma News. “We are now going to do as the unions have done and ask that electricians be given the same consideration by the contractors that is given to other organizations.” PRESIDENTS Opal V. “Si” Young Edwin N. Wren Frank Barber Jim Townsend Jim Kahoe Among the major projects on which Local Jesse J. Caldwell Raymond Duke Richard G. Ashmore 1921 into 1925 1930 into 1931 1944 into 1945 1963 into 1969 1992 into 1998 1141 members were working before the strike was the U-shaped Perrine Building (later Fred A. Michel Dewey Taylor Laurence M. Reed I. R. Carroll Larry Wakeman 1931 into 1933 1945 into 1947 renamed the Cravens Building and now in 1925 into 1927 1969 into 1977 1998 into 2001 2021 the Robinson Renaissance Building) on J. B. Davis (From 1933 until 1943, Junius G. “Skinny” Roy Gordon Steve Dedon Williamson 1927 the offices of president 1977 into 1979 2001 North Robinson Avenue in Oklahoma City, and business manager 1947 to 1950 which would be completed that year. Union Wade F. Hicks were merged, until the Jerry Smith Roy Gordon electricians also walked off construction I.B.E.W. separated them.) Lee Courtney 1927 1950 into 1957 1979 into 1983 2001 into 2004 of the 18-story Petroleum Building (now Junius G. “Skinny” Edwin N. Wren Kenny Meyers Bill Servati the 20-story Dowell Center) in downtown Truman Ward Jerry C. Gray Norris C. McFeely Williamson Norris McFeeley 1927 into 1929 1983 into 1989 2004 into 2019 Oklahoma City, which when completed in 1943 1957 into 1959 1927 was the tallest building in the city. William Harry Hoch Emerson E. Akeman J. Jesse Caldwell Ricky Sanders Scott Hammersberg 1929 into 1930 1943 into 1944 1959 into 1963 1989 into 1992 2019 to present The union pointed specifically to the contractors’ open-shop practices of hiring BUSINESS MANAGERS electricians at lower wages and replacing them D. N. “Dub” Yeargain Jesse J. Caldwell Truman Ward Ben D. Staley once their pay scales escalated and using helpers 1931 into 1932 on jobs without the supervision of journeymen. 1952 into 1955 1961 1973 into 1977 Ben D. Staley Johnny D. Southwell Bill J. Motley Harry L. “Slim” True “The present methods of contractors are not 1932 into 1933 Raymond Duke Jerry C. Gray Johnny D. Southwell only deceiving the public and doing an injustice Arthur E. “Art” Edwards 1955 into 1959 1961 into 1971 1977 into 1986 to the workmen but it is often in direct violation 1933 into 1940 of the law,” Brother Michel told the newspaper Tom M. Rushing Richard G. Ashmore Norris C. McFeely Bill J. Motley while explaining the strike action. “The reason 1940 into 1952 1959 into 1961 1971 into 1973 1986 into 1989 for this layoff is merely to ask protection against these conditions and a fair distribution of work BUSINESS MANAGER/FINANCIAL SECRETARIES among the journeymen who have spent years (The offices of business manager and financial secretary were combined in 1989.) to become proficient in their vocation.” H. Marty Crain Jr. Joe P. Smith D. Dewayne Wilcox Bill J. Motley Joe P. Smith However, in mid-May a judge issued a 1989 into 1998 2004 into 2014 restraining order against Local 1141 to H. Marty Crain Jr. D. Dewayne Wilcox 1998 into 2004 2014 to present I.B.E.W. 1921 2021 I.B.E.W. 1921 2021

“restrain electrical workers from molesting 1928, during which work in its fast-growing Its precarious position even compelled strikebreakers or in any way interfering with city was sufficient enough to keep “most, if not member Brother Mack Taylor to write a poem TIMELINE OF LOCAL 1141 them,” according to an article in the July 12, all” of its members regularly employed that year, about the local’s situation titled “The Truth in TRADE CLASSIFICATIONS 1927, Oklahoma News. Conversely, the since- the local reported in that year’s October Journal. Poetry,” which was printed in the June 1929 defunct Oklahoma Building Trades Council Among projects on which Local 1141 members issue of the I.B.E.W. magazine: Local 1141 was designated an Inside Wiremen local worked in 1928, several were employed on when it was chartered by the I.B.E.W. on April 19, 1921. was re-organized in early July “to throw the Some bosses here like the open shop plan. strength of all trades behind the electricians,” construction of a new, 16-story administration Local 1141 became a “Mixed” local when the I.B.E.W. building for the Bell Telephone Company. They can pay what they want to, and added the Outside Linemen classification to its jurisdiction on the newspaper reported on July 14. charge all they can. August 28, 1941. Members also worked throughout much of On February 5, 1953, the union added Radio and After more than two months, the strike All-union shops here we have four. was called off in exchange for the employers the year on installation of a third generator Television Broadcasting to the local’s classifications. Horseshoe Lake Generating Station Altman, Gratton, Hicks, McEldowney, agreeing to dismiss the injunction. The union for the On November 23, 1953, the I.B.E.W. updated the Radio in Harrah, Oklahoma, for the Oklahoma Gas and no more. and Television classification represented by Local 1141 to electricians subsequently returned to work and Electric Company. While that was not Radio and Television Broadcast & Service and Sound. having made no gains to their agreement with Working conditions out here are fine. a 100-percent unionized job site, the local Outside Linemen were removed from Local 1141’s the contractors, and open-shop conditions The vise, dies and hickeys, I use, are mine. was able to organize some of its non-union jurisdiction on December 28, 1955, when most all State of remained in the city. workers while also placing some travelers from Some bosses furnish material, steno, and Oklahoma linemen were being moved into Local No. 1002 of Tulsa. Having adopted the slogan “200 members other I.B.E.W. locals on the project. (When telephone, But big cars, ladders and fish- the unit was completed that year, the power tapes, we wiremen have our own. On January 8, 1975, the local’s trade classifications by 1930,” Local 1141 remained optimistic into were amended by removing Radio and Television Broadcast plant was one of the largest in the entire Some start to work about sunrise, while & Service and Sound and adding Radio and Television southwestern United States and was able others may start before. Some men work by Broadcasting; Radio and Television Service; and Sound and to supply electricity to towns that had Public Address. the outlet, at 40 cents per, and lower. never before had service, according to the The Radio and Television Broadcasting classification was company.) We make no charges for doorbells, nor the removed from Local 1141’s jurisdiction on January 30, cabinet where they hang the meter. 1992. However, even though abundant The I.B.E.W. added Electrical Manufacturing and construction and new oil-well drilling Nope, for if we did the boss might call us a cheater. Manufacturing Office Workers to the local’s classifications within its jurisdiction and particularly April 21, 2004. in Oklahoma City kept its membership Now, some of us good old union grafters As of April 19, 2021, the 100th anniversary date of The Belle Isle Power Plant shortly after it was completed in 1930. working into and throughout the first and guys, use laborers for wiremen, so we its charter, Local 1141 represents the following trade half of 1929, Local 1141 continued to can just stick around and supervise. classifications within its jurisdiction: struggle with non-union opposition. The • Inside Electrical local still did not have all the electricians To us a meeting night means real • Radio-Television Service in its jurisdiction fully organized, and recreation. The old rag we chew among our • Sound and Public Address conditions in the predominantly open- members, few with 50, down on a $100 • Electrical Manufacturing • Manufacturing Office Workers shop town remained “about as deplorable initiation. as your imagination can be stretched,” the You may not think I’m a poet. local announced in the June 1929 Journal. But when you read this you will know it. remained steady and wages for its journeymen At that time, the local still had not been were holding at $8 per day when the State of able to negotiate a contract with any of National Disaster Oklahoma and the entire United States were The Belle Isle Power Plant under construction in 1930 for the Oklahoma Gas & Electric the major electrical-contracting shops in struck hard by the Great Depression, the Company, whose line workers at that time were unionized by I.B.E.W. Local 155. The town, and electrical workers were even historic economic and societal catastrophe that ultra-modern facility, which housed the first gas turbine used to generate electric Propels Progress power at a utility and included three boilers to turn a 40,000-horsepower generator, required to furnish their own tools and began when the U.S. stock market crashed on brought lower electricity prices to Oklahoma City after it went online that October. It “your own car to carry conduit and other mployment for Local 1141 members, October 29, 1929 (history’s “Black Tuesday”). would be closed in 1980 and torn down in 1999. (Photos courtesy of Oklahoma City Metropolitan Library System, Special Collections.) needed materials to and from the job,” the including work on a new Montgomery When the Great Depression hit, Oklahoma’s local revealed in the Journal. EWard building in Oklahoma City, had union sector, including Local 1141, was I.B.E.W. 1921 2021 I.B.E.W. 1921 2021

