Peter J. Brennan

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Peter Brennan
13th United States Secretary of Labor
In office
February 2, 1973 – March 15, 1975
PresidentRichard Nixon
Gerald Ford
Preceded byJames Day Hodgson
Succeeded byJohn T. Dunlop
Personal details
Born
Peter Joseph Brennan

(1918-05-24)May 24, 1918
New York City, New York, U.S.
DiedOctober 2, 1996(1996-10-02) (aged 78)
Massapequa, New York, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
SpouseJosephine Brickley
Children3
EducationCity University of New York, City College (BS)
Military service
Allegiance United States
Branch/service United States Navy
Battles/warsWorld War II

Peter Joseph Brennan (May 24, 1918 – October 2, 1996) was an American labor activist and politician who served as

1972 presidential election. His work for Nixon in that election was crucial in increasing the vote for Nixon in New York
and in the union movement.

Early life

Brennan was born in

B.S. degree in business administration from the City College of New York. While in college, he became an apprentice painter and joined Local 1456 of the Painter's Union.[2][1]

After the US entered World War II, Brennan enlisted in the Navy, serving as a chief petty officer aboard a submarine home ported in Guam.[1] Brennan's career as a union official started when he was elected business manager of Local 1456 in 1947.[1] In 1951, he became the director of the New York Building Trades Council's Maintenance Division.[2]

Brennan married the former Josephine Brickley in 1940, (she died in 1987). The couple had one son, Peter Joseph Brennan, Jr., and two daughters, Joan Brennan and Peggy Brennan.[2][1]

Brennan was elected president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York in 1957 and president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of New York.

Lyndon Johnson and Hubert Humphrey.[4]

Affirmative action

civil rights
activists, reformers and the media wanted to open up opportunities for minorities. A study by the New York City Commission on Human Rights in 1967 found that minority membership in the six most highly skilled building trades was only 2 percent and had not changed since 1960. The reform coalition thought the low entry into the building trades increased building costs above the market rate and cost New York City millions of dollars in increased costs.

In 1968, the Lindsay administration issued Executive Order 1971, which required city contractors to sign a non-discriminatory hiring action plan and develop affirmative action plans. If the contractors did not comply with the executive order, they could not bid for city work. Brennan was strongly opposed and promised to take action to have the order rescinded.

The Nixon Administration, under Labor Secretary

Philadelphia Plan in the summer of 1969 to increase minority membership of skilled building trades to twenty per cent within five years. Brennan and the skilled labor unions were determined to stop the introduction of such a system. They persuaded George Meany, President of the AFL-CIO and a former plumbing union official in New York City, to sponsor Congressional and legal challenges to the plans, but these efforts failed.[5]

In February 1970, the Labor Department announced that it would support local construction industry affirmative action hiring plans provided that they were consistent with the Philadelphia Plan. Brennan was having a great deal of trouble persuading either the Department of Labor or the Lindsay administration to his way of thinking. The Lindsay administration stated that it wanted 4,000 minority trainees as part of the plan, but Brennan wanted no more than 1,000 trainees. Schultz warned labor leaders that the federal government would implement the Philadelphia Plan in 18 cities if suitable local plans were not implemented quickly.[5]

Hard Hat Riot

Main article: Hard Hat Riot

On May 4, 1970, four students were shot dead at

incursion into Cambodia.[6]
As a show of sympathy for the dead students, Mayor Lindsay ordered all flags at City Hall to be flown at half mast the same day.

Brennan organized a rally of construction workers to show support for Nixon's Vietnam policies and American soldiers fighting in Vietnam.

Trinity Church. They then stormed two buildings at nearby Pace University, breaking windows with clubs and crowbars and beating students. More than 70 people were injured, including four policemen. Six people were arrested. President Nixon held an emergency press conference to defuse the situation before tens of thousands of students arrived in Washington, D.C., for a protest rally on May 9.[2][7][8][9] Many organizations claim that Peter Brennan provoked the construction workers into action.[citation needed] At least one eyewitness described two men in grey suits using hand signals to direct the construction workers during the riot [10] The disturbances on May 8 became known as the Hard Hat Riot.[7][8][11]

Brennan led a second rally on May 20 in which more than 20,000 construction workers announced their support for Nixon's Southeast Asia policies.[12]

Support for Nixon in 1972

On May 26, 1970, Brennan led a delegation of 22 union leaders to meet Nixon and to present him with a hardhat. Charles Colson was put in charge of developing a strategy to win union support for Nixon in the 1972 presidential election. Brennan was identified as a friendly leader of the labor movement for cultivation.[2][7][8][13]

Colson wanted to recruit a senior trade unionist to serve in the administration. Colson wrote in a memo to

H.R. Haldeman
, "If we can follow through on the good start we have, the labor vote can be ours in 1972." That would be a critical blow to the Democratic nominee for President, as labor was normally an essential part of the Democrat coalition.

