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Resigned

Milton Foster

After four years as chairman of the IBEW International Executive Council, Milton L. Foster stepped down on November 1, 2005. He has taken an organizing position as Ninth District international representative assisting locals in Washington and Oregon.

Brother Foster, former business manager and financial secretary of Local 191, Everett, Wash., took the reins as IEC chairman in July 2001. He was elected to a full term at the 2001 IBEW International Convention in San Francisco. He had represented the Seventh District on the council since his election at the 35th International Convention in Philadelphia in 1996. He counts as a significant accom­plishment of the Brotherhood in recent years the purchase of the new IBEW headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Foster served as Local 191 business manager for 18 years. Under his leadership, the local’s emphasis on organizing greatly expanded the membership and number of signatory contractors. Working out of his home in Concrete, Wash., he will be applying those skills to the upper Northwest.

After four years of JATC training, Foster became an inside journeyman wireman in 1970. He served as shop steward, a member of the negotiating committee and as a delegate to the AFL-CIO central labor councils for Snohomish and Skagit counties. After his election as Local 191 business manager, he served as a trustee on the Ninth District and the Pacific Coast pension funds. He is former president of the Washington State Association of Electrical Workers and the Northeast Washington Building Trades Council. He has also served the building trades as a national convention delegate.

Brother Foster said his unique perspective as former IEC chairman revealed a number of challenges for the IBEW in coming years. He encouraged all members to support International President Edwin D. Hill in his efforts to confront them.

Appointed

Myles Calvey

Myles Calvey, business manager of Boston, Local 2222, and a national leader of IBEW members working for Verizon, was appointed Second District International Executive Council member, effective No­­vem­­ber 1, 2005. He replaces Rui Carrinho who has been ap­pointed to the Second District International staff.

“I am honored to be ap­pointed by President Hill,” says Calvey. “I look forward to serving the Second District as their IEC member.”

A Boston native, Brother Calvey began his IBEW career in 1968 as a splice-service technician with AT&T, later with New England Telephone in Boston.

A graduate of Boston College and a National Guard veteran, Calvey was elected vice president and chairman of the executive board of Local 2222 in 1985, serving a three-year term. In 1988, he was elected business manager of the 3,000-member local, and in 1991 was elected as business manager/ financial secretary, his current position.

As chairman of Telephone Coordinating Council (TCC-2), representing Verizon workers nationwide, Calvey has been at the helm of major contract negotiations and strikes, successfully negotiating unprecedented benefits for tele­­com- munications workers.

He is also chairman of System Council T-6, serving New England.

Calvey’s skills are recognized by unionists throughout New England. He has conducted training in bargaining and membership mobilization techniques and mentored numerous activists who were referred to him by fellow labor leaders.

Several organizations have recognized Calvey’s influence with awards, including the Department of Veteran’s Affairs, the National Organization for Women (NOW) and the Rainbow Coalition. In 2004, Calvey was elected Fireman of the Year by Boston’s Firefighters for his tireless efforts to help them achieve a decent contract.

Calvey is an avid reader who enjoys baseball and running. Calvey and his wife, Janet have four children, Elizabeth, Meredith, Justin and Brendan. They reside in Belmont, Massachusetts.

The officers and members of the IBEW congratulate Brother Calvey on his appointment.

Appointed

Stephen P. Schoemehl

Stephen P. Schoe­mehl, business manager of Local 1, St. Louis, Missouri, was ap­pointed International Executive Council member for the Fifth District, effective November 1, 2005. He replaces Robert Pierson, who was appointed IEC chairman.

“My appointment is a tremendous honor for the members of Local 1. I look forward to continuing the work of my predecessors in helping shape the future of the Brotherhood,” says Brother Schoemehl.

A 37-year IBEW member, Schoemehl started work in the electrical industry as a warehouseman and truck driver. He has earned a reputation as one of the Brother­hood’s most influential leaders.

After completing his ap­prenticeship and attaining journeyman wireman status in 1976, Schoemehl spent many years as a union activist in the trade, preparing him for administration of the 5,500-member local, which includes overseeing the work of 13 officers and 15 business representatives and serving as chairman of eight trust funds.

A former member of the local’s Examining Board, Schoemehl was then elected as recording secretary and was appointed as an organizer on the business manager’s staff in 1997.

In 2001, Schoemehl, a U.S. Army veteran, was ap­pointed business manager of Local 1 and elected to the same position in 2002 and in 2005. His tenure has been notable for raising the profile of Local 1 in the community, supported by his service on the United Way board of directors, as executive board member of the St. Louis Port Council and the St. Louis Building and Construction Trades Council.

Retired Eleventh District International Vice President Bill Eads appointed Schoemehl to serve on the negotiation team for the voice, data, video/security Missouri state agreement. President Hill selected Schoemehl for service on the national substance abuse policy and referral language/hiring hall committees. He was nominated as Labor Man of the Year in 2005 by the St. Louis Building and Construction Trades Council and 2004 Man of the Year by the St. Louis Port Council.

The officers and members of the IBEW congratulate Brother Schoemehl on his appointment.

Deceased

Robert S. Detrick

The IBEW is saddened to announce the September 23, 2005, death of retired Third District International Representative Robert S. Detrick. He was 74.

In 1955, Brother Detrick was initiated into IBEW Local 1338 in Clifton, New Jersey, (amalgamated into Cranbury Local 94 in 1994). Starting out as an equipment operator for Public Service Gas and Electric, he served the local in variety of positions, including recording secretary. He also served as business agent and eventually president for System Council U-2, a coordinating council for IBEW members working at New Jersey PSE&G properties.

He was appointed Third District International Representative in 1976, assisting utility locals in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania with contract negotiations and arbitrations. Detrick had a reputation as an honest and honorable man, well-respected by IBEW colleagues, local union members and the companies they represented.

He worked for several Third District Vice Presidents out of district offices in Albany, New York and Pennsylvania. He retired in 1997.

Detrick, a veteran of the Korean War, moved to Athens, Georgia in 1999, so he and his wife, Lynne, could spend more time with their daughter and grandchildren. Active in the religious community, he was a founding member and elder of the Oconee Presbyterian Church. IBEW officers, staff and members send heartfelt condolences to Brother Detricks family and many friends.

Deceased

William Birch Tucker

The IBEW is saddened to report the October 21, 2005, death of retired Seventh District International Representative William Tucker. He was 78.

A Texas native, Brother Tucker was initiated into Corpus Christi Local 278 in 1949, where he became a journeyman lineman at Central Power and Light. He later changed his classification to journeyman wireman. Tucker served many functions in the local, including job steward, recording secretary, president and vice president through the 1950s and early 1960s. As vice president, he coordinated a metal trades organizing campaign at a Union Carbide plant that involved 12 unions. He was elected business manager in 1963.

Outside the local union, Tucker served on the Electrical Workers Building Corporation Board of Direc­tors, and as delegate for both the local building trades and central labor council.

He was promoted to Seventh District international representative 1970. A dedicated and determined advocate for IBEW members, Tucker serviced construction locals and took part in several successful organizing campaigns in Texas. He suffered a stroke in 1983, and never returned to work. Despite his partial paralysis and inability to speak, four months later, Tucker and his wife ran a two-mile race sponsored by the hospital that treated him. The Texas State Association of Electrical Workers established an annual scholarship in his honor.

A member of the Episcopal church, Tucker’s hobbies included sports, fishing and auto repair. The IBEW staff, officers and members send Brother Tucker’s wife, Pat, and their entire family our deepest sympathies.