Tramp Union Reformer Challenges Expulsion from Electrical Workers

On April 27, 1979, Billy Chadwick was expelled from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers(IBEW) for "publishing among the membership or L.U.'s, false reports or misrepresentations," as Article 27, Section1 of the IBEW Constitution reads.

What this meant, of course, was that Chadwick had been a critic of the union's leadership and an active reformer for some years. The specific incident that led to the expulsion was a leaflet Chadwick distributed at a Tennessee Valley Authority worksite where he was being harassed by management.Billy Chadwick is a traveling wireman, known in the union as a "tramp." His home local is 760 in Knoxville, Tennessee. He was working at the Watts Bar TVA nuclear plant, which is under the jurisdiction of Local 175. According to Chadwick, however, the TVA is exempt from many labor laws and regulations and does not have to deal with union grievances.

Chadwick's grievances went nowhere,so on January 24, 1979, he distributed a leaflet suggesting that since Local 175 did not actually represent anyone, there was no justification for its collecting a 2% tax on wages.

Chadwick was fired, allegedly for "loafing," by TVA management on January 26. After that he was brought up on charges and eventually expelled by Local 175, in spite of the fact that he was not a member of it.

Chadwick was then told he had no standing to appeal to a higher body. For over a year he attempted to appeal to the International Executive Council with no satisfaction. A few weeks ago Chadwick's lawyer, Paul Levy, filed in Washington, D.C. 's Federal District Court for a summary finding. Levy is arguing that Chadwick's expulsion is in violation of Title I of the Landrum-Griffin Act.

There is little doubt that both the firing and the expulsion were the result of Chadwick's long-standing activity on behalf of the rights of IBEW members. He had long been active in the Federation of Linemen and Electricians (FLE) (pronounced flea), an informal fraternal organization of traveling contruction electricians said to be as old as the union itself.

While FLE does not engage in collective bargaining, nor act as a reform group within the IBEW, it does aid its members, encourage them to file grievances and sometimes, as Chadwick himself put it, engage in the tactics of the old IWW. The IBEW hierarchy has actually branded the FLE as a "subversive" organization. Its membership numbers in the tens of thousands........

Chadwick also helped found the Brotherhood of Electrical Employees (BEE), whose name was chosen to rhyme with (FLE) in 1970, as a legal rights center for FLE members. BEE published a newsletter and put out a legal rights handbook called "One More Tramp Guide," written by Chadwick himself. These activities brought him, as he put it, "a certain amount of not altogether welcome notoriety at hiring halls."

Chadwick made his intentions clear to all when he wrote in 1978 in "One More Tramp Guide," It is the opinion of this writer that a great need exists for an effective and well-led reform organizaton within the IBEW, and that "The BEE" might well be developed to fill this need.

Evidently, the leadership of the IBEW took him at his word and decided to rid themselves of the threat of reform.

Chadwick's lawyer is confident of a favorable decision, because of the obvious denial of freedom of speech.

Chadwick is also confident and plans to run for Business Manager, the most important local officer, of Local 760 when he is reinstated.

It is no surprise that there is pressure for reform from inside the IBEW. The building trades unions have been under brutal attack, backed by the employers' powerful Business Roundtable.

Unemployment is chronic. As one member put it: "IBEW stands for I'm Broke Every Winter."

On the other side of the equation is a conservative, business unionist leadership. Charles Pillard, IBEW President, is even said to be a "card carrying Republican." It is not unheard of for high supervisory personnel to hold local union office or even to sit on the negotiating committee for the union.

Billy Chadwick is not alone in the fight to change the IBEW. Reformers like him have sprung up around the country in the last few years. A New Jersey IBEW member, Daniel Boswell, has gone to court to challenge Article 27, the same section used to expel Chadwick. Glynn Ross, another expelled member from Arizona, is fighting a battle similar to Chadwick's. And members in Canada and on the west coast of the U.S. have been active in trying to change their union as well.


This document was furnished compliments of: LABOR NOTES
Labor Notes is a non-profit organization that has been the voice of union activists who want to "put the movement back in the labor movement" since 1979.