Early Life and Union Career
I.W. Abel was born in Magnolia, Ohio, in 1908, to John Franklin Abel, a German blacksmith, and Mary Ann (née Jones) Abel, the daughter of a Welsh coal miner. He attended local public school and graduated from Magnolia High School in 1925.
He attended college at Canton Actual Business College in Canton, Ohio, but did not graduate.
In 1925 he worked as a molder for the American Sheet and Tin Plate Company (now U.S. Steel) in Canton. He switched jobs often, finding employment at the Canton Malleable Iron Company, the Timken Roller Bearing Company and the Colonial Foundry.
Abel married Bernice Joseph in 1930. The couple had three children. Bernice Abel died in 1982, and Abel married Martha Turvey a few years later.
Laid off due to the Great Depression, Abel worked at a brickmaking company loading a kiln at less than a quarter his former pay. Convinced that a union would have protected him from losing his job, he became active in the American labor movement.
In 1936, Abel found work again at Timken Roller Bearing and with the assistance of the Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC) organized Steel Workers Local 1123. He remained a member of the local until his death. He proved an effective and strong negotiator and union president, and in one year alone led 42 wildcat strikes.
Abel was an active participant in the Little Steel strike in 1937. His skilled leadership during the strike brought him to the attention of national SWOC officers and staff.
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