enjoying some of the benefits of the so- City Union Depot for the rail lines of the Rock called “oil-boom era,” a 22-year period Island and Frisco railroads in 1931, for which I.B.E.W. MERGERS INTO LOCAL 1141 between 1900 and 1935 during which members were employed by Downey and Son Oklahoma ranked first among mid- Electrical Contractor. Meanwhile, Oklahoma I.B.E.W. Local No. 460, which had been chartered by the continent states in oil production Gas and Electric had completed its state-of- union as a mixed inside-wiremen and outside-linemen local Belle Isle Power Plant in the Chickasha Indian Territory on January 1, 1904, was and for nine additional years ranked the-art in 1930, which merged into Local 1141 on July 8, 1937. second, according to The Encyclopedia brought more power at lower costs to the of Oklahoma History. Oklahoma City region. I.B.E.W. Local No. 155, which was chartered by the union as an outside-lineman local in Oklahoma City on May 23, In fact, the local for the first time in By mid-1931, the local could boast in that 1901, was merged into Local 1141 on February 15, 1937. its existence had just sent a delegate to year’s June Journal that it was “rated as the I.B.E.W. Local No. 1128, which was chartered by the the I.B.E.W. convention earlier that best labor organization” in Oklahoma City. union as an electrical-manufacturing local in Oklahoma City on December 8, 1938, was merged into Local 1141 on fall. With 48 dues-paying members, The local’s article in the magazine went on June 3, 1942. the local was eligible to be represented to declare: I.B.E.W. Local No. 155, which was re-chartered by at the union’s 20th international the union in 1949 as an electric light and power local in conference, which at the time was “We are proud that we are striving at all times to help make Oklahoma City in order to organize Oklahoma Gas and held every four years, and duly sent Members of the crew from Local 1141 who wired the new, 33-story First National Bank Electric Company employees, was merged into Local 1141 Building in Oklahoma City in 1931 included (left to right, seated) brothers Dasback, this city a bigger and better place its president, Brother William Harry on November 1, 1950. Courtney, Sprecker, Gains, Wellday, (Uihlien Ortmann Electrical superintendent Adolph to live. Our meetings are strictly Hoch, as its delegate. Onessler), Johnson and Hicks; and (standing) I.B.E.W. International Representative I.B.E.W. Local No. 590, which was chartered by the union Stanley Rudewick and brothers Zelb, Reno, Moser, Lyons, Nickens, Lewis, Hardy, True, business and no man under the Bradley, Ruching and McCann. as a mixed inside-wiremen and outside-linemen local in But despite the turmoil and influence of intoxicants is allowed Lawton, Oklahoma, on November 27, 1933, was merged devastation the Great Depression or tolerated.” into Local 1141 on July 20, 1998. wreaked during the decade, it was 33-story Ramsey Tower office building (now However, work opportunities decelerated in I.B.E.W. Local No. 1599, which was chartered by the a period in which Local 1141 experienced City Place Tower) in downtown Oklahoma union as a manufacturing office workers local in Oklahoma its greatest growth and success up to that City in 1931. After it was completed in just 1932 after the larger projects in its area were City on November 1, 1977, was merged into Local 1141 time. Throughout much of the 1930s, and nine months, the tower was the city’s tallest completed, including construction of several on February 13, 2004. particularly under the leadership of Business building until the 33-story, $5-million First structures such as a new aircraft maintenance I.B.E.W. Local No. 2021, which was chartered by the Manager Arthur E. “Art” Edwards from 1933 National Bank Building (now First National hangar at the U.S. Army’s Fort Sill just north union as an electrical-manufacturing local in Oklahoma City into 1940, the local negotiated agreements Center), another office building that Local of Lawton, Oklahoma. By mid-April that year, on June 1, 1958, was merged into Local 1141 on February with contractors, obtained relatively sufficient 1141 members also wired, was finished just the local’s treasury, dependent on the dues of 13, 2004. work for members and organized shops and months later in November 1931. working members, had become depleted to new electrical workers into the union. the point at which the local was no longer “This is another building that stands as a able to carry the dues of any member who was on a new contract for 1933 with a reduced The local signed a contract with several monument of 100-percent union labor,” the unable to pay them, and subsequently, the local wage scale of 90 cents per hour and a shortened electrical contractors on July 15, 1930, for a local declared in a letter in the October 1931 was unable to pay the I.B.E.W. its per-capita workweek of 35 hours, making more work set wage scale of $8 per hour for a period of 12 Journal after the First National Bank skyscraper assessment for out-of-work members. opportunities available to more members. months beginning November 18 that year. The was completed, at which time it was also the pact also stipulated that the contractors would fourth-tallest building west of the Mississippi With only eight of the 35 electrical That year, the local also reached an agreement only employ members of the local; workdays River. “We can point to it with pride in the contractors in Oklahoma City signed to the with the Oklahoma City Board of Education during the week would consist of eight hours years to come.” union’s contract, a “large volume of work” that addressed hours and wages for all school from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and four hours from planned within the local’s jurisdiction and the construction work in the city. 8 a.m. to noon on Saturdays; and only one Other projects on which the local’s members local building industry “improving daily,” as apprentice could be employed for every three were involved during the early years of the Business Manager Harry L. True explained With the majority of the local’s members journeyman electricians working on any job. 1930s included rewiring the old Liberty in an August 1, 1932, letter to the I.B.E.W. working steadily as a result of the federal Theatre for its transformation to the Warner international office, Local 1141 took several government’s New Deal job-creation During that time, the local’s electrical workers Brothers Theatre in 1930, for which members measures to help ensure its members would be programs managed through the Civil Works wired many of the most important, iconic and were employed by Wade F. Hicks Electric placed on many of the jobs. Most significantly, Administration and the Public Works sizable projects in its history, including the new, Company, and construction of the Oklahoma the local and its contractors reached agreement Administration, Local 1141 made great strides I.B.E.W. 1921 2021 I.B.E.W. 1921 2021 in early 1934, taking in 50 new members Another new agreement with the Oklahoma The local’s wage scale was then increased PAIR OF MEMBERS MADE THE during the first three months of the year. “We County chapter of the National Electrical to $1.12-1/2 per hour for its journeyman ULTIMATE SACRIFICE DURING now have a majority of the town that has been Contractors’ Association (NECA) in January electricians and linemen with a new agreement SECOND WORLD WAR wide open for seven years,” Press Secretary 1935 again set the journeyman electricians’ pay that went into effect September 1, 1937. In Marvin Osborne subsequently announced in scale at $1 per hour and apprentice wages on exchange for forgoing its original $1.25-per- Of the 98 Local 1141 members who served in some that April’s Journal. “How is that for breaking a scale ranging from 40 cents for the first year hour request, the local instead received military capacity during World War II, two of those brothers were killed in action. up one of the largest strongholds of open-shop of an apprenticeship to 65 cents for the fifth improved working conditions as it continued contractors in the southwest?” year. Those wages were maintained even as the to close the door on Oklahoma City’s open- Brother David C. Blossom was one of the first Oklahoma City residents to die in the war when the ship transporting Great Depression continued, and the local and shop culture. Later that September, the I.B.E.W. granted the him across the Atlantic Ocean was torpedoed by a German its contractors would sign another agreement local jurisdiction over Clinton, Oklahoma, where By agreeing to the lower wage a year earlier, submarine and sunk, killing on September 1, 1936, that sustained the all aboard, in late October a new high school was being built. Meanwhile, the local was able to gain another new, one- journeyman and apprentice rates. 1941. Brother Blossom, some of the local’s members were wiring a new year contract for a raise to $1.25 per hour who had been working for J.C. Penney Company store in Oklahoma City, During the mid-1930s, many of the local’s on September 1, 1938, for journeymen. The KOMA radio station, and the company’s third-largest store in the United members were kept busy working on the agreement also increased apprentice hourly 15 other Americans were States, which Local 1141 Press Secretary Fred new Oklahoma City civic center, which rates to 40 cents for first-year, 50 cents for sailing to England after joining the Civilian Technical B. Counts noted in the November 1934 Journal included construction of a new county second-year, 65 cents for third-year and 75 “was one of the best jobs organized labor has had Corps when their ship was building, municipal building and city police cents for fourth-year apprentices. attacked a short distance off here for some time.” building. The $3.5-million project, 55 percent the coast of Canada. (The As the Great Depression continued to wane Brother Joseph Edwin Wren of which was funded by the Public Works Civilian Technical Corps was By that time, Local 1141 had 19 contracts during the latter part of the 1930s and Local Administration, was finalized with completion a quasi-military organization signed with electrical shops in the city – some 1141 enjoyed new-found success and growth, of civilian volunteers recruited in the United States in 1941 to of the Municipal Auditorium (now Civic of which, according to Brother Counts, “had on August 19, 1939, the local held its first directly aid the war effort in the United Kingdom by providing Center Music Hall) in 1937. previously declared they would never sign family picnic since 1931. Joined by the local’s support primarily with radar and radio operations.) an agreement with us.” Although the local’s signatory contractors and their families, the Brother Blossom was posthumously awarded the Defense journeyman wages initially remained at 90 That year, the local’s jurisdiction and event “went over with great success,” Press Medal by the British government for his service in the war. cents per hour with the new contracts, they membership expanded when the I.B.E.W. Secretary Herbert Wilson Brother Joseph Edwin Wren, a U.S. Navy electrician’s would be raised to $1 per hour beginning merged Local 155 and Local No. 460 of the reported in the September 1939 Journal. mate third class serving on the infamous U.S.S. Swordfish February 1, 1935. What’s more, the Chickasha Indian Territory in Oklahoma on submarine in the Pacific Ocean, was killed when the ship agreements also established a committee of February 15 and July 8, respectively, into Local Soon after, with Local 1141 at the forefront was lost at sea in January 1945 near Okinawa, Japan. On three representatives each from the local and 1141. With the amalgamation of Local 155’s of the effort to form the new Oklahoma December, 16, 1941 – just nine days after the Japanese surprise attack on the U.S. Naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii the contractors to settle grievances and disputes linemen, Local 1141 represented both inside State Association of Electrical Workers, the between the two sides. and outside electrical workers. – the Swordfish torpedoed the first Japanese merchant I.B.E.W. issued a charter for the state-wide vessel sunk by an American submarine, and it would go on to organization of its locals that September. sink 21 enemy ships during 13 combat patrols while earning The Norman Naval Air Station in Norman, Oklahoma, which Local 1141 members helped wire in 1942, Business Manager Edwards was appointed the eight battle stars for wartime service. shortly after its completion that year. (Photo courtesy of Cleveland County Historical Society.) association’s first chairman. The Swordfish would not be heard from again after January 3, 1945, when it was on patrol near Okinawa, and the exact cause and location of its loss has never been War & Work Help determined. One year later, the Navy officially declared the ship lost and its 89 sailors, including 20-year-old Brother Improve Conditions Wren, deceased that day. The son of Local 1141 member Brother Ed Wren, a nto the 1940s, Local 1141 maintained veteran of World War I who had served twice as president of a $1.25-per-hour wage scale for its the local, Brother Wren joined the local as an apprentice just Ijourneyman electrical workers, which was after he turned 16 years old and two years before he entered continued with a new contract on February 5, the Navy in April 1943. He was posthumously awarded the 1940. The local also grew to over 100 members Purple Heart, and the Navy awarded him the Submarine early that year shortly after it had signed the Combat Insignia in May 1945 in absentia. I.B.E.W. 1921 2021 I.B.E.W. 1921 2021

Even with defense-related construction initiated throughout Oklahoma, CREDIT UNION OFFERED picking up around the United States as putting many Local 1141 members ‘THRIFT’ FOR 51 YEARS World War II, which had begun in Europe on to work. September 1, 1939, was expanding in 1940 Local 1141 formed its own Oklahoma City I.B.E.W. Credit and 1941, the Oklahoma City region did Among the major military- Union in early 1952 to serve its members not only as an not receive much of that work. Subsequently, related jobs on which a large “economical lending agency” but also as an “encouragement throughout much of that time, there was only number of members and travelling for thrift,” with founder Brother Oscar O. Pennington named moderate employment for the local’s members I.B.E.W. electrical workers were as its first treasurer. An article in the 1961 I.B.E.W. Journal employed in 1942 was construction went on to describe the credit union as, “Another step forward within its jurisdiction. to extend greater benefits to our members.” of the Douglas Aircraft Company However, the local did gain a new, one-year factory at the new Midwest Air By 1961, the credit union’s assets had grown to the point contract with NECA beginning July 29, 1941, where it needed to be under full-time management, and Depot in Oklahoma City. The Brother Curtis F. Crim was hired as its assistant treasurer and that included an increased journeyman wage plant would produce approximately manager. By December 1963, the credit union had loaned scale of $1.50 per hour. The new apprentice half of the C-47 Skytrain military members a total of more than $2 million since it was first hourly rate in the agreement ranged from 50 transport aircraft used extensively established just over a decade earlier. cents for first-year apprentices to 90 cents for by the Allies during the war, as The Local 1141 Picnic Committee that arranged the local’s June 25, 1949, picnic at Springlake The credit union would continue to grow, and in 1977 as fourth-year apprentices. well as many A-20 Havoc medium Park consisted of (left to right, front row) brothers R. R. Million, John T. McCann, Hans Porter and Jimmy Porter; and (back row) brothers Herman Eddings, Ted Oney, Horace Cook, Bill it celebrated its 25th anniversary it had assets of more than bomber planes. $1 million – up from $100 when it first opened. During the Meanwhile, the local continued its rapid Wynne, Henry C. Wilmoth, Earl Walker, Jimmie Pennington and Oscar O. Pennington. credit union’s January 28 annual meeting that year, Brother growth as it organized new contractors and The approximately 700 union “E” Award for achieving “Excellence in Pennington, whose credit union account was No. 1, retired companies. By the time the I.B.E.W. opened electricians working on the Douglas project as treasurer. Production” of war equipment and facilities. its international convention that fall, the local’s took a day off on December 9, 1942 – or The Oklahoma City I.B.E.W. Credit Union would continue membership had surpassed 230 electricians, “went rabbit hunting” that day, as reported Also that year, the I.B.E.W. merged Local No. to serve the members of Local 1141 for another 26 years linemen and factory workers. before its Board of Directors approved a merger with Tinker by The Daily Oklahoman on December 1128 of Oklahoma City, whose members were Federal Credit Union effective April 1, 2003. The largest But immediately after the United States 10 – in protest of a “culmination of a long electrical-manufacturing workers organized less credit union in Oklahoma, Tinker Federal was founded on officially entered the war following the Japanese series of small grievances” that included an than four years earlier on December 8, 1938, March 20, 1946, by a small group of civilian employees order limiting them to 20 hours of overtime into Local 1141 on June 3, 1942. working at Tinker Field (now Tinker Air Force Base). attack on the U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, work within the per week. According to the newspaper, the With war production keeping Local 1141 local’s jurisdiction remained stagnant. However, electrical workers were also sending a message as the nation’s wartime economy expanded – to union riggers who had set a 5,000-pound members busy, the local gained a new, six- radio workers at station KOMA in Oklahoma finally pulling it and its unions completely out transformer earlier that week “in violation month contract beginning November 2, 1943, City into the union in late 1939. of the Great Depression – defense projects were of a long-standing inter-union agreement by that boosted journeyman wages to $1.50 which riggers and electricians were to share per hour though May 1, 1944. Notably, the Among its victories in 1940, the local such work.” contract included a separate, reduced rate for also organized workers at the S. L. Battery Members of the Local 1141 crew working at the Oklahoma Gas and Electric Company’s Horseshoe residential work of $1.25 per hour to help the Corporation plant in Oklahoma City into a Lake Power Plant in Harrah, Oklahoma, in 1947. Elsewhere that year, Local 1141 members local gain jobs in that accelerating market. “B” branch local. Soon after joining the union, also helped wire the new Norman Naval Base The local’s journeyman pay scale remained the approximately 50 new “B” members went (later known as Naval Air Station Norman) and its facilities at the University of Oklahoma at $1.50 per hour as employment conditions on strike beginning June 14, 1940, for a closed Westheimer Airport in Norman, Oklahoma, remained strong throughout 1944. During shop and 10-percent wage increase before the which the U.S. Navy built to expand its flight- that time, many Local 1141 members also company signed a new contract with the union training capacity during World War II. With found work in jurisdictions of other I.B.E.W. two weeks later on June 29 that was “essentially the electricians working alongside hundreds of locals around the country, including Pasco, the same as the one that expired this month with union members of the Oklahoma City Building Washington, where the Hanford Site nuclear several minor changes and a clause providing a Trades Council, the facility was completed in production complex was being built by the U.S. one-week week vacation with pay included,” 1942, after which Local 1141 and the other government as part of the Manhattan Project, according to the next day’s Daily Oklahoman. locals of the council received the Army-Navy which produced the first nuclear weapons. I.B.E.W. 1921 2021 I.B.E.W. 1921 2021

