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1980-1986 Hanging On - Labor in the Reagan Era

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President Pillard said in his October 1981 IBEW Journal editorial, “Solidarity Day was a clear cut message from the AFL-CIO and over 200 civic organizations to the Reagan administration and to Congress to let them know they don’t have a mandate from the people of America to ruthlessly slash the federal budget and implement...policies... that are so inequitable to workers, the poor and the elderly.”

Solidarity between the United States and Canada became a major issue during the ‘80s as well. In 1982 Local 773, Windsor, Ontario, and Local S3, Detroit, members completed the “Necklace of Lights” project, stinging lights on the cables on the largest international suspension bridge in the world, which links the two cities. And many members on both sides of’ the border became involved ill the controversial American-Canadian free-trade issue.

Then - Local 108, Tampa, Florida, Treasurer Donald Byrd winds a Vera-Pak, 3,500 hp boiler-feeder pump motor for Florida Power Corporation in 1982.

At the same time, Canada was confronting its own set of internal economic and political problems. Achieving formal independence from Great Britain in 1982 didn’t alleviate the tension between French-speaking and English-speaking Canadians. Labor issues came to a boil when discontent within the leading Canadian labor organization, the Canadian Labour Congress (with which the IBEW had been affiliated) led to a major shake-up within the 25-year-old group. Building trades unions were dissatisfied with, among other things, the CLC’s system of representation. And in 1982 the IBEW, along with nine other unions created the Canadian Federation of Labour—Federation Canadienne Du Travail, with which the IBEW has been affiliated ever since.

Through all the union bashing and turmoil of the early ‘80s, the IBEW kept its financial footing. In back-to-back notices in the May 1982 IBEDW Journal, President Pillard and Secretary Leigon announced the fiscal soundness of the IBEW-run Electrical Workers’ Benefit Association and the Electrical Industry Health and Welfare Reciprocity Agreement.

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1980-1986 Hanging On - Labor in the Reagan Era

Local 1245, Walnut Creek, California, members Henry Hardigan and Fritz Carter cut wire on a static wire tensioner in 1985.






1983 The administrator of the federal Environmental Protection Agency, Anne McGill Burford, stepped down. Sally ride became the first American woman to travel in space when the space shuttle Challenger was launched from Cape Canaveral. Lech Walesa was named winner of the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize. The U.S. Supreme Court held that the Internal revenue Service could deny tax exemptions to private schools that practiced racial discrimination.






1984 Britain's National Union of Mine Workers' year-long strike ended with the National Coal Board's plan to close 20 mines. South African Bishop Desmond Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The space shuttle Challenger was launched on its fourth trip into space. Jesse Jackson was the first African-American to make a bid for the presidency. Representative Geraldine Ferraro (D-N.Y.) became the first female vice presidential candidate of a major party.