Peter J. Brennan
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Peter Joseph Brennan (May 24, 1918 - October 2, 1996) was United States Secretary of Labor under President Nixon and President Ford. He served in that role between February 2, 1973 and March 15, 1975. Brennan had previously been the politically powerful President of both the New York City Building and Construction Trades Council and the New York Building and Construction Trades Council and returned to that position after leaving the Ford administration. He was a strong opponent of affirmative action measures to increase the number of construction workers from minority groups. Following the "hard hat riots" of 7 and 8 May 1970 by construction workers protesting the decision of New York City mayor John Lindsay to fly the American flag at half mast after the Kent State shootings, Brennan was wooed by the Nixon administration as a potential supporter in the 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.
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[edit] Early career
Peter Brennan was born in New York City in 1918. His father was an ironworker who died when he was three. After attending the College of the City of New York, he became an apprentice painter and joined Local 1456 of the Painter's Union.
During the Second World War, Brennan served in the Naval Reserve. Brennan's career as a union official started when he was elected as Business Manager of Local 1456 in 1947. In 1951, he became the Director of the New York Building Trades Council's Maintenance Division.
Brennan became the President of the New York City Building and Construction Trades Council in 1957 and the President of the New York (State) Construction Trades Council. He also served as the Vice President of the AFL-CIO in New York. These positions were influential both in the labour movement and politically. The Construction Trades Council represented 250,000 members from 18 locals and had close ties to New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller and leading politicians in New York City. During the 1960s, these unions were strong supporters of the Democrats delivering a strong vote to John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and Hubert Humphrey.
[edit] Affirmative Action
John Lindsay was elected as Mayor of New York City in 1965 as a liberal Republican pledging to take on interests including building and construction unions. In the late 1960s, a diverse coalition of business leaders, construction companies, 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 two per cent and had not changed since 1960. The coalition supporting reform thought that the low entry into the building trades increased building costs above the market rate and cost New York City millions 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. Peter Brennan was strongly opposed and promised to take action to rescind the order.
The Nixon Administration under Labor Secretary George Schultz announced the 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.
In February 1970, the Labor Department announced that it would support hometown 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 in New York City 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. George Schultz warned that the Federal Government would implement the Philadelphia Plan in 18 cities if a suitable hometown plan was not implemented shortly.
[edit] Hardhat Riots of May 1970 and support for President Nixon in 1972
On May 4, four students were shot dead at Kent State University in Ohio while protesting against the Vietnam War and the incursion into Cambodia. As a show of sympathy for the dead students, John Lindsay ordered the flags at City Hall to be flown at half mast.
Construction workers were outraged at what they perceived as an insult to the American flag and stormed the City Hall on May 7 to ensure that the flag was flown at what they considered to be the correct height. While doing so, they also beat up students and hippies while the police took no action. Student groups planned to hold a protest rally in Wall Street and the construction workers said that they would try to stop them, resulting in further violence on May 8. President Nixon had to hold an emergency press conference to defuse the situation before the students arrived in Washington for a protest rally.
It is generally believed that the action by construction workers was not premeditated. However, many left-wing organisations claim that Peter Brennan provoked the construction workers into action. The disturbances on May 7 and May 8, 1970 became known as the hardhat riots.
On May 26, 1970 Brennan led a delegation of 22 union leaders to meet with President Nixon and 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.
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. This would be a critical blow to the Democratic nominee for President, as labor was normally an essential part of the Democrat coalition.
Peter Brennan was granted a private audience with President Nixon on Labor Day when 70 labor leaders from across the US were invited to a Labor Day dinner. 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.
The labor movement was annoyed in 1971 when the Nixon administration introduced wage controls as part of a package to try to control inflation and suspended the Davis-Bacon Act, providing that construction workers on Federal projects receive union wages. Brennan accused the administration of treating the construction workers as patsies. Despite this setback, Brennan met with Nixon again in April 1971, where he offered to support his bid for re-election in return for the Federal Government adopting the New York Plan.
Peter 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. George 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.
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, Peter Brennan succeeded in having an audit of the New York Plan deferred until after the election.
[edit] Labor Secretary
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. This enabled Brennan to stall on affirmative action plans in the building industry, especially the New York Plan.
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, setting a new objective to increase minority representation in the building trades to twenty five per cent.
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. Furthermore, he froze federal funding for all building work in New York City until the city returned to the New York Plan. 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.
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 President Nixon's abbreviated second term. Brennan resigned as Secretary of Labor in March 1975 under President Ford.
[edit] Later years
Peter Brennan returned to his union positions in March 1975 and eventually retired in 1992. By that stage, construction unions under his leadership had lost over 100,000 members as non-union contractors began entering the market and dominating parts of it. The proportion of minorities in the New York building industry had risen to 19 % as compared to 45 % of the population.
Brennan died of lymphatic cancer in 1996 and was interred in Saint Charles Cemetery in Farmingdale, Long Island, New York.
[edit] Written References
- Stephen Ambrose, Nixon: the Triumph of a Politician 1962-1972, Simon & Schuster, 1989
[edit] External references
- American President.org page on Peter Brennan
- IWB Online article on Peter Brennan
- Find a Grave article on Peter Brennan
- Article of meeting between Nixon and Brennan after the hardhats riot
- Village Voice article on changing US labor movement approaches to wars
- U.S. Department of Labor Biography
| Preceded by James D. Hodgson |
U.S. Secretary of Labor 1973–1975 |
Succeeded by John T. Dunlop |
| United States Secretaries of Labor |  |
|---|---|
| Secretaries of Commerce & Labor (1903–1913): Cortelyou • Metcalf • Straus • Nagel
Secretaries of Labor (1913—): Wilson • Davis • Doak • Perkins • Schwellenbach • Tobin • Durkin • Mitchell • Goldberg • Wirtz • Shultz • Hodgson • Brennan • Dunlop • Usery • Marshall • Donovan • Brock • McLaughlin • Dole • Martin • Reich • Herman • Chao |