As the war neared its end with Germany in an agreement with the Western Oklahoma of storms of adversity and constant of two 85,000-kilowatt steam turbine-driven surrendering in May 1945, another new Chapter of NECA in July 1948. struggle. The older members of generators and was the largest and most- contract that went into effect on July 6, 1945, L. U. 1141 will bear witness to modern plant in the state when it went online. raised Local 1141 journeyman wages to $1.75 As its overall condition also kept improving, this statement, and to them go our per hour until May 1, 1946. During that time, before the end of the 1940s, the local surpassed deepest appreciation and respect The local’s wage scale continued to the Japanese surrendered in September 1945, 400 members for the first time in its history. for their long and valiant effort escalate, being boosted to $2.75 per hour ending the war. which has secured conditions far for journeymen on February 18, 1952. removed from that day.” Its Negotiating Committee even reached The local’s membership continued to grow, New Wages, Home, agreement on a new rate in March 1954 reaching 370 electrical workers and employees Jobs Sustain Local After the local opened its new hall, it set “in record time,” according to the local’s in late 1946, and its relations with its aside the auditorium on the second and fourth article in the May 1954 Journal, as after just contractors “were never better” as the second ages for Local 1141’s members Saturday nights of each month to be used for two short meetings the local and its NECA half of the decade progressed, the local reported continued to escalate in the 1950s, recreation and entertainment for members and counterparts signed a pact for a $3-per-hour in the August 1948 Journal. With its members Wbeginning with a new contract in their families. Initial activities included square scale for electrical construction and $3.25 constantly employed during much of that January 1950 that raised the journeyman rate dancing and ballroom dancing. per hour for cable splicers. The following period, as well, the local’s journeyman wage to $2.35 per hour. Later that year, the few The local also gained a new contract that May year, another new contract increased the scale was raised 25 cents to $2.25 per hour members of a re-organized Local No. 155, 16 that amended the wage scale up to $2.62- journeyman rate to $3.12-1/2 per hour and which had been chartered in 1949 as an electric 1/2 per hour for its journeymen. the cable-splicer rate to $3.37-1/2 per hour light and power local in what became a fruitless beginning June 2, 1955. LADIES’ GROUP WAS A effort to unionize Oklahoma Electric Light and Meanwhile, among the major jobs that SOCIAL, POLITICAL FORCE Power Company employees again, was merged steadily employed the local’s members that Although work in its jurisdiction fluctuated into Local 1141 on November 1, 1950. year was construction of an electric-generating as the Public Service plant and a new Sears and Twenty-five wives and girlfriends of Local 1141 members plant for the Public Service Company near Roebuck retail store in Oklahoma City neared attended the organizational meeting for the Local 1141 Capitalizing on its sustained, if gradual, Anadarko, Oklahoma, beginning in May 1951. completion, most all of the local’s more than Women’s Auxiliary held October 29, 1956, at the local’s growth and prosperity, Local 1141 experienced Completed in early 1954, the plant consisted 425 members were employed throughout union hall on Northwest First Avenue in Oklahoma City. a momentous year in 1951. First, early that Officers elected that evening to lead the organization were Edythe Delaney (wife of Brother Sim Delaney), president; year, the local began providing its membership Marguerite Surbeck (wife of Brother John Surbeck), vice with its first-ever health-insurance program president; Jewell Wilmoth (wife of Henry C. Wilmoth), through Blue Cross-Blue Shield. secretary; and Jo Porter (wife of Ted L. Porter), treasurer. The purpose of the newly formed auxiliary was to work in Then on March 10, 1951, a “15-year dream,” conjunction with the local “to encourage the demand for the as described in an article in the May 1951 union label of every nature and to encourage purchase of Journal, was finally realized when Local 1141 union-made goods to help organize workers.” However, from dedicated its new, $50,000, “ultra-modern” the beginning, the group performed many more functions for union hall and office building. The single- the local and the community, including pie supper, Christmas story facility at 1141 Northwest First Street parties and other social events. in Oklahoma City included a spacious office A letter from the local in the January 1957 I.B.E.W. Journal area and an auditorium that could seat up to declared that the Women’s Auxiliary was “off to a flying start.” 200 people. By the 1960s, the auxiliary was also heavily involved in the local’s political activities. Among their many contributions, Using the occasion as an opportunity to reflect members checked voter registration lists for non-registered on Local 1141’s brief history, correspondent Local 1141 members and actively campaigned for the Brother Walter Cheatham Journal local’s Committee on Political Education (COPE) fund and wrote in the : assisting in the local’s COPE office. “From the inception of L. U. Despite its numerous activities, the auxiliary ceased 1141, the recent ceremonies Members of Local 1141 members posing in this 1957 photo are (left to right, front row) unknown, Brother R. R. Million, Brother Doc Davis, operating sometime in the 1970s. unknown, Brother W. L. Thomas and Brother Art Edwards; and (back row) Brother Lee Courtney, Brother Tom Rushing, unknown, dedicating our new home for the Brother Raymond Duke Sr., unknown and Brother Hoarce Cook. future represent a 30-year period I.B.E.W. 1921 2021 I.B.E.W. 1921 2021

1954 and into 1955. Many members were and hotels; industrial expansion near Tinker able to travel to other locals for work while Field (now Tinker Air Force Base) in Midwest those who stayed within the Local 1141 City; and several multi-million-dollar shopping jurisdiction worked on several mid-sized jobs and medical centers provided the union such as the Shell Oil Company refinery at electricians with an abundance of manhours. Elk City, Oklahoma. In late 1956 alone, the local’s members were Following a brief lull in significant projects working on four 13- to 16-story buildings in the and employment in 1955, late that year Local downtown area and two hospital expansions. 1141 authorized Business Manager Raymond Press Secretary Ray Johnson even wrote in Duke to appoint another full-time assistant to the January 1957 Journal that there was “more help him and Assistant Business Manager construction in the downtown area than I can Jerry Gray. “Our rapid growth and new fields ever remember.” to conquer make this a feasible move,” the local Attendees of the second annual Arkansas-Oklahoma School of Labor sponsored by the A.F.L.-C.I.O. at the University of reported in the March 1956 Journal, “since we That year, as the persistent strong employment Oklahoma from November 17 to 23, 1965, included Local 1141 Brother Jimmie D. Townsend (second row, sixth from left). need more help to get back into the residential was supplemented by construction of a new fields, line up radio and television technicians Baptist hospital, more members were put to work and sign-up additional shops.” on wiring the new, $12-million Ideal Cement a new contract containing a journeyman-rate agreement on March 5, 1959, that raised the Company plant in Ada, Oklahoma. Before the raise of 12-1/2 cents to $3.25 per hour was journeyman-wireman wage scale from $3.50 After I.B.E.W. International Vice-President project was completed in early 1959, contractor quickly ratified by the union and contractors. to $3.62-1/2 per hour for the first year. The Edwards, the former Local 1141 business Sach’s Electric Company would employ a peak The following May 1, after for only the second rate would then go to $3.75 per hour for manager, saw the escalating need for the local’s of about 50 union wiremen on the job. time in its history the local had to lobby for wiremen – while the rate for cable-splicers outside linemen to be affiliated with a line local, an agreement before the Council on Industrial increased to $4 per hour – until the pact the Local 1141 membership also voted in late The escalating work brought increased wages Relations after negotiations bogged down, the expired on April 30, 1961. 1955 to relinquish its line members to Local No. with it, as well, beginning in May 1956 when local received another pay raise to $3.37-1/2 1002 of Tulsa, Oklahoma, a line per hour for journeymen for the coming year. local chartered on October 24, Gaining Benefits as 1919. Afterwards, Local 1141 The start of construction on the new Adversaries Attack only represented inside wiremen Western Electric Company manufacturing plant on West Reno Avenue in Oklahoma and a small number of radio- avorable employment conditions for City in May 1957 provided yet another robust television broadcast members. the Local 1141 membership remained source of work for union electricians. The into 1960. When work did slow during With Oklahoma City rapidly manufacturing subsidiary of AT&T telephone F 1961, members were able to travel around the expanding into and during company, Western Electric would occupy the country for employment in jurisdictions under the second half of the 1950s 1.2-million-square-foot facility in 1961. as projects such as a new, sister I.B.E.W. locals. $12-million Civil Aeronautics But while Local 1141 had experienced a Despite sluggish work in its own area, Local Authority (later developed prolific spell of employment over the previous 1141 and the Western Oklahoma Chapter of into the Federal Aviation few years, most of the major projects in its NECA quickly reached agreement on a new Administration, or F.A.A.) jurisdiction were completed by 1959, by which contract in February 1961 that would be in Center were underway, Local time work on the Western Electric plant was effect through April 30, 1962. Most notably, 1141 would experience near- also winding down. As a result, the local’s the pact set up two “zones” in lieu of contractors constant full employment members experienced a consistent surge of Local 1141 Brother James G. “Jim” Monteith (center) accepts the “Outstanding Apprentice” paying travel expenses, by which members who while hosting many traveling award check of $185 from Local 1141 J.A.T.C. Chairman Trumon C. Ward during an apprentice layoffs and unemployment during much of the I.B.E.W. brothers. graduation ceremony on November 23, 1963, as his wife, Treva Monteith, watches. Brother final year of the decade. traveled certain distances to jobsites outside of Monteith would go on to serve as the local’s J.A.T.C. training director for 32 years before the Oklahoma City-centric “Zone 1” were paid retiring in April 2004, and the local’s training center is named in his honor. A 44-year member Throughout those years, many of the I.B.E.W. and Local 1141, he passed away on April 21, 2005, at age 66. Regardless, Local 1141 still came to terms a higher rate for work in the outlying “Zone 2.” new downtown office buildings with its NECA contractors on a new, two-year As such, journeymen were paid $3.90 per hour

(History continues after following spread.) I.B.E.W. 1921 2021 I.B.E.W. 1921 2021

