We are sad to report that retired IBEW International President Ed Hill, passed away over the weekend. Below is a statement from IBEW President Lonnie Stephenson:
“The labor movement has lost one of its greatest visionaries and leaders. We join with President Hill’s friends and family in mourning his loss. But while this is a moment of great sadness, we draw inspiration and joy from President Hill’s nearly six-decades of service to working families and the union that was the cause of his life: the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
A native of Center Township, Pennsylvania, and journeyman wireman by trade, from a young age Ed Hill made the IBEW his calling. A second-generation member, he entered the labor movement at its height, a time when it seemed to many that organized labor would only keep growing stronger in the decades to come.
But despite the enormous challenges faced by labor and the IBEW in the years ahead, including recessions, the growth of aggressive corporate union-busting and the election of politicians hostile to labor, Ed Hill never gave up and he never gave in.
While cherishing our traditions, standing still was never an option for him. He was a leader who understood the need to always be on the forefront of changing trends as the only way we could meet and overcome all the challenges faced by the IBEW.
The programs he pioneered and implemented – from the Code of Excellence and market recovery, which created alternative job classifications to help our contractors successfully bid on projects, to business development initiatives and an expanded investment in membership development – ensured that the IBEW not only survived through the toughest of times, but expanded and grew. Click here to read more.
