History of IUOE Local 18
1900- 2000
Engineers in Ohio
1900's
The first decade of the 20th century was eventful for engineers in Ohio. In
1902 Local 114 was chartered in Cincinnati, and the following year Local 293 was chartered
in Cleveland. Toledo’s Local 313 was chartered in 1906. Local 482 in Dayton was
chartered in 1911. Local 561 in Akron and Local 546 in Columbus were chartered during
World War I.
The creation of Local 18 occurred on October 1, 1939. Local 18 encompasses 85 of 88 Ohio counties and four counties in Kentucky. Mahoning, Trumbull, & Columbiana counties were placed under jurisdiction of a Pittsburgh local – and remain there today.
1940's
In Ohio, shortly after the six autonomous unions came together to form Local 18, there was
another procedural change.
Business Representative Frank P. Converse wrote, "Realizing that the higher standard of rates adopted in the metropolitan areas does not exactly fit the rural districts, we have established four zones and four classifications of rates."
Mr. Converse went on to discuss elimination of local jurisdictional lines, making it possible for an employer to migrate from one part of the state to another with his organization of highly skilled, qualified operators. This seemed to resolve a basic philosophical difference that had been cause for dissention at the International level for years.
Ohio’s economy was no different from the rest of the nation’s when national defense preparations helped pull it out of the doldrums.
Local 18 became involved in several major defense projects employing from 45 to 1000 Operating Engineers. Projects included the Ravenna Ordnance Plant, Curtiss-Wright plants in Cincinnati and Columbus, Plum Brook near Sandusky, a naval ordnance plant in Canton and improvements at Patterson and Wright (separate at the time) fields in Dayton. By 1943, the living standard was one-sixth higher than it had been in 1939.
A statement in The Book of Local 18, distributed early in the 1940’s, still has relevance in the late 1990’s.
"A member of this Union has a property right in an organization that has been instrumental in the development of Ohio’s industry, transportation and commerce. It is geared to the needs of the construction industry, the state and the nation in the 1940’s. It is the only organization to which the operating engineer can belong that deals every day, with the business of helping him making a living for himself and his dependents."