APPRENTICESHIP AND TRAINING The local made yet another new addition to its training center ALLIANCE contractors pay their apprentices wages and benefits, in 1980 to provide the J.A.T.C. with more training capabilities. The including health insurance and retirement and pension plans, LOCAL 1141 MAINTAINS A STRONG COMMITMENT TO EDUCATION new apprenticeship building, which was dedicated that August, while they are in the training program. As always, a Local 1141 was named the I. R. Carroll Educational Annex after the local’s apprenticeship is tuition-free, but applicants must be selected for “We are starting a school for those who think they into and throughout the early 1960s, during which the J.A.T.C. former president. admission and go through a selection process that includes an need it and for those whom we think need it. That takes addressed the issue by indenturing between 12 and 20 new When Local 1141 moved into a new union hall on Southeast aptitude test and an oral interview. in almost all of them.” applicants each year into the apprenticeship program. By 1961, the training program had also expanded to the point at which it 15th Street in Oklahoma City in 2003, it provided a new, larger area Continuing education for the local’s journeymen also remains By the time Local 1141 Press Secretary Marvin Osborne required additional classroom space; subsequently, in early 1962 in which to establish a new training center for the Western Oklahoma a priority of its training program, in which the ALLIANCE provides made that announcement in the April 1934 I.B.E.W. Journal, the the local completed an addition to its union hall on Northwest First Electrical J.A.T.C. Three years later, the local opened its new James skills-improvement training for all levels of Local 1141 members local had since the day it was chartered on April 19, 1921, been Street in Oklahoma City to accommodate its need for more room. G. Monteith Training Facility in the spring of 2006. (Brother Monteith including its most experienced journeyman electricians. Upgrade training and preparing new electrical workers through a five-year- had passed away a year earlier on April 21, 2005.) classes are therefore designed to keep journeymen knowledgeable long system of apprenticeship. Recognizing from the beginning As its program continued to expand in size and prominence, about industry trends and current on licensing obligations – and that its training is key to maintaining and improving its market in 2007 the Electrical Training ALLIANCE of Western Oklahoma to ensure they remain “Quality Connected,” a superior standard of share, the local’s constant focus on training its next generation successfully implemented a new Construction Wireman/ training set by the I.B.E.W. of electricians would continue to revolve around the practice of Construction Electrician (CW/CE) program that incorporated educating “helpers” through paid, on-the-job apprenticeships ALLIANCE curriculum, trade essential subject matter and hands- alongside experienced, journeyman member electrical workers. on instruction. The program was designed to provide training to The Local 1141 annual “Outstanding Apprentice” award is A decade after starting its first official school, by 1944 the experienced electrical workers who aspire to become journeyman- named in honor of Brother Junius Grey “Jay” Williamson Local 1141 training program was holding classes in Oklahoma level electricians, as well as inexperienced individuals who do not Jr., who was a charter member of the local in 1921 and City’s Central High School. In September of that year, among meet the minimum qualifications for the apprenticeship program. remained a member until his death in 1984. the several courses the local was providing to its apprentices, it The union’s training also continued to keep up with construction- began a new class on industrial electronics control at the high (Left to right) Western Oklahoma Electrical J.A.T.C. Secretary industry trends. As such, in 2009 the ALLIANCE held its first wind school that several journeyman members attended along with Bud Hoch, outstanding apprentice awardee Brother John turbine class through Oklahoma City Community College, with 35 the local’s apprentices. Kahoe, runner-up outstanding apprentice Brother Charles Oedewaldt and J.A.T.C. Chairman Charles Ley attend the members attending. The following year in October 1945, as both its training annual apprenticeship completion ceremonies and dinner on In 2021 as Local 1141 marks its 100th anniversary, the program and the demand for more skilled electrical workers September 6, 1975, in Oklahoma City. Electrical Training ALLIANCE continues to develop enhanced continued to grow, the local and its signatory contractors of the education standards to provide the electrical construction industry Western Oklahoma Chapter of the National Electrical Contractors Also by that time, to help further expand the Western with the most highly trained and skilled workforce possible through Association (NECA) formed the Western Oklahoma Electrical Joint Oklahoma Electrical J.A.T.C., Brother McFeeley had negotiated the local’s training programs under the guidance of Training Direct Apprenticeship and Training Committee (J.A.T.C.) to oversee the with Oklahoma State University to have access to its laboratory Clifford W. Stewart. Still a joint venture between Local 1141 and function and funding of the union’s training program. Now known equipment to improve the union’s electronics classes. Soon after, the Oklahoma chapter of NECA, the ALLIANCE program graduates in 2021 as the Electrical Training ALLIANCE of Western Oklahoma, Brother Pennington was able to report in the March 1962 Journal, apprentices who have completed a minimum of 950 hours of the J.A.T.C. consisted of three representatives each from the local “We already see the good results of such training.” trade-related classroom instruction and 8,000 hours of on-the-job and NECA. It would be funded through employer contributions, as training over a five-year period. stipulated in the collective-bargaining agreement between the two parties, based on hours worked by I.B.E.W. member employees, KEEPING UP WITH DEMAND while the local “furnishes space and the expenses incidental to the maintenance of the space occupied by the school.” Local 1141 expanded its union hall again in late 1968 with a (Original Local 1141 committee members Brother Oscar O. new, $90,000, two-story addition to the training school wing it Pennington and Brother Tom M. Rushing, who was originally with had added just less than seven years earlier, which it named the the local and then was with NECA after becoming a contractor, McFeeley Educational Building after Brother McFeeley. In addition each served on the J.A.T.C. into the 1960s. In January 1960, to an adequate amount of classroom space, the hall also included they were both presented with the U.S. Department of Labor’s a shop area, and J.A.T.C. Instructor Bill Ridgell set up a welding Meritorious Service Award for their “outstanding service in the shop in the training center that year as well. interests of developing and maintaining the highest standards of As the demand for skilled electricians remained strong, trade craftsmanship.”) in June 1970 the J.A.T.C. indentured 24 apprentices after The training program reached a significant milestone in early interviewing a record number of 54 qualified applicants. By 1959 when the J.A.T.C., recognizing the ongoing expansion of that time, the union’s training program had been re-formulated its program, promoted its apprentice-training instructor, Brother into a four-year apprenticeship. Norris McFeeley, to full-time status. He was then tasked to “initiate More change came in 1972 when Brother James G. “Jim” and supervise an educational program which will include both Monteith took over as director of the Western Oklahoma Electrical apprentices and journeymen.” J.A.T.C. training program. He would serve in the position until he Growth and the need for more journeymen in the field continued retired on April 1, 2004. I.B.E.W. 1921 2021 I.B.E.W. 1921 2021

for work in Zone 1 and $4.10 per hour when it, according to The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma But negotiations for a new contract that May working in Zone 2. History. (Over the next 37 years, the electrical stalled at the negotiating table and were brought workers and their union brothers and sisters before the Council on Industrial Relations for Work picked up in late 1961 and early 1962 in throughout the state would successfully protest a final decision. In the end, a new, two-year and around Oklahoma City, with construction the measure through grassroots campaigning and Wilson and agreement provided 15-cent hourly increases of a new meat-packing plant for rallies and at the ballot boxes until September Company effective May 1, 1964, and again on May 1, , expansion of the F.A.A. facilities at 25, 2001, when voters approved an amendment Will Rodgers Field airport (now Will Rogers 1965, bringing the journeyman wireman rates making Oklahoma a “right-to-work” state.) World Airport) and numerous smaller jobs to $4.40 per hour in Zone 1 and $4.60 per keeping members busy. Employment prospects A new, two-year agreement that began May hour in Zone 2 for the second year ending were also given a large boost when city voters 1, 1962, increased the Zone 1 journeyman April 30, 1966. approved a bond issues – both of which rate to $4 per hour during the first year and The contract also established a long-desired were supported by Local 1141 – of nearly Local 1141 officers standing outside the union hall on Northwest $4.10 during the second year. Subsequently, Vacation Plan for Local 1141 members, $40 million on October 24, 1961, and $47 First Street in 1972 are (left to right) Assistant Business wiremen working in Zone 2 were paid $4.20 effective October 8, 1964, with the 1964 million on November 27, 1962, for a variety Manager Ben Staley, Business Manager Norris McFeeley, per hour during the first year and $4.30 during Financial Secretary Jess Caldwell and Assistant Business wage increase going toward the vacation pay of civic improvements and new projects to Manager Johnny Southwell. the second year. The rate for cable-splicers was for 1965. With the plan, employers were help infrastructure keep pace with the rapidly also ultimately raised for the second year to to deposit 15 cents per hour worked by a growing metropolis. $4.35 per hour in Zone 1 and $4.55 per hour employment for all the local’s more than 480 member into his respective vacation savings in Zone 2. Among the major projects requiring union members was steady in early 1962. Press account with the Liberty National Bank and electricians’ manhours throughout the decade Secretary Oscar O. Pennington reported in Meanwhile, an addition to the local’s union hall Trust Company, after which members could was construction of the Broken Bow Dam in the June 1962 Journal that Business Manager was completed in July 1962, giving its officers draw on the fund for vacation. southeastern Oklahoma on Mountain Fork River Jerry C. Gray even commented, “Things and office staff more space to conduct beginning in October 1961. When completed work-wise look rosier for this area than for business. The $29,816 project was in 1970, Local 1141 members had helped install some time.” handled by contractor M. B. Rischard two, 50,000-kilowatt hydroelectric generators Construction Company. for the 22-foot-high dam, which was the tallest However, an attempt in early 1962 by some dam in the state at the time. members of the Oklahoma State Legislature Throughout much of the following to pass so-called “right-to-work” legislation, year, the local’s work situation was As the number of projects within the Local which would limit many union powers in the “excellent,” as Brother Pennington 1141 jurisdiction continued to escalate, workplace while allowing workers represented reported in the December 1963 Journal. by unions to not pay dues, became the primary The large amount of construction concern of Local 1141 and the entire organized- within its jurisdiction even required labor sector. Proponents of the anti-union bill the assistance of up to 100 traveling submitted the required 137,000 signatures I.B.E.W. members during the spring on April 16 that year to secure an election and summer months that year. on making “right-to-work” a constitutional amendment, setting up a long fight in which Projects on which many union labor would be involved for the next few electricians were working at that time decades. Foreshadowing the arduous road included construction of the new ahead, Press Secretary Pennington declared in Shepherd Mall Shopping Center in Local 1141 apprentice Brother Joe D. Ferguson (far right) displays the I.B.E.W. the June 1962 Journal, “Now it is up to labor Oklahoma City, which began in 1963. Life-Saving Award certificate he received on July 20, 1973, for his role in saving the and its friends to work as never before to defeat life of Brother Richard Cotton after he came in contact with an energized 277-volt When completed in September 1964, circuit on a jobsite and was unable to free himself. Standing with Brother Ferguson Local 1141 Brother Lee Courtney (far right) displays his 50-year this monster.” at the presentation ceremony are (left to right) Local 1141 President I. R. Carroll, I.B.E.W. membership pin and certificate he received on May 7, the $12-million, 742,000-square-foot, displaying the Life-Saving Award plaque awarded to the local; I.B.E.W Seventh 1973, at his home from I.B.E.W Seventh District Vice-President The petition would be placed on the primary 80-store completely air-conditioned District Vice-President Raymond G. Duke, who made the presentation; and 50-year Raymond G. Duke (left) and Local 1141 Assistant Business member Brother Horace Cook, who received his credentials for his half-century of Manager Johnny Southwell. election ballot on May 5, 1964, but was complex was the largest shopping mall service to the I.B.E.W. during the ceremony. defeated with 51.66 percent of voters against west of the Mississippi River. I.B.E.W. 1921 2021 I.B.E.W. 1921 2021

