1984-02 February IBEW Journal.pdf - International Brotherhood of ...

International
Representative
Dorothy Husted
Honored
internatiunal Rcp[C ~cntalive DU!­
olhy Husted waS honored by the
Academy of Women Achievers of the
You ng Women's Christian Associati
on. ~ h c waS Included In the 1983
class of the Academy of Women
Achievers a t a luncheon in honor of
the recipients that waS attended br.
over 1,500 people at the Hilton Hote ,
New York City, on November 9,
1983.
International Representative Dorothy
Husted WaS born in New York
City and in her early life she and her
family moved to New Jersey_ Her
formal education took her through
elementary school and two years of
instructio n in the Essex County Vocational
School. She had no opportunity
to further her formal education
and was forced by circumstances
to learn and progress with the tools
of her background- mtellect, hard
work and an unYielding desire to
have a better way of life. Her very
PIctured at the Academy of Women Achievers
lundleoo is honoree International Representative
Dorothy Husted being congratulated by
Third Olstrlct International Vice President
John J . Barry.
4 , IBEW JOURNAL f FEBRUARY 1984
Intemational Representative Dorothy Husted, right. is pichJred with Sallie Melvin, chalrperson 01
the Academy 01 Women Achiellers at the luncheon where International R89I'esentatille Husted
was honored as 8 Woman AchieV9t
first job was at the Western Electn c
Plant in Kearny, New Je rsey, a subsid
iary of the mammoth American
Telephone and Telegraph Comp;my,
Dorothy was ve ry young, poorly pre·
pared, on her first job, one of 30,000
other employees and starting at the
lowest rung of the economic Illdder.
In 1942 her job was assembling telephone
equipment at a rate of pay of
4S centS per hour.
Seeing the economic plight uf hCf
co· workers on the assembly hne, her
sense of digmty, fair play and sympathy
for the underdog moved her to
take actIon and her fighting spirit
took up the cause of her fellow workers
as soon as the IBEW appeared on
the scene to organize these 30,000
Western Electric workers. Sister
Husted's work as an inside o rgamzer
for the lBEW was a main factor 10
the Brotherhood gaining bargaining
rights over six other unions competing
for this large group of electrical
workers.
Knowledgeable labor people who
remember what it was like 10 1947
to o rganize a corporation giant like
Western Electric, with ri val labor
groups adding to Company resistance,
will have som e idea of the
magnitude of this victory, due 10 no
small measure to Dorothy Husted.
So appa rent was her dedication, perseverance,
capacity for long hours
and hard work, that the lBEW used
her on a tempo rary basis to help
o rganize Western Electric, Westinghouse
and RCA plants III Indianap·
o li s, Allentown, Reading and Lancaster,
Pennsylvania; Columbus,
Ohio i
ShTf'vl'pnrt, Louisiana; and
Duluth, Minnesota. Her success in e
those orga ni zi ng campaigns resulted
in her appointment to the mEW staff
in October, 1953, making her the
first wo man to be appointcd as an
IBEW International Representative
from the Manufacturing Branch of
the Brulhcrhuud_ Today a:, an International
Representative assigned to t
the IBEW's Third Vice Presidential
District, which includes servicing 23
local unions located in the states of
Delaware, New Jersey, New York
and Pennsylvania, her duties have
been to o rganize and help train local
union leaders. Her work necessitates J
her involvement with the least skilled
workers to the heads of the nation's
top corporations, not excluding their
legal brain trusts. During her 30 years
as an IBEW International Represent·
ative, Sister Husted has gained the