History
1937
Local Union 692 received its charter from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers on April 1, 1937. The twenty-nine electricians who signed the charter are as follows:
Roy Kinnane
Tony Dodick
Edward Clements
George Ryder
Joseph Pieszak
H. Fred Nitschky
Elmer Fortin
E. J. Fortin
Clyde Short
Norman Shook
Thomas Kennedy
Gerald Ryder
Ellsworth Goodrich
Lawrence LeFevre
George Reichenbach
Kermitt Trapp
Elmer Reid
Virgil Fortin
Aloysius Lewicki
William Toohey
William Graham
Floyd Trickey
Kendle Shook
Stephen Maynard
Norman Richardson
Joseph Cuthbert
Donald Johnson
Edmund Techlin
Alexander Rodau
1942
By 1942 our membership increased from twenty-nine to one hundred and seventeen and the wage rate had gone from $1.00 to $1.50 per hour. Several members were involved in the war efforts and the membership agreed to a smaller wage increase and to lowering overtime from double time to time and a half for the duration of the war.
1947
Wages continued to grow and reached $2.85 per hour in 1947.
1955
In 1955 a party was given in honor of charter member Norman Shook, the first member to retire from the Local.
1957
By 1957 wages were increased to $3.61 per hour.
1964
In 1964 a two-year contract was ratified with a fifteen cents per hour raise the first year and an eighteen cents per hour increase the second year. Journeymen were making $4.78 per hour after the second year.
1966
In 1966 Local 692 voted to join the Michigan Electrical Employees’ Pension Fund. The contribution rate was $.15 cents per hour.
1969
Local 692 moved into its newly constructed Electrical Trades Building in October of 1969. The membership had grown to over 250 members and the Local found it necessary to build a new facility that contained adequate office space and a meeting hall. Wages were $6.12 per hour for journeymen.
1975
The members approved a two-year contract in 1975 of eighty cents per hour each year and the journeyman hourly rate of pay reached $11.75 in 1976. The membership of the Local Union also increased to 306 members.
1981
In 1981 Local 1232 in Alpena requested to merge into Local 692. A motion was approved by the membership to accept this merger. Local 692’s jurisdiction now encompassed all or parts of nineteen counties in mid and northern Michigan.
1984
By 1984 journeymen’s pay had reached $17.51 per hour.
1986
Newly elected International President, J.J. Barry, revitalized the IBEW organizing mission in 1986. Local 692 appointed its first full-time organizer to its staff. Local 692 had to become more aggressive in taking in new members after realizing its membership had remained stagnant at around 350 members.
Local 692 has steadily continued to grow in membership even with retirements and attrition.
1998
The membership reached over 400 in 1998.
2000
Membership reached an all time high of over 500 members by the end of the year 2000.
This information came from a book that was published for our local’s 50th anniversary in 1987.