During that time, the local’s work situation Oklahoma Electrical Joint Apprenticeship remained so strong that up to 200 traveling and Training Committee (J.A.T.C., which electricians were working within its jurisdiction was established in 1945) for member training. throughout much of 1964. By the summer of 1965, as employment remained robust, 100 Into summer 1966, approximately 150 travelers were again working alongside Local traveling I.B.E.W. members were working 1411 members within the local’s territory. in the Local 1141 jurisdiction in addition to its own members. That November, the In contract negotiations that began in local boasted a membership of more than September of 1965, NECA employers refused 500 electrical workers – despite, as Brother to negotiate on retirement-plan and health- Pennington noted in the November 1966 Journal, the continued presence of “anti-labor and-welfare insurance proposals submitted by The Local 1141 and Western Oklahoma Electrical Joint Apprentice and Training Committee 1982 graduating class – including the program’s first Local 1141, resulting in the local making an elements in our environs.” female graduate, Vicki Friedeman – along with its instructors are (left to right, front row) Floyd Coleman, Blythe Tyson, Frank Podest, Don Taylor, appeal to the Council on Industrial Relations. Ron Williams, Sister Friedemann, James Prather, Chic Harrison, Robert Eno, Mark Wilson, Robert Wells (J.A.T.C. member), James Harper (J.A.T.C. In fact, employment for the local remained member) and Jim Monteith (Training Director); (middle row) Vance McCoy, Mark Montgomery, Mike Bennett, Steve Glady, Marty Crain, Ken Pendley, After its decision that the proposals were strong throughout the balance of the decade. David McCurdy, David Turner, Tim Rhodes, Eugene Servais (J.A.T.C. member) and Jim Davidson (J.A.T.C. member); and (back row) Timm Ross, in order, contractors agreed to a retirement Clifton Bell, Gary Leisy, Mike O’Connor and Greg Hirschman. In addition to ongoing work on the Broken Pension Plan for Local 1141 members that Bow Dam, members were also employed on would begin July 1, 1966, with the first construction of Newt Graham Lock & Dam, Meanwhile, another new, two-year contract help handle the ample work in its jurisdiction pensions of a maximum of $35 being paid after the final lock and dam of the McClellan-Kerr that took effect May 1, 1968, and ran until resulting from a building boom in and around July 1, 1967. They also agreed on a Health and Arkansas River Navigation System, from 1967 March 31, 1970, would ultimately increase Oklahoma City. That June, with the need Welfare Plan for members that would begin in until its completion in 1970; and Hugo Lake journeyman-wireman hourly wages for the to add more skilled electricians to its ranks May 1967. Dam on the Kiamichi River from October final six months of the pact to $5.30 for Zone as construction in western Oklahoma kept To finance the two plans, the employers 1967 until it was completed in January 1974. 1 work, $5.50 for Zone 2 and $5.70 for Zone escalating, the J.A.T.C. indentured 24 new agreed to pay 10 cents per hour worked into 3, while cable-splicers earned 25 cents per hour apprentices into its program after interviewing a the retirement fund and 10 cents per hour into above those rates. Contractors further agreed record-high number of 54 qualified applicants. the health-and-welfare fund as fringe benefits. to continue paying into the N.E.B.F., J.A.T.C. and Pension Plan funds while also raising their The new decade also started off with a The final agreement, which went into effect on new, two-year agreement that began April contributions to the Health and Welfare Plan January 13, 1966, also increased the local’s base 1, 1970, with immediate raises to the local’s fund to 15 cents per hour. journeyman pay scale by 5 cents per hour for journeyman zoned wage scales to $6.05, $6.25 each of the two contract years and established As the 1960s drew to a close, Local 1141 and $6.45 per hour. For the second year, pay a new Zone 3 (24 miles beyond the epicenter members were still enjoying full employment was increased to $6.75, $6.95 and $7.15 per of Zone 1 cities) with a scale of 40 cents per as work remained strong in the local’s area. hour for work in respective zones, while cable- hour above that of Zone 1. Therefore, the Additional jobs for the local’s electricians were splicer wages were an additional 25 cents per journeyman-wireman hourly rates for the first provided in March 1969 when ground was hour higher and contractors paid contributions year of the contract were $4.45, $4.65 and $4.85 broken for construction of a 1.5-million-square- into the N.E.B.F., J.A.T.C., pension and health for each respective zone; and for the second year foot Dayton Tire & Rubber manufacturing insurance funds. were $4.50, $4.80 and $4.90, respectively. plant in Oklahoma City, which would begin Local 1141 members who were working on producing tires that December. With that contract, contractors were also construction of the Liberty Bank Tower (now paying 1 percent of their payrolls for Local BancFirst Tower) in downtown Oklahoma City 1141-member employees into the I.B.E.W. Flourishing Along since early 1970 walked off the job on July 15 National Electrical Benefit Fund (N.E.B.F., With Record Jobs that year to protest unsafe conditions, including which was founded by the international union Local 1141 Brother Charles Elkins (far right) is presented with the local’s debris on open floors and open shaftways. After and NECA in 1946) for member pensions. J. G. “Jay” Williamson Outstanding Apprentice Award in 1978 by contractor ocal 1141 was still hosting a large number the electrical workers returned the following John Shawver II (left) and Brother Junius G. Williamson Jr., a retired Local The contractors were further paying another 1141 charter member after whom the award is named. of traveling I.B.E.W. brothers from locals day after the issues were addressed, they helped 1 percent of their payrolls into the Western Laround the country into the 1970s to complete the 36-floor skyscraper for its opening I.B.E.W. 1921 2021 I.B.E.W. 1921 2021 in 1971, after which it was the tallest building increased the factory’s storage capacity to MURRAH FEDERAL BUILDING BOMBING in the city for the next 40 years. 900,000 tires. LOCAL RESPONDS TO TRAGIC TERRORIST ATTACK The local’s more than 560 electrical workers At that time, the local was also involved in received another new, two-year contract that an effort to identify and eradicate corruption In the aftermath of the domestic-terrorist bombing of the Alfred took effect on March 1, 1972, and ultimately in the city’s electrical-inspection program. As P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City on April raised journeyman hourly wages for the second a result, by October 30, 1973, re-inspections 19, 1995, killing 168 people and injuring hundreds more, I.B.E.W. year to $7.65 in Zone 1, $7.90 in Zone 2 and conducted by special inspectors hired by the Local 1141 took an active role in recovery efforts immediately and well after the attack. The deadliest terrorist incident to take $8.15 in Zone 3, with cable-splicers paid an city from Local 1141 had issued 107 correction place on U.S. soil until the September 11, 2001, attacks on the additional 25 cents per hour. As part of the notices to owners of business and residential World Trade Center in New York City, the Oklahoma City bombing agreement, NECA contractors also increased buildings, and particularly single-family homes occurred when a truck packed with explosives was detonated at their contributions to the Pension Plan fund to and apartment complexes, according to that 9:02 a.m. just outside the building, blowing off its entire north wall. 20 cents per hour for the second year and to day’s Daily Oklahoman. Local 1141 members were among the first union workers the Health and Welfare Plan fund to 30 cents to assist emergency first responders at the scene just after the per hour. Out in the field, in 1973 and 1974 many explosion. Members would provide electrical power so that rescue Local 1141 members worked on construction work could continue around the clock. The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City shortly after it was bombed by a domestic terrorist on April 19, 1995. One of the larger jobs on which members of the Foss Reservoir desalination plant in The local and its members also made donations to the Red Cross, (F.B.I. file photo.) were employed in 1972 and during 1973 was Custer County, Oklahoma, the largest and one Salvation Army and Feed the Children to assist victims, and the local construction of the $30-million Farmland of the first electro-dialysis plants in the United established a Disaster Relief Fund at its union hall. Members and Department during the rescue and recovery operation following Industries Fertilizer Plant in Enid, Oklahoma. States at the time. Built by the U.S. Bureau signatory contractors likewise volunteered their time, effort and the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, material to a variety of recovery activities following the disaster. One of the largest industrial expansions of Reclamation and originally known as the 1995,” the local’s June 1995 WATTS UP newsletter announced. At the time, the prestigious award had been given to only 42 ever located in Oklahoma at the time, the Washita Basin Project, when completed the The Oklahoma State Firefighters Association, acting on a recommendation from Oklahoma City Fire Department Fire recipients since its inception in March 1983. new plant would produce liquid anhydrous facility would process and desalinate the “hard” Chief Gary Marrs that commended Local 1141 for being “fully In the years since the bombing, Local 1141’s efforts to help ammonia to be shipped by pipeline to Kansas water from the reservoir before it would be involved following the bombing,” presented the local with its keep the memories of its victims alive include participating in many for distribution at terminals in Nebraska, Iowa delivered to users. (The Oklahoma Department Award of Merit. The honor is given for the performance of a capacities in the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon, including and Minnesota. of Environmental Quality would construct a new, service or deed that goes beyond the normal effort in saving or members running in the marathon, which was inaugurated in updated plant to replace the original in 2002.) attempting to save the life of another person or contributing to April 2001 to “celebrate life, reach for the future and honor the Elsewhere in 1972, members worked on the safety and welfare of the general public. memories of those who were killed on April 19, 1995.” Beginning construction of a $2.9-million expansion to The local and NECA again reached agreement “This Award of Merit is given for the courageous efforts and in 2015, Local 1141 has been staffing a water stop during the the Dayton Tire plant. When completed in on a two-year contract for March 1, 1974, professional craftsmanship in assisting the Oklahoma City Fire marathon, which is also known as the “Run to Remember.” September, the 220,000-square-foot addition that would remain in effect until February 29,

The Local 1141 and Western Oklahoma Electrical Joint Apprentice and Training Committee 1988 graduating class, along with its instructors, are (left to right, first row) Chris Caldwell, Steve Peden, Ron Landrum, Dean Scott, Lance Lane, Tim Abdon, Steve Filippo, Mike Burchette, Ray Anderson, Randy Beams and Bobby Mooney; and (back row) Jim Monteith, Don Scholl, Roy Gordon, David Rupe, Charles Ley, Davey Johnson, John The Oklahoma City National Memorial honoring the victims and all who were affected by the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Chronister, Cliff Canary, Ron Evans, Johnnie Fowler, Jimmy Robertson and Terry Judkins. Building bombing on April 19, 1995, located in downtown Oklahoma City on the site where the building stood. I.B.E.W. 1921 2021 I.B.E.W. 1921 2021

