NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | September 21, 2018 | PAGE 7
Cranes,
Dirt, and
Concrete
Operating Engineers Local 701
celebrates 100 years
From Page 1
dropped “steam” from its name in 1928
(though it kept the steam gauge as its
emblem.)
In a 1978 consent decree resolving a
federal lawsuit filed in 1974, the Local
701 committed to admitting black and
Hispanic apprentices to its training pro-
gram.
In their century of progress, Local
701 members have run the machines
that transformed Oregon, building
every bridge, dam, highway, and sky-
scraper in the region.
The Local’s history is told in a 1999
book by Kirsten Bovee called Every
Member is the Union: The Story of Lo-
cal 701 — and in a commemorative
history book distributed at a Sept. 15
celebration of the union’s centennial.
If the men were hard in the Local’s
early years, it may have been because
those were hard times. Unions in the
1920s were often secret organizations.
Employers often wouldn’t hire a worker
unless they signed “yellow dog” con-
tracts agreeing not to join a union.
The Operating Engineers joint appren-
ticeship training committee re-named its
training center “The Mark Holliday Oper-
ating Engineers Training Center” at Local
701’s 100th anniversary party. Holliday
was instrumental in acquiring the 87-acre
plot in Canby, Oregon, in 2011. The site
has developed into a state-of-the-art
training facility for apprentices and jour-
neymen. ( Photos by Michael Gutwig)
At the 701 centennial, Business Manager
Jimbo Anderson gave hay rides with his
fully-restored 1939 9N tractor.
In 1929, a stock market crash set off
what became known as the Great De-
pression. Over the next four years, em-
ployment in construction dropped 78
percent. In 1933, Local 701 accepted a
20 percent wage reduction.
The turnaround came with President
Roosevelt’s New Deal programs,
which included an unprecedented fed-
eral commitment to building infrastruc-
ture.
That was followed by the war. World
War Two put the construction economy
in overdrive. At breakneck speed, Lo-
cal 701 members helped build a recon-
naissance blimp hangar known as the
Tillamook Naval Air Station; Camp
White near Medford, which would later
train up to 45,000 soldiers at a time;
and a top secret site in Hanford, Wash-
ington, where atomic weapons would
be manufactured.
They also helped build — almost
overnight — what was briefly Ore-
gon’s second largest city: Vanport.
From August 1942 to September 1943,
9,942 buildings were built to house
workers at three Kaiser shipyards. But
the brand new town was destroyed in a
catastrophic flood May 31, 1948.
Many Local 701 members spent the
war years in construction battalions like
the Naval Seabees, building the air-
bases, warehouses, and landing facili-
ties that helped the Allies win the war.
In the post-war era, the federal com-
mitment to infrastructure continued
with the 1956 Federal Highway Act,
and lasted through 1970.
Over the course of five decades Lo-
cal 701 members helped construct 26
dams on Columbia River, the Astoria
Megler and Fremont bridges, US 26, I-
5, and I-95.
It was also an era of big strikes. Lo-
cal 701 members in construction struck
34 days in 1958, 54 days in 1961, and
63 days in 1973. Sand and gravel oper-
ators struck 26 days in 1971.
Local 701 grew and expanded. In the
early 1950s, it absorbed Local 500, tak-
ing in five Southwest Washington
counties. In 1993, it added Stationary
Engineers Local 87.
But the 1980s were a return to hard
times: a recession, major downturn in
construction, and a president who
launched an era of union-busting when
he terminated 11,345 striking air traffic
controllers.
Prior to 1980, almost all public con-
struction work was done by union-sig-
natory contractors. Since then, the local
has had to battle continually to hold
onto union market share.
Local 701’s membership peaked in
1980 at 6,000 members, but by 1983,
half of them were on the out-of-work
list. Today the membership is just over
3,500.
But Local 701 continues to thrive,
providing training, employment, and
some of the highest wages and benefits
in the construction industry. Its 100-
year mark comes at another boom time,
providing opportunities to new appren-
tices. They’ll be the ones to carry Local
701 into its second century.
— Don McIntosh