In 1919, the fifteenth biennial convention of the IBEW did several significant actions which were beneficial to our welfare. Referendum votes of the membership in 1918 made actions of the convention final, unless the convention referred a matter to the membership for a vote. The telephone operators were established into their own division since 1913 they called a strike in Boston in 1919 which shut down telephone service in the area for a week. It was successful , as was Boston's own Julia Garfield O'Connor, who was named to head the new telephone operators department. Conditions earned by the strike in Boston would subsequently affect the operators' working conditions nationwide.

The convention also resolved to establish an International Strike Fund. The fund was put into effect on January 1, 1920 and was financed by collecting 14 cents per month from each member and collecting half of all new initiation fees to finance the fund.

This was a popular issue with the IBEW membership, but a prolonged strike on the railroads in 1922 exhausted the fund and it was eliminated in the 1927 convention.

The 1919 convention will be long remembered for a great step in labor-management relations in that it approved the Declaration of Principles, by which the Council on Industrial Relations was created. The Council was actually set up in 1920 with the same provisions which prevail today - equal representation by employer and union; dispute cases submitted voluntarily by both parties; and all decisions of the Council unanimous.

The convention authorized the bonding of financial officers of all local unions, through the International Office, giving protection to local union funds. Local 103 lost a true and loyal friend at this convention when President Frank McNulty resigned. He was replaced by James P. Noonan. The delegates to the 1919 convention endorsed the candidacy of Local 103 Business Agent, Jack Smith, to the position of International Vice-President. In those days, the recommendation of the convention had to be endorsed by local union. Jack was installed I.V.P. in January 1920. Jack Fennell replaced Smith as Business Agent and worked with Jack Queeney until the 1920 election. Fennell also held the office of Financial Secretary at this time, but it was not a full time permanent job until the 1920 election.