Brennan was granted a private audience with Nixon on Labor Day when 70 labor leaders from across the US were invited to a Labor Day dinner.[7] Shortly after, Governor Rockefeller, Mayor Lindsay and Brennan announced the New York Planning for Training, which specified a goal of 800 trainees, rather than the 4,000 trainees wanted by Lindsay.[8]

The labor movement was angered in 1971 when the Nixon administration introduced

Davis-Bacon Act, which provides that construction workers on federal projects receive union wages. Brennan accused the administration of treating the construction workers as "patsies." Brennan called himself a Democrat but often supported Republicans for office. Despite the setback on Davis-Bacon, Brennan met Nixon again in April 1971 and offered to support his bid for re-election in return for the federal government adopting the New York Plan.[2][5][7][8][14]

Brennan delivered on his word for Nixon in 1972. After a meeting with construction unions in 1972, Nixon wrote in his diary of labor leaders having "character and guts and a bit of patriotism." Labor leadership were also alienated by the Democratic candidate George McGovern and his leftist views on domestic policies. On July 19, the AFL-CIO refused to endorse McGovern as President. Meany told Nixon in late July that he was going to win in a landslide and that he was not going to waste AFL-CIO money supporting McGovern's candidacy.[8][15]

Nixon duly won in a landslide, carrying New York easily with the support of the vast majority of building and construction workers in that state, who, four years, earlier had voted overwhelmingly for Hubert Humphrey. In return for his support, Brennan succeeded in having an audit of the New York Plan deferred until after the election.[15]

Political life

President Nixon appointed Peter Brennan as his Labor Secretary as a reward for his support and to try to consolidate his support amongst union members.

Teamsters president Frank Fitzsimmons, who had played a critical role in securing limited labor support for Nixon. Colson told Brennan that Nixon would appoint the Under Secretary and Assistant Secretary, but Brennan would have a free hand in appointing all other political positions if they provided unwavering support for administration policies. The Labor Department, Colson said, was "infested" with disloyal appointees and Brennan was to "clean house." Brennan agreed to every condition.[17] The Senate confirmed him, and Brennan assumed office on February 2, 1973.[2]

American labor leaders were initially happy with Brennan's appointment. He was an outspoken advocate for a higher minimum wage, expanding the minimum wage to cover more workers, significant improvement in unemployment benefits, enhanced workplace safety, and worker training programs.[18] But once in office, Brennan promoted a plan to raise the minimum wages in small increments over four years with no increase in the number of covered workers. George Meany, the president of the AFL-CIO, was outraged and rarely mentioned Brennan's name or spoke to him again during Brennan's tenure in office.[2][19]

Under Brennan, the

Nixon administration supported and Congress passed legislation to protect worker pensions, expand workplace rights of the disabled, improve enforcement of occupational safety and health laws, and improve benefits for workers left jobless by changes in international trade.[2][20]

Brennan also stalled on affirmative action plans in the building industry, especially the New York Plan.[citation needed] By August 1972, only 534 minority workers had received training, and only 34 had received union cards under the New York Plan. In 1973, John Lindsay, who had become a Democrat, withdrew from the New York Plan and set a new objective to increase minority representation in the building trades to 25%.

In response, Brennan issued a directive forbidding local authorities from exceeding the requirements of approved hometown plans and required states and cities to obtain the approval of the Secretary of Labor for plans affecting federal contracts.[21] Furthermore, he froze federal funding for all building work in New York City until the city returned to the New York Plan.[22] The federal government won the ensuing legal battle, and New York City's fiscal crisis meant that it had to abandon its affirmative action plans.[23]

The Watergate crisis meant that the Nixon administration was unable to do much other than focus on survival. Brennan was unable to develop new initiatives during Nixon's truncated second term.

