IBEW Local Union 5, Pittsburgh: About

I.B.E.W. Local #5 was founded in Pittsburgh in 1897 during a period of rapid economic and technological change. Founded by skilled workers in an industry still in its infancy, the men who founded the union local were attempting to bring organization to a challenging and dangerous craft. Unlike carpenters, plumbers or masons, electricians were not descended from an ancient established craft or medieval guiild. They were faced with the problem of the safe and efficient handling of a new force that was revolutionizing human society - the magical and almost living power of electrical current.

To understand the men who founded Local #5, we need to look at Pittsburgh in the late 19th Century as the crucible both of new industries and new forms of worker organizations.

In 1897, Pittsburgh was in the middle of its most dynamic period in terms of growth and power.
The city's population rose to 533,000 in 1910 due to immigrants looking for jobs.
The city was a marvel of technological innovation and industrial might.
Pittsburgh was a city of mills, forges and furnaces.
Pittsburgh was also one of the creators of the "age of electricity."

Pittsburgh was dominated at that time by two giants: Edison and Westinghouse. George Westinghouse called the city his home.

The work of Westinghouse would be a major factor in creating the world within which the skilled electrician would labor and that Local 5 would organize. Perhaps Westinghouse's greatest contribution to the electrification of our modern world was his practical solution of the problem of electrical transmission by means of alternating current.Edison's work with generators, motors and the light bulb had all been done with direct current.

While rapid and revolutionary tecnological change was opening dramatic new opportunities for business growth, worker's organizations were having a difficult time adapting to workplaces that were constantly growing and changing.

1890s were a difficult time for labor.
Previous decade (1880s) saw explosive growth of the Knights of Labor followed by that organization's precipitous decline.
The American Federation of Labor, founded in 1882 in Pittsburgh, as an alliance of skilled trades organizations saw its most powerful member oganization, the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers, defeated in 1892 at the famous Homestead struggle on the outskirts of the city.
Unionism was driven from the local mills and industry adopted a resolutely open shop, anti-union policy.