1976. The new wage scale raised journeyman- Programs, Efforts wireman pay for Zone 1 to $8.20 per hour the Counter Downturn A CHARITABLE MEMBER first year and then $8.80 the second year; Zone OF ITS COMMUNITY 2 to $8.45 and then $9.05 per hour; and Zone 3 to $8.20 and then $8.80 per hour. Cable- ocal 1141 journeyman-wireman wages Many charitable and civic efforts have been the splicer members continued to receive 25 cents climbed to $13.35 per hour for Zone 1, benefactors of Local 1141 involvement throughout its 100 per hour above those rates, as well. L$13.60 for Zone 2 and $13.85 for Zone years. The local and its membership have always been active 3 for the second half of a one-year contract in the community, from donating $1,600 to the National What’s more, in addition to N.E.B.F., that began June 4, 1980. The following year, Foundation for Infantile Paralysis on October 6, 1949, to pay J.A.T.C., Pension Plan and Health and Welfare another new, one-year pact beginning June 3, for a state-of-the-art mechanical bed at Crippled Children’s Hospital in Oklahoma City, to volunteering time and skills in Plan contributions, contractors also agreed to 1981, increased those rates initially by $1 per the fall of 2015 to wire and power a new horse-riding facility a new Supplemental Pension Trust Fund hour and then by an additional 65 cents per at Peppers Ranch near Guthrie, Oklahoma, that provides a in the contract, into which the employers hour for the second half beginning December home for neglected and abused children and uses horse initially paid 10 cents per hour worked by 2, 1981, until the contract expired on May 31, riding to help them heal from emotional trauma and learn Local 1141 members. Local 1141 Brother Harold B. Crews Sr. (left) receives his 50-year I.B.E.W. 1982. By that time, the scale was at $15 per valuable life skills. service award from his son, Local 1141 Brother Harold B. Crews Jr., during a presentation on November 6, 1987. hour for Zone 1, $15.25 for Zone 2 and $15.50 The influx of large projects into western for Zone 3, while cable slicers continued to Oklahoma on which Local 1141 would be earn an additional 25 cents per hour. employed continued in 1974 and 1975, of various makes and models, according to The including the 18-month construction of the Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History. The local and the Western Oklahoma Logistics Storage Facility Chapter of NECA also negotiated a two-year $6.7-million at However, as electrical work on the project Tinker Air Force Base. Additional major jobs Residential Agreement that began on July 31, picked up, by September 1978 Local 1141 was included construction beginning in 1976 of the 1981, and ended on July 31, 1983, and paid Local 1141 members who donated their services to wire experiencing a shortage of electricians after 750,000-square-foot, 85-store Heritage Park electricians working on residential projects the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation facility in having placed more than 350 journeymen on a percentage of the Inside Agreement rates. Oklahoma City in December 1955 included (left to right, Mall in Midwest City for its opening in 1978. front row) brothers O. B. Iman, Oscar O. Pennington, Joe the GM plant since January 1. Subsequently, Instituted as another attempt to capture lost Pazoureck, Wayne Lyles and Burl Fuller; and (back row) That year and into 1979, the local’s the local had at least 100 unfilled positions just residential work, the contract paid $10.05 per brothers Raymond Duke, D. L. Calhoun, Raymond Johnson membership continued to experience full at the plant or with contractors working on the hour for the first half year and eventually paid and Joe McCauley. employment while also hosting many traveling plant, according to an article in the September $10.92 per hour for the final half year. Among many other benevolent activities throughout the I.B.E.W. brothers in its jurisdiction. Among 13, 1978, Daily Oklahoman. Early in 1982, Local 1141 and its contractors past century, in December 1955 the local joined other more, significant projects on which members Oklahoma City Building and Construction Trades Council were employed beginning in spring 1978 But as the local navigated its way into and also formed the Electrical Construction unions in donating the labor to complete an unfinished was construction of the 1.2-million-square- through the final year of the decade and strong Industry Improvement Council in an effort to portion of a research wing for the Oklahoma Medical foot, three-story Quail Springs Mall in far member employment within its jurisdiction identify and solve many of the problems facing Research Foundation. In February 1980, Local 1141 northern Oklahoma City, which would open the union segment of the electrical industry. In assisted in installing the “Buddy Buzzer” crime-alert system remained steady, a report in the July 22, 1979, in the homes of isolated elderly or handicapped March 1, 1980. Daily Oklahoman declared that unions were residents in Oklahoma City, a program of the Retired flourishing in Oklahoma City. “In fact, a Senior Volunteer Program of Oklahoma County and the Key to the local’s ongoing favorable study of labor-management reports on file in Oklahoma City Police Department. Local 1141 held conditions was the resumption of construction Washington indicates while Oklahoma City its first blood drive for the Oklahoma Blood Bank in of a new General Motors (GM) Assembly February 2004, and that June participated in a rally and plant in Oklahoma City beginning in May may not be a bastion of organized labor, city motorcycle run to promote breast cancer awareness. unions are thriving,” the newspaper reported. 1977, after work had been stopped in 1974 As Local 1141 celebrates its 100th anniversary in because of downturn in the national economy. In particular, the article pointed out that of the 2021, it and its members have been and continue to The first automobiles produced at the factory, 29 unions in the city, I.B.E.W. Local 1141 was provide many worthy and important causes with their the Chevrolet Citation and the Pontiac one of the most “affluent” as it was one of just resources and skills, including Habitat for Humanity, Phoenix, came off the assembly line in April six unions that ranked in the top 10 for receipts, United Way, Youth for Christ and the Local 1141 member food pantry. 1979 – and between 1979 and 2000 the plant which consisted mainly of dues; net assets; cash (Left to right) Brother Daniel Sims, Brother Scott Hammersberg, Fallyn Sims and Brother produced more than 5 million passenger cars in the bank; and salaries paid to officers. Charlie Milner represent Local 1141 at its job-fair booth for the 2018 annual charity event for LOVE OKC, to which the local donates $1,141 each year. LOVE OKC provides support to residents who are “struggling during a difficult season in their lives.” I.B.E.W. 1921 2021 I.B.E.W. 1921 2021

doing so, among other actions, member, per-month assessment for a stateside Work held up through the winter months the labor-management committee I.B.E.W. fund to combat the measure – despite of 1987 and 1988, with larger jobs including would re-emphasize work rules so the hard times the local was experiencing. renovation and expansion of the Penn Square there would be uniformity within Mall in Oklahoma City and work at Tinker Air the industry and enforcement After holding its standard journeyman wage Force Base providing employment. With the local would become the responsibility rate at $15.60 per hour in contracts since manning those projects and several smaller jobs, of job foremen and stewards. June 1982, the local went on strike in January that February it had fewer unemployed members Additionally, NECA would 1987 to finally secure a raise in wages while than it had at any time during the previous several formulate and implement contractors were offering a steep reduction in years, and it was also working about 40 visiting a general-foreman training journeyman pay to $12 per hour. However, brothers from other I.B.E.W. locals. program, and the local would when the strike was settled, the local was forced Remington Park fully utilize available training, to surrender $2.60 per hour in its journeyman Construction of , a horse- safety and code courses. pay scale, decreasing the rate to $13 per hour. racing track and casino located in Oklahoma City, in 1988 employed about 90 Local Work slowed after the many Work finally picked up in 1987 after several 1141 members before it was completed that years of stagnant employment, although it did large projects came to an end in September. With few other significant projects not reach levels of the 1970s. New construction 1982, although work building Local 1141 members working at the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s Mike Monroney going at the time, Business Manager Bill J. and renovations at the F.A.A. facility provided new hospitals and renovating Aeronautical Center on the grounds of Will Rogers Airport in Oklahoma City in July 1993 Motley was left to ponder in the local’s April included (left to right, front row) Brother Floyd Stewart, Sister Caroline Baker and Brother significant manhours for the local’s members, existing facilities for Mercy 1988 Watts Up newsletter, “I can only imagine John Martin; (middle row) brothers Mike Spillman, Jimmy Harrison, Marshall Dial, Mike and by November 1987, the local’s out-of-work Hospital and Baptist Hospital Grey, Joe Nevin and Jerry Pieffer; and (back row) brothers John Kirland, Wayne Nelson, what our book would look like if we had not Harold Anderson, Larry Wakeman and Steve Green. list was at the lowest number it had been in helped employ Local 1141 secured this job.” almost two years with just over 130 members. members. But a severe economic Even during that challenging period, Local recession that affected much Work around the country finally began 1141 kept organizing new members and of the world between the start of 1980 and improving in mid-1985, by which time Local contractors as one of its priorities, utilizing its early 1983 sharply curtailed construction 1141 had about 140 of its members on the out- Industry Advancement Fund as a key tool in employment in western Oklahoma and, in of-work “bench.” To help remedy the precarious executing those efforts. As a result, the local particular, caused the significant loss of oil- employment situation, that December the local industry jobs in the state – after it had “entered implemented a Job Recovery Program through the decade in the midst of an oil and gas boom which it would supplement contractors’ bids with Local 1141 members participate in the local’s first-ever Habitat for Humanity project in 1998 to build a home for a family in that reached unheard of heights and excesses,” contributions of 3-percent of members’ wages, need. Members who participated that year included Mark according to an article in the December 31, for which it raised dues to 6 percent of wages. Anderson, Lori Blevins, Marty Crain, Carl Criswell, James Ryan 1989, Daily Oklahoman. Sr., Rita Sexton, Brent Thrasher and Sean Wallace. But another deep recession in Oklahoma Local 1141 still gained a wage increase in during the second half of the decade throttled a new contract on June 1, 1982, that raised the local for several more years, and its the journeyman-electrician rate to $15.60 per membership subsequently dropped below 700 hour. However, with the agreement, the local in 1986. However, by May that year, its Job surrendered zone pay and a separate cable- Recovery Program fund had nearly $250,000 splicing rate, among other concessions it made and had already secured several jobs for some on behalf of its more than 800 members. of the local’s contractors. Over the next nearly five years, as the economy Meanwhile, “right-to-work” forces had continued to constrain employment, the local intensified their ongoing efforts to implement would not be given a raise in its wage rate, the proposed anti-union rules. To help the which stood at $15.60 per hour until January union industry’s unrelenting fight against 1987 – when contractors would dramatically “right-to-work,” on September 1, 1986, the cut the local’s wages. Local 1141 membership approved a $1-per- I.B.E.W. 1921 2021 I.B.E.W. 1921 2021

organized several electrical shops during that Trades Council through a Project Labor time, and in June 1988 the largest non-union Agreement with Firestone, peaked with about contractor in the local’s jurisdiction, Merit 40 Local 1141 members – although the local Electric, signed a letter of assent with the local, worked the job at 90 percent of its wage adding 42 new members to its roster. scale, or $14.04 per hour, as a stipulation of the agreement. When the cogeneration plant Meanwhile, a large number of smaller jobs would be completed later in 1989, it would not in the area that had been secured through only produce electricity but its steam would be the local’s Work Recovery Program kept its piped to the tire factory to melt rubber. employment steady into 1989. In fact, that January alone, members were employed on 73 The local and NECA were unable to reach jobs obtained through the program. a settlement on a new wage scale and benefits package in May 1989, resulting in the contract Also that month, work on the PowerSmith negotiations being submitted to the Council on Cogeneration Plant at Firestone Tire and Industrial Relations. The Council eventually Rubber Company’s Dayton Tire Plant in ruled that the local be given a 25-cent-per-hour Local 1141 members who worked on the expansion of the local’s J.A.T.C. training center in 2003 included (left to right, kneeling) David Smith, Oklahoma City, which had been secured by raise to its journeyman rate on June 1, 1989, Charles Cheek, Mary Holliday, Cott Kegley, Charlie Milner, Kevin Moore, Dennis Parker and (unknown); and (standing) Eric Amparnon, Cal the Oklahoma City Building and Construction Minnick, Kirk Thrasher, Rita Sexton, Marty Gomez, Sean Wallace, Johnny Southwell, Craig Weathers, Brian Brandon, Barry Walker, Keith Self, and another 25 cents per hour on December 1. Scott Hammersberg, Larry Stevens, Bill Spain Jr., Jacob Weathers, Danny Self, Randy Auman, Les Upton, Brian Benji, Jim Griffy, (unknown), Ronnie Holt and Mark Gregory. Employment picked up that final year of the decade, as well, with jobs such as construction of the $30-million Epworth Villa, Oklahoma Conditions Make (now the American Fidelity headquarters City’s first life-care retirement community A Full Turnaround building) at Broadway Extension and Britton when it would be completed in August 1990, Road in the northern part of the city for its providing jobs to Local 1141 members. The opening in June 1991. he early 1990s provided Local 1141 improving conditions encouraged Local with more work than it had at any time After nearly half a decade and months of 1141 Press Secretary Royce Hintergardt to during the previous decade, as the union contentious negotiations with contractors, Local declare in correspondence that appeared in T sector was having more success securing larger 1141 received a raise to its journeyman wage rate the January 1990 Journal, “The work picture projects in the local’s jurisdiction than it was to $16.10 per hour. However, in August 1990 the is looking brighter.” having in obtaining smaller jobs. Into the year Council on Industrial Relations, under NECA 1990, the local’s signatory Western Oklahoma influence, ruled that a new “Market Recovery” NECA contractors were even concerned they scale of $14.70 per hour would also be in effect would have trouble manning jobs because of from September 1, 1990, through May 31, the local’s lower wage scale, while the local had 1992, for all “non-union jobs having non-union also lost members to sister I.B.E.W. locals with competition and not being subsidized … by the higher pay rates. Job Targeting Program.” Several sizable projects employing members Disappointed that NECA was awarded during the first years of the 1990s included its proposed split scale, Local 1141 the new, 12-story, $52-million Oklahoma subsequently declared that it would County jail in downtown Oklahoma City immediately stop subsidizing any jobs with under contractor Oklahoma Electric, which its Job Targeting Program. when completed in November 1991 was the largest single jailhouse in the state. Elsewhere, Regardless, the jail and other larger jobs in its members working for contractor Industrial area kept work for the local’s members steady Local 1141 members participate in a rally against so-called “right-to-work” legislation at the State Capitol in Oklahoma City on “Labor Monday,” February 7, 2000. Electric were wiring the new, 12-story into 1991. Those projects bolstering manhours Oklahoma Publishing Company Building to the local’s membership also included work I.B.E.W. 1921 2021 I.B.E.W. 1921 2021

