Edwin D. Hill
August 11, 1937 - December 1, 2018
IBEW President Emeritus Edwin D. Hill, 81, of Beaver, Pennsylvania passed away early Saturday morning, December 1, 2018. Born August 11, 1937 in Center Twp., he was a son of the late William H. and Bessie E. Weigle Hill. Ed began his career with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 712, Beaver, Pennsylvania. He served as Business Manager of Local 712 and President of the Beaver County Central Labor Council, and a Vice-President of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO. In 1982, he was appointed to the Third District Office as International Representative, and in 1992 he became the Third District Vice President. Ed filled the unexpired term of then-IBEW International Secretary Jack Moore in 1997. His success in the role of secretary/treasurer secured his appointment to International President of the 750,000-member IBEW in 2001, until his retirement in 2015.
Ed will be remembered by family and friends as a loving husband, caring father, and proud grandfather. He was a faithful member of Saints Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Church, Beaver and a devout Trade Unionist. We mourn the loss of a giant and a warrior.
Spectrum Talks Breakdown
Despite a good faith effort to get an agreement, Charter has walked away from the negotiations. You see, I believe with all my heart, that Charter/Spectrum never wanted to get an agreement, that their intention from day one was to break this union, and that they were willing to throw their employees in the gutter to make it happen.
As we were closing in on a deal that would have brought the strikers back with their union pension and health care intact, we were also negotiating wage increases for all the employees, including the replacement workers and those that crossed the line. I think that’s why the company pulled the plug: if we were successful in getting an agreement that the replacement workers would have supported, the company would have lost a pending decertification petition. The company is committed to seeing a decertification of the union - an effort that we believe they conceived from the beginning and is part of the playbook to bust a union: force a strike, never make an agreement, hire scabs and then decertify the union, that has seems to have been their objective since day one.
If Charter can break a union like Local 3 it will be a sad day for all unions in NYC. Working New Yorkers deserve better. Dump Charter. They’re bad news and the new poster child for union busting companies in America.