President Gerald Ford instituted a general housecleaning among Cabinet officers, and asked Brennan to resign. Brennan did so on February 6, 1975, leaving in March. Ford offered to nominate Brennan to be ambassador to Ireland, but Brennan declined the offer.[2][24]

Later years

Peter Brennan returned to his union position in March 1975 and retired in 1992.[2][25] Brennan succeeded in negotiating wages rises and expanding training and job opportunities.[2] Civil rights advocates criticized him for not having taken enough action against the discrimination of Black and Hispanic workers by the building unions; Brennan defended himself arguing that it had not been possible to act faster due to the resistance of the traditionally white construction trades.[2]

Brennan died of

Saint Charles Cemetery in Farmingdale, Long Island, New York
.

See also

  • Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO

References

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Fink, Biographical Dictionary of American Labor, 1984.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q McFadden, "Peter Brennan, 78, Union Head and Nixon's Labor Chief," New York Times, October 4, 1996.
  3. ^ "Brennan to Head Building Council," New York Times, October 17, 1957.
  4. ^ "U.S. Department of Labor - Labor Hall of Fame - Peter J. Brennan". Archived from the original on 2009-05-10. Retrieved 2009-05-28.
  5. ^ a b c Palladino, Skilled Hands, Strong Spirits: A Century of Building Trades History, 2005.
  6. ^ Kifner, "4 Kent State Students Killed by Troops," New York Times, May 5, 1970.
  7. ^ a b c d e Foner, U.S. Labor and the Vietnam War, 1989.
  8. ^ a b c d e f Freeman, "Hardhats: Construction Workers, Manliness, and the 1970 Pro-War Demonstrations," Journal of Social History, Summer 1993.
  9. ^ Perlmutter, "Head of Building Trades Unions Here Says Response Favors Friday's Action," New York Times, May 12, 1970.
  10. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved 2020-05-13.
  11. ^ Bigart, "War Foes Here Attacked By Construction Workers," New York Times, May 9, 1970.
  12. ^ Bigart, "Huge City Hall Rally Backs Nixon's Indochina Policies," New York Times, May 21, 1970.
  13. ^ Semple, "Nixon Meets Heads Of 2 City Unions," New York Times, May 27, 1970.
  14. ^ Stetson, "Brennan Reports Labor Leaders Favoring Nixon Are Organizing," New York Times, September 9, 1972; Stetson, "200 Labor Chiefs in City Form Nixon Committee," New York Times, September 28, 1972.
  15. ^ a b Goulden, Meany, 1972; Robinson, George Meany and His Times, 1981.
  16. ^ Naughton, "Construction Union Chief in New York Is Chosen to Succeed Hodgson," New York Times, November 30, 1972; Shabecoff, "Brennan Choice Called Political Move," New York Times, December 1, 1972.
  17. ^ Kutler, The Wars of Watergate, paperback ed., 1990.
  18. ^ Stetson, "He Wants Wage Controls Ended and Unrestricted Bargaining Resumed," New York Times, November 30, 1972.
  19. ^ Shabecoff, "$230 Wage Base By '76 Proposed," New York Times, April 11, 1973; Shabecoff, "Nixon Defends Brennan In Minimum-Wage Dispute," New York Times, April 17, 1973.
  20. ^ "Brennan Is Reactivating Unit on Labor Training," New York Times, July 28, 1974; Herbers, "Ford Signs Bills to Spur New Jobs And Expand Unemployment Benefits," New York Times, January 1, 1975; Asbury, "Pension Controls Ease as U.S. Law Takes Effect," New York Times, January 1, 1975.
  21. ^ Delaney, Paul. "U.S. Set to Restrict State Hiring Plans." New York Times. June 24, 1973.
  22. ^ Johnson, "City Sees Threat In Brennan Memo," New York Times, August 21, 1973.
  23. ^ Farrell, "NAACP to Fight U.S. Hiring Order," New York Times, September 23, 1973.
  24. ^ "Brennan Is Slated as Envoy to Ireland," New York Times, January 3, 1975; "Labor Secretary Resigns His Post," Associated Press, February 7, 1975.
  25. ^ Perlmutter, "Brennan Seeks Old Post, But He Faces Opposition," New York Times, March 2, 1975.

External links

Political offices
Preceded by U.S. Secretary of Labor
Served under: Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford
1973—1975 		Succeeded by
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