on production facilities for the U.S. Navy E-6A But ongoing urban renewal of the Oklahoma “Mercury” command-and-communications City downtown area contributed to 1992 aircraft fleet based at Tinker Air Force Base. being the best year over the previous decade for the local’s employment. At one time during Negotiations for a new agreement for the local’s the year, as work in the area continued to roughly 670 members in May 1991 again went improve, the local was even utilizing as many as before the Council on Industrial Relations after 25 traveling I.B.E.W. members, and Business contractors refused to yield on their proposal for Manager Motley noted in the April 1992 Watts a wage decrease from $16.10 to $14.50 per hour, Up, “For the first time in over 10 years our while the local sought a 30-cent-per-hour raise. members being laid-off have the opportunity The Council eventually awarded the union a 10- for new employment the next day.” cent increase in contractors’ hourly contribution to the Health and Welfare Plan fund, to which That year, another Council on Industrial Business Manager Motley responded in the Relations decision on the local’s contract June 1991 Watts Up, “I was disappointed in resulted in a 20-cent-per-hour increase to wages this decision since the local union total increase effective June 1 in a new, one-year agreement. asked for was in line with or below the annual cost of living.” In addition to work in 1993 on projects such as a renovation of the 863,000-square-foot Xerox Corporation plant in west Oklahoma Local 1141 Running Team members who participated in the 14th annual Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon on April 27, 2014, held each year to City, that May Local 1141 was able to turn celebrate the lives of the victims of the domestic-terrorist bombing of the city’s Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995. electrical work on the Total Refinery (now the Valero Refinery) in Ardmore, Oklahoma, from a non-union to a union job under signatory December 1993 to fund the Metropolitan There was little change in the local’s strong contractor Dennis Electric. The refinery- Area Projects Plan (MAPS), the city’s capital employment throughout the following year upgrade project would peak with more than improvement program to build and upgrade and 1996. However, the local did declare in 200 union electrical workers before it was sports, recreation, entertainment, cultural 1995 that organizing was its top priority and, completed after being turned around as a direct and convention facilities. Subsequently, Local as such, hired Brother Tom Pinion as a full- result of the local’s organizing efforts. 1141 members worked on construction of the time organizer whose only duties would be $34-million Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark, organizing new members and contractors into Local 1141 members also made history that home of the Triple-A minor-league Oklahoma the union. year when they approved the local’s first-ever City Dodgers, which was the first major MAPS three-year-long contract on July 1, 1993, which structure to be completed before it opened on Another new, three-year contract with the provided a total $1.72-per-hour increase over the April 16, 1998. Western Oklahoma Chapter, NECA, effective duration of the pact, which would expire May June 1, 1996, and ending May 31, 1999, 31, 1996, with the journeyman scale at $18 per With ongoing work upgrading the General provided six-month incremental increases that hour. Contractors also contributed $2 per hour Motors plant for production of the Oldsmobile would eventually raise the local’s journeyman to the Health and Welfare Plan fund, as well as Cutlass, which would begin in 1996, providing wage scale to $19.04 per hour for the final the N.E.B.F., J.A.T.C., Pension and Supplement overtime to many of the local’s electricians six months. The agreement also stipulated in 1994, employment throughout the local’s Pension funds. In negotiating the contract, the that contractors would pay 3 percent of their local’s committee did not agree to any of the jurisdiction remained plentiful that year. payroll into the N.E.B.F.; 1.25 percent of proposals submitted by the contractors while Business Manager Motley was even compelled their payroll into the J.A.T.C. fund; 10 cents also maintaining the local’s stated goal, “One to admire the local’s much-improved situation per hour into the local’s Pension Plan fund; wage rate for all journeyman wiremen.” in the July 1994 Watts Up: 10 percent of their payroll into the local’s Conditions for the local continued to “It is sure nice to have plenty Supplemental Pension Plan fund; and $2.20 progress after Oklahoma City voters approved of work at a livable wage scale per hour to the Southwestern Health and The Local 1141 crew that worked on construction of the Devon Energy Center a temporary 1-cent sales-tax increase in for a change.” Benefit Trust Fund. Tower in downtown Oklahoma City in March 2017. I.B.E.W. 1921 2021 I.B.E.W. 1921 2021

bring the wage scales of Local 1141’s Oklahoma The landscape changed, however, for organized City area and its new Lawton area to the same labor in the state when, despite ongoing level of $21.19 on November 28, 2001. In opposition by the union sector including doing so, the contract gave annual raises of 70 Local 1141, voters approved a constitutional cents, 70 cents and 75 cents to members in amendment on September 25, 2001, that made the Oklahoma City area and $1.53, $1.53 and Oklahoma a “right-to-work” state. Despite the $1.57, respectively, for each year in the Lawton local’s constant participation in efforts to fight area. What’s more, for the final six months of the measure, including donating $100,000 of a the contract, all Local 1141 journeyman-level total $341,500 I.B.E.W. contribution that year members would be receiving a total wage and for the campaign against “right-to-work,” anti- benefits package worth $26.51 per hour. union forces prevailed in the end. Meanwhile, in 1999 GM began a massive Nevertheless, the local’s healthy employment overhaul of its Oklahoma City assembly plant persisted that year and into 2002, during which to convert it for production of new Chevrolet time GM’s $7-million conversion of its plant to Malibu automobiles. Before it was complete in build the new GMT360 SUVs (the Chevrolet 2001, up to 600 I.B.E.W. members, including many travelers into the Local 1141 jurisdiction, would work on the project. The Local 1141 Retirees’ Club held its first-ever Local 1141 delegates to the 2016 I.B.E.W. International Convention in meeting on September 22, 2004, with 41 retired brothers in St. Louis (far left to right) Delegate Scott Hammersberg and Business attendance. The group elected Brother Bill Motley to serve Manager Dewayne Wilcox and (far right to left) Delegate Marty Crain, Organizing Moves President Bill L. Servati and Assistant Business Manager Don Mullens as its first president; Brother Gayle “Buck” Buckalew as stand with I.B.E.W. Seventh District Representative Joe P. Smith (third Local 1141 Forward vice president; Brother Robert Little as secretary; Brother from left) and International President Lonnie R. Stephenson. Gilbert Patton as treasurer; and Brother Ed Skinner as press secretary. rganizing efforts in the new “Y2K” millennium produced a “record number” In April 2001 as Local 1141 celebrates its 100th Construction of several private prisons in jurisdiction, it also added about 90 members anniversary, the Retirees’ Club is open to all the local’s more of new members and two more signatory western Oklahoma further sustained Local to its available electrical workforce. Business O than 280 retired members. 1141’s ongoing healthy employment in 1997 Manager Marty Crain immediately hired contractors for Local 1141, Business Manager and 1998, during which calls from the local’s Brother Earnie Foster as a full-time organizer Crain announced in the March 2001 Journal, pushing the local’s membership over 1,100 contractors for manpower regularly went for the Lawton area in order to recapture the Trailblazer, GMC Envoy and Oldsmobile before the end of that year. At the same time, unfilled as the local was at full employment. union’s lost market share there. Bravada) for the 2002 model year put many the construction industry in Oklahoma was Prison projects that kept many of the local’s members to work. That year, construction also Then, after nine long years of struggle, on booming, with the commercial-construction members busy during that time included began on a $60-million, 1-million-square- October 19, 1998, F.A.A. electrical contractor sector showing no signs of a sluggish national the Cimarron Correctional Facility near Quad/Graphics printing facility FKW, Inc., agreed to pay the back wages, economy, and electrical projects in the local’s foot in Cushing, Oklahoma, in 1997 and the interest and fringe benefits owed to Local jurisdiction reached record highs. Oklahoma City that provided more work for $39-million Diamondback Correctional 1141 members it had employed for work on Local 1141 electricians for nearly 18 months. Facility in Watonga, Oklahoma, in 1997 the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center in As the local’s work picture remained Meanwhile, the local purchased two new and 1998. 1989. When finally settled, the dispute that had positive throughout the first two years of the building facilities at 1700 Southeast 15th been brought to the National Labor Relations 2000s, the start of construction of an ultra- With the non-union electrical sector Street in Oklahoma City in 2002, which Board ended with the contractor paying more modern, automobile paint-booth facility at increasing in the jurisdiction of Local No. Business Manager Crane noted in the November than $200,000 to the local’s members. the GM factory added to the impact of several 590 in Lawton, Oklahoma, and increasingly projects in western Oklahoma that were 2002 Journal were “much needed to meet our obtaining more work including projects at Fort Somewhat fittingly, the decade ended on progressing at a steady pace. Before the GM daily business and future training obligations.” Sill, the I.B.E.W. merged the local into Local another high note when the local secured a job was complete in 2001, it initially ramped In February 2003, the local officially christened 1141 on July 20, 1998. In addition to further new, three-year contract with NECA and two up manpower on a daily basis before ultimately its remodeled, spacious, new union hall, which expanding the Oklahoma City-based local’s independent contractors that would ultimately employing nearly 400 electrical workers. included 17,700 square feet of offices and I.B.E.W. 1921 2021 I.B.E.W. 1921 2021

meeting-hall facilities, during an open house facility) in Oklahoma City in 2003, the event complete with a barbeque lunch. I.B.E.W. merged the few remaining members of Local No. 2021 and Local No. 1599, But on May 8, 2003, a devastating tornado which represented the plant’s manufacturing hit the GM Assembly plant, causing damage production and office workers, respectively. that many believed was so severe it would take Before the company began to transfer the many months to rebuild – “But the strength of union labor and union contractors in our area plant’s work to other countries, the two locals proved to be greater than they imagined!” the at one point in the mid-1980s had represented local declared in the September 2003 Journal. a combined total of nearly 5,300 I.B.E.W. Within hours of the tornado, Local 1141 joined members at the factory. teams assembled to begin reconstruction, and The second half of the decade brought a new, 300 tons of structural steel; 18,000 feet of heavy two-year agreement that initially raised the electrical cable; 500,000 square feet of siding; journeyman rate to $21.95 per hour on June 500,000 square feet of roofing; and 8,000 tons 1, 2005, after which six-month incremental of water-cooling capacity were rebuilt in just raises would take the scale to $22.70 per hour seven weeks. for the final half year for the contract. It further After the plant was back up and running on provided contractor contributions of 3 percent June 30, 2003, GM took out a full-page color of their payroll into the N.E.B.F.; 1.75 percent advertisement in The Detroit News, Detroit of their payroll into the J.A.T.C. fund; 1.5 Free Press, Automotive News and The Daily percent of their payroll into the local’s Pension Oklahoman thanking the Western Oklahoma Plan fund; 11 percent of their payroll into the Building & Construction Trades unions, local’s Supplemental Pension Plan fund; and Posing with the COPE (Committee on Political Education) Award that Local 1141 received on June 14, 2017, during the I.B.E.W. Seventh District Progress Meeting are (left to right) Seventh District International Vice-President Steven M. Speer, International President Lonnie R. Stephenson, Local 1141 President Bill L. Servati, Local including Local 1141. $4.50 per hour to the Southwestern Health 1141 Business Manager Dewayne Wilcox, Local 1141 Assistant Business Manager Jim Griffy and International Secretary-Treasurer Kenneth W. Cooper; and standing and Benefit Trust Fund. at the podium is International Representative Gary Buresh. Also that June 1, a new agreement with its NECA contractors went into effect and raised The agreement also put into place a Quality the local’s journeyman wage scale to $21.35 Connection scale that paid an additional 50 Throughout that year and 2008, work and code provisions – which would ultimately per hour for the first year and then to $21.70 cents per hour the first year and 75 cents per remained plentiful across the local’s jurisdiction, provide more work for union members. with several hospital jobs in Oklahoma City, per hour for the second and final year of the hour the second year for journeymen under After the measure was signed into law in fall Ada, Ardmore and Edmond helping to support contract. It concurrently maintained employer the I.B.E.W.- and NECA-sponsored Quality 2008, Local 1141 Business Agent Jim Griffy the local’s membership. More than a dozen contributions into fringe-benefit funds for the Connection program. The joint labor- reminded the union in the November Journal members also worked on a wind-farm project local’s membership. management effort helps promote the value that “effective political activism is critical to outside Elk City during the summer of 2008, our future success.” On January 23, 2004, Local 1141 then of union electrical construction in order to while later that year a $33-million expansion secure work. completed renovations on a new multi-purpose to the Choctaw Casino & Resort in Durant Construction of the more than 100-turbine facility located on Southeast J Avenue in When that contract ended, another new provided more manhours for more than 50 Blue Canyon Wind Farm, the largest wind Lawton that would be the focal point of the pact increased the hourly scale to $23.10 and members into 2009. farm in Oklahoma, in the Slick Hills north of union’s educational efforts in that area. The $23.85 for Quality Connection members Lawton from April to October 2009 with an building would also serve as a base to organize Before the previous year was out, Local effective May 30, 2007, and then to $23.55 all-Local 1141 workforce helped keep overall and recruit new members in the southwestern 1141 was successful in working with its union and $24.30 for Quality Connection members employment solid, although work flattened counties of its jurisdiction. contractors and some of their non-union on November 28 of that year. It also boosted competitors in a political campaign that helped during the closing months of the decade. The following month on February 13, 2004, contractors’ contributions to the Health and pass a new state law that changed aspects of the Regardless, the local’s total manhours worked after AT&T had closed its AT&T Technologies Benefit Trust Fund to $4.50 per hour while Oklahoma Construction Industries Board to between 2007 and 2009 increased by 25.8 computer plant (formerly its Western Electric continuing all other fringe benefits. increase enforcement of skilled-trades licensing percent to 1.57-million hours. I.B.E.W. 1921 2021 I.B.E.W. 1921 2021

