IBEW 98 100+ year History

at the Philadelphia Navy Yard as the country began to prepare for World War I. Throughout these formative years the union was intent upon establishing the union as the sole representative for electrical workers at the bargaining table and on the job, and making workers aware of their rights as union members. The local established a steward system and attempted to get contractors to recognize stewards as the Union representatives on jobsites. For some Local 98 members these early attempts at organizing represented hardships and sacrifices.

“My first job was in 1919 at the Budd Plant on Hunting Park Avenue. My brother was running the job and he put me to work.

There were eight or ten other electricians working on the job. Budd was a notoriously anti-union company at the time and this was the first time they allowed union people to do work for them. The Local 98 steward on the job wore a large pin which had STEWARD printed on it. The company wanted to know what the steward did on the job and they were told that he handled all of the union business on the jobsite. The company said that they wanted to fire the steward because he was spending too much time on union business and that he wasn’t working enough. Local 98 said that they could not fire him since he represented the union. Within a week of this dispute they fired all of the Local 98 members on the job. Since the job was almost completed they knew that they didn’t need us anymore so they fired us. That was my introduction to the union.”

While Local 98 was struggling to organize electrical workers and to establish the union, electrical contractors were setting up businesses in Philadelphia. In many cases these contractors were immigrants who came to this country after gaining experience in the electrical industry in Europe. Many of these immigrants found work at the Philadelphia Navy Yard.

“My brother worked as an electrician at the Navy Yard during World War I. In 1918 he became an electrical contractor. He was an electrical engineer. We were born in Poland and came to the