Just in time for its 125th anniversary, the IBEW is issuing an update of the book that commemorated its 100th anniversary.
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| “Dreams of Dignity, Workers of Vision” has been updated with three new chapters covering the last 25 years of IBEW history. The new edition will be available at the upcoming International Convention. |
“Dreams of Dignity, Workers of Vision” is being reissued with three additional chapters by author Grace Palladino that examine the last 25 years of IBEW history. The new edition will be distributed to delegates at the International Convention in St. Louis in September. It will be available for purchase online at the IBEW Store.
Palladino, a labor historian and editor of the Samuel Gompers Papers Project at the University of Maryland before retiring in 2011, also wrote the original version of the IBEW’s history in 1991.
“I tried to write it in a way that the rank-and-file members can read it and understand all the decisions that have been made,” she said. “One of the nicest things is when I get an email from one of them saying, ‘Thanks for doing this. I learned a lot.’ As a historian, that’s what you want.”
The book covers significant changes in the IBEW during the last 25 years, including:
IBEW Media Director Mark Brueggenjohann, who worked with Palladino on the updated edition, said the book will give members a better understanding into what went into policy shifts that many of them remember.
“It’s a much more modern union than it was 25 years ago,” Brueggenjohann said. “I think the new section of the book really lays out how those changes came about and who was instrumental in making those changes and that it didn’t come easy. There was a little bit of a struggle.”
“Grace did dozens of interviews and she talked to the people that were there and were making the decisions,” he added. “The other thing I like is she isn’t sugarcoating anything. She looked at it as a historian. The good and the bad are all there.”
Palladino said the book reminds workers the IBEW still gives electricians, linemen and members in its other sectors a chance at a better life.
“Considering what it has to offer,” she said, “you’re better off joining a union.”
The book includes extensive writing on the founding of the Brotherhood by Henry Miller in 1891; the Reid-Murphy split in 1908 that lasted five years and nearly destroyed the IBEW; and the post-World War II boom in construction that fueled its growth.
The 39th IBEW International Convention opens on Sept. 19, and IBEW.org will cover pre-convention events starting Sept. 15 and running through the closing gavel on Sept. 23.
