Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1940 [PAGE 735]

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BOARD OF TRUSTEES

[February i

MEETING OF T H E EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

FEBRUARY I, 1940

A meeting of the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois was held at the Blackstone Hotel, in Chicago, at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, February 1, 1940. Mr. Oscar G. Mayer, Chairman, Mrs. Glenn E. Plumb, and Mr. Louis C. Moschel, members of the Executive Committee, were present; also Mr. James M. Cleary, member of the Board of Trustees, President A. C. Willard, Director C. S. Havens, of the Physical Plant Department, Judge Sveinbjorn Johnson, University Counsel; Mr. Thomas E. Cunningham, General Organizer of the United Association of Journeymen Plumbers and Steam Fitters, Washington, D. C.; Mr. Joseph J. Vincent, Conciliator, State of Illinois Department of Labor; and Mr. M. A. Stiles, Regional Labor Adviser, Federal W'orks Agency, Chicago. In the absence of the Secretary of the Board of Trustees, Judge Johnson was appointed Acting Clerk of the Committee. The Chairman of the Committee announced that the meeting had been called to confer with Mr. Thomas E. Cunningham, General Organizer of the United Association of Journeymen Plumbers and Steam Fitters, concerning the strike ordered by him, effective January 2, 1940, of plumbers and steam fitters employed by contractors on the Illini Union Building, Gregory Hall, and the Natural Resources Building, which are under construction as P.W.A. projects on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana. This strike was ordered because the Board of Trustees of the University had previously decided that the University itself should install the piping and accessories in the new Heating and Power Plant tunnel instead of employing a private contractor to do that work. This tunnel is a part of the new Heating and Power Plant and distribution system, a project which is being financed through a State appropriation made by the General Assembly of Illinois. This project is separate from the projects on which a strike has been called and which are being financed in part by grants from the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works (now the Federal Works Agency). After more than two and one-half hours of discussion the Executive Committee adopted the following resolution by a unanimous and record vote of its members; prior to its formal adoption the draft of the resolution was read to Mr. Cunningham and certain minor verbal changes which he suggested with reference to his own position were made therein;

RESOLUTION Whereas, our discussion with Mr. T h o m a s E. Cunningham has narrowed the issue to this one point, namely, Mr. Cunningham's insistence that the work in the tunnel (see explanation above) be done by a contractor already signed up with his organization; and Whereas, Mr. Cunningham has insisted that he will not permit work to be resumed on any of the University buildings or on the State Natural Resources Building unless the Board of Trustees of the University guarantees to have the work in the tunnel (see explanation above) done by a contractor now signed up with the union Mr. Cunningham represents;