October 2012, the corporate skyscraper was in Norman used the same Manpower Needs Local 1141 members participate in a blood drive at the the tallest building in the state. I.B.E.W.-signatory contractor, local’s union hall on August 10, 2017. Fuel Push to Grow Shawver & Son, it had After touring the project during the fall of used on the historic football onstruction work in western Oklahoma 2011, by which time the local’s members were structure for decades for and employment for Local 1141 working on a steadily increased portion of the electrical work. The Cmembers stayed flat into and throughout the total electrical work, Business Manager $160-million project featured 2010. At one point in July of that year, the Joe Smith was so impressed with the local’s installation by Local 1141 stagnant industry left more than 200 of the workforce that he boasted in the October 2011 members of a 7,849-square- local’s electricians without jobs as mostly Watts Up, “It made me very proud to represent foot, state-of-the-art video only smaller, temporary “non-dingable” work the outstanding electricians of Local 1141.” board – the second-largest primarily for new and smaller contractors was Before the end of the year, he could also in all of college sports – atop available outside Oklahoma City and Lawton. report in the December 2011 issue of the the new south stands. After the job was complete, having But the local gained a new contract with newsletter that the local’s membership of more than 1,000 was “enjoying full employment” as employed more than 130 the Oklahoma Chapter, NECA, effective I.B.E.W. electricians at its June 1, 2010, for one year that increased the of December 16. By that time, the local was also hosting more than 30 travelers working in peak, Brother Mickey Smith, hourly base wage to $25.75 for journeyman a 35-year Local 1141 member Commercial Metals Company steel mill in its jurisdiction, most of whom were employed Durant was steady through the end of the on the Devon Tower. and the construction manager for Shawver & Son, declared in the August 2017 Electrical year. By that time, work had picked up all Since its founding, Local 1141 members have gathered Employment held steady through much of Worker (the re-named I.B.E.W. publication): over its jurisdiction and employment was away from their worksites to participate together in numerous 2012, during which Local 1141 had about strong once again. social and sporting events, from picnics to softball teams; “Our long relationship with 150 members working on erection of the from fishing outings to bowling and golfing tournaments; the university says a lot about the Meanwhile, the membership ratified its and from Labor Day parades to a first-ever diamondback 300-megawatt Canadian Hills Wind Farm in quality of the work our company current contract, a four-year pact that went rattlesnake hunt in 1976. Calumet, Oklahoma, and an expansion of the and our I.B.E.W. electricians do into effect September 1, 2017, and will expire The Local 1141 Friendship & Activities Committee Wynnewood oil refinery south of Oklahoma on a consistent basis.” on August 31, 2021. Business Manager helps to sustain and foster brotherhood within the local by City. Both projects would be completed by planning events to bring the membership together in social Dewayne Wilcox explained in the August the end of the year, however, hampering work As work remained steady, by February 2016 2017 Watts Up that the historic length of settings, introducing the locals “new” first annual Summer opportunities for the local’s electricians. Picnic on July 16, 2005, and its “new” first annual Family almost 900 I.B.E.W. brothers and sisters were the agreement “provides a level of certainty employed throughout the local’s jurisdiction by Christmas Party that December. Smaller Keystone Pipeline projects around between the I.B.E.W. and our employers 36 contractors. The southwestern portion of its the state, including pumping stations near that positions us well to focus our efforts on territory was also finally seeing some activity, Durant and Seminole, helped stabilize manning the work we have right now, while including calls for the Apache Casino and the wiremen and $26.50 for Quality Connection employment in 2013 and into 2014 while also aggressively pursuing more.” warehouse in Lawton. journeymen. In total, the agreement raised providing work for some travelers. As work in The contract retroactively to May 29, the local’s compensation package, including the Oklahoma City metropolitan area picked up With organizers continuing to aggressively 2017, raised the local’s total journeyman benefits, to $34.89 per hour for journeyman during the first half of 2015, by June that year pursue contractors, particularly in the small compensation package to $41.71 per hour with wiremen and $35.77 per hour for Quality the local had nearly cut its out-of-work list in commercial and residential markets, the local’s a base $30.80 hourly wage and the Quality Connection journeymen. half to fewer than 80 members. Before the end membership grew over the previous five years to Connection journeyman package to $42.89 of the year and into 2016, conditions remained more than 1,100 members by the fall of 2016. The start of tenant-install electrical work on per hour with a base hourly wage of $31.80. promising as members began work on projects Moreover, into that November, the local’s work the new, 50-story Devon Energy Center Tower A final incremental increase on May 31, 2021 at the Apache Casino Hotel in Lawton and a picture held steady as contractors bid and won being constructed in downtown Oklahoma will boost the total journeyman compensation large manufacturing warehouse in Lawton. projects during a traditionally slow time of year. City helped usher in a period of increased and package to $45.91 per hour with a base $34.20 sustained employment for Local 1141, which A major upgrade and expansion in 2016 Although 2017 was generally stagnant for hourly wage and the Quality Connection would place more than 150 members on the and 2017 to the Gaylord Family Memorial Local 1141 employment, demand for its journeyman package to $47.08 per hour with a project at one point. When completed in Stadium at the University of Oklahoma labor on construction of the new, state-of-art base hourly wage of $35.20. I.B.E.W. 1921 2021 I.B.E.W. 1921 2021

also important aspects of making the case to I.B.E.W. on April 19, 2021, calls for work working people unfamiliar with the advantages slowed considerably. The trend continued into of a union paycheck and benefits – especially February and March, during which some large during a pandemic and in a state that does not projects came to an end and few new jobs were have a strong union tradition. out for bid. Meanwhile, J.A.T.C. students continued their everyday classwork online and Organizers initiated 157 top-down contacts virtually, coming into the local’s training facility in 2020, conducted 746 individual home visits for testing, while other classes remained on hold to potential members and visited job sites 114 as the local kept a close watch on confirmed times throughout the year. Through those efforts COVID-19 cases and proceeded accordingly. and more, the local brought representation to a total of 246 newly organized workers Between ongoing COVID-related issues, between December 2019 and November 2020, slowing work and unprecedented weather, offsetting losses to help the membership grow 2021 got off to a challenging start for many by more than 100 electrical workers throughout Local 1141 members as its employment the pandemic-distressed year. conditions were fairly stagnant, resulting in Local 1141 provides lunch for striking union teachers at the Oklahoma A.F.L.-C.I.O. offices on April 9, 2018. little to no movement on its available-for-work The local was further aided in its efforts list. But in the March 2021 Watts Up, Business when union contractors landed construction Manager Wilcox offered a measure of optimism As Local 1141 continued to put more emphasis Turning 100 Amid and maintenance contracts at an Amazon appropriate for the times: on organizing to obtain new members to meet distribution facility in Oklahoma City and a data demands for its manpower, in 2017 it teamed A Global Pandemic center in Tulsa during 2020. That December’s “Please be patient and hang in there, as it will turn around.” with organizers from sister I.B.E.W. locals No. Electrical Worker even noted that the two he two-year stretch of near-unprecedented massive construction projects helped grow inside 602 of Amarillo, Texas; No. 584 of Tulsa; No. Its century-long history leaves little doubt 301 of Texarkana, Texas; and No. 444 of Ponca strong employment and favorable construction membership for Local 1141 and conditions for Local 1141 and its Local 584 more than 30 percent over the previous that Local 1141 will prevail and prosper as it City Oklahoma, to meet with unrepresented T enters its next 100 years – as indicated in a membership came to an abrupt halt in early two years, “making Oklahoma one of the bright electricians working on most of the larger 2020 when the global, lethal coronavirus spots for organizing in the entire I.B.E.W.” statement from its Organizing Department projects in its jurisdiction. As the shortage of (COVID-19) pandemic struck the United States in a December 2020 Electrical Worker article union electricians continued to develop later beginning in January. Statewide and national Its expanding membership has helped Local highlighting the local’s progress: that year, Business Manager Wilcox reminded responses to the outbreak included prohibition 1141 get through the pandemic. For instance, the membership in the November 2017 Watts and cancellation of large-scale gatherings, stay- the local’s growth has allowed work to continue “We believe we have an Up, “Organizing and recruiting new members at-home orders and school closures. uninterrupted on a six-story addition to the excellent union culture that to fill these jobs is our highest priority.” Oklahoma University Medical Center in we’ve tried to build on. Any Local 1141 and its members were likewise Oklahoma City, keeping more than 100 Work also increased throughout the local’s success we’ve had is a credit to adversely affected by the impact of the members employed. jurisdiction during 2018, as a few large projects pandemic. However, in 2020 the local and its our membership. They’re the ones were also scheduled to start in January and Organizing Department doubled down on But as the COVID-19 pandemic persisted that have made us successful.” February of 2019. To meet that demand, the its mission to bring representation to power into 2021, during which Local 1141 marks local filled more than 600 calls for manpower professionals in western Oklahoma’s electrical the 100th anniversary of its charter from the between June and November 2018 while trade. Some of its “outside-the-box” ideas taking in many new members to fulfill those included signatory-contractor meetings, a new requests. Likewise, in 2019 work was good and Referral Incentive Program to better involve the outlook was demanding for Local 1141, the membership in organizing, utilizing Text and organizing remained a priority as the local Magic marketing, issuing mailers and creating needed more journeymen electricians to join a Digital New Member Orientation module. I.B.E.W. Local 1141 union hall and its ranks after it again filled more than 600 calls Instituting dues adjustments and explaining training center in Oklahoma City in 2021. during the final six months of the year. breakdowns of the value for their dues were

Alameda County · San Joaquin & Calaveras Counties 6250 Village Parkway · Dublin · California · 94568

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Union Local 595 Congratulates IBEW Local Union 1141 on Their 100th Anniversary! Honor Our Past, Organize Our Future! Welcome to the “100 Club”

From the Officers, Members, and Staff of Greg Bonato IBEW Union Local 595 Dustin Baker President Business Manager