90 GREAT YEARS
A BRIEF HISTORY OF
REINFORCING IRON WORKERS LOCAL 201
It all began on January 10, 1917 when Reinforcing Iron Workers Local 201 was chartered. General Organizer E. S. Ingram was instrumental in organizing our twenty-three charter members. We were probably the first integrated Local Union in our International, as we were chartered with twelve black and eleven white members.
In 1917, we were designated as Reinforced Concrete Iron Workers Local No. 201. In addition, we are the specialty reinforcing local with the longest continuous affiliation with our International. By a quirk of fate, our original stamp has a date of January 9, 1917. By June of 1917, we were up to 30 members, and these highly skilled, hard working Rodmen were in great demand. Scale at this time was fifty cents per hour, with a forty four hour work week (8 hours Monday through Friday and 4 hours on Saturday) being standard. As the automobile became more popular, roads and bridges had to be built. Thankfully, some things never change. During the Great Depression, times were as hard here in the nation’s capitol as they were across our entire nation. We went to a forty hour work week by dropping the half day on Saturdays, in order to spread the available work to all of our members.
By the 1940s, we were extremely busy, as there was much construction work in the capitol due to World War II. Our members worked on the Pentagon, along with many other government buildings. As early as 1950, we had a Registered Apprenticeship Program in the District of Columbia. The DC Apprentice Council was shocked in 2006 when we showed them our 1950 registration, as they had never seen one that old.
Our Apprenticeship Training Program was acknowledged to be the first of its kind by the International.
The late 1960s were good times for us, as we had the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Plant going, along with the usual workload. This carried us into the subway system for Metro. These two projects, along with the Beltway construction, meant countless hours of employment for our members. We are still making hours on all three.
In 1967, we celebrated our 50th Anniversary. There were ups and downs through the 1970s and 1980s. We were predominantly building high rises, water treatment facilities, bridges, the F.B.I. building and the old Convention Center. We also built the new National Archives buildings, which employed many of our members. This job finished in 1992, the year we had our 75th Anniversary. Now, here we are again to celebrate our 90th. Things sure have changed in 90 years.
We have gone from making 50 cents per hour to making $35.77 per hour. We have gone from safety being an afterthought to safety being a number 1 concern. We have gone from wearing white shirts and 8 pointer hats, to shorts, bandanas and safety belts, to hard hats, safety glasses and full body harnesses. The one thing that hasn’t changed is the skill and hard work of our members.
In the past 15 years, our members have worked on many high profile area projects including Federal Triangle, Department Of Transportation, World War II Memorial, new Convention Center and the Nationals Baseball Stadium in the District. In Virginia, we have worked on the Springfield Interchange, Dulles Airport Expansion and the Air Force Memorial. In Maryland, we have completed the Metro Extension, Fed Ex Field, National Institute of Health, National Harbor Project and the Woodrow Wilson Bridge.
Heading into the future, we look forward to building the Dulles Metro Extension in Virginia, the Inter-County Connector, Maglev and expanding Calvert Cliffs in Maryland and the area around the Nationals Baseball Stadium in addition to many other buildings and bridges.
In addition to procuring employment and negotiating a fair living wage, Local 201 is here to look after our members. We are thankful that our Brothers in the 1950s had the foresight to start our Welfare Plan, and our Pension Plan in 1959. In the late 1960s, the members started our Death Assessment. This assured that our members could be buried with dignity, and took some of the burden off their families during trying times. In 1998, our Annuity Plan was started. This will really help our younger members at retirement time.
It isn’t only about work. We support many worthwhile causes, including Leukemia research and Diabetes research in addition to many other charities and our Veterans groups. We are also very involved in political causes, helping to elect many friends of organized labor. When a member is in need, the Membership of Local 201 has always stepped up to help. We are not just co-workers, we are more like family. We may have our family squabbles, but we pull together when it counts. We are proud to call each other Brother.
