Peter J. Brennan Totally Explained

Everything about Peter J Brennan totally explained

Peter Joseph Brennan (May 24, 1918 - October 2, 1996) was United States Secretary of Labor under Presidents Nixon and Ford. He served between February 2, 1973 and March 15, 1975. Brennan had previously been the president of both the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York and the Building and Construction Trades Council of New York, and returned to the former position after leaving the Ford administration. He was a strong opponent of affirmative action measures to increase the number of minority construction workers. Following the "Hard Hat riot" of May 8, 1970, 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.

Early career

Peter Brennan was born in New York City in 1918. His father was an ironworker who died from influenza when Brennan was three. He graduated from Commerce High School, then received a 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. He also served as the vice president of the New York City Central Labor Council and the New York State AFL-CIO.
   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. 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. It is generally believed that the action by construction workers wasn't premeditated. However, many left-wing organizations claim that Peter Brennan provoked the construction workers into action. The disturbances on May 8 became known as the Hard Hat Riot.
   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.
   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 U.S. were invited to a Labor Day dinner.
   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 wasn't 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. Colson recruited Brennan for the post of Labor Secretary days after the November election. In a three-hour meeting, Colson told Brennan that he'd have to defend unpopular administration policies, abide by administration policy decisions, and keep Labor Department officials from investigating 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 so long as they'd provide 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. The Senate confirmed him, and Brennan assumed office on February 2, 1973. But once in office, Brennan promoted a plan which would 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.
   Under Brennan, the Nixon administration supported and Congress passed legislation which protected worker pensions, expanded the workplace rights of the disabled, improved enforcement of occupational safety and health laws, and improved benefits for workers left jobless by changes in international trade.
   Brennan also stalled 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.
   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. He offered to nominate Brennan to be ambassador to Ireland, but Brennan refused.

Later years

Peter Brennan returned to his union position in March 1975 and retired in 1992. By then, 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 percent as compared to 45 percent of the population.
Brennan died of lymphatic cancer in 1996 at his daughter's home in Massapequa, New York. He was interred in Saint Charles Cemetery in Farmingdale, Long Island, New York.

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