Mediation and Conciliation Service was called in to mediate the dispute. The strike received front-page coverage in The Washington Post. AFL officials denounced the strike, calling it an illegal wildcat strike. Deputy Secretary of Labor Daniel W. Tracy (president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers from 1933 to 1940), and BCTD President John P. Coyne personally intervened in the negotiations to bring them to a swift conclusion. The strike ended on August 8 after a special representative from National Defense Advisory Commissioner Sidney Hillman also intervened. In the past, the carpenters performed 50 percent of all acoustic tile work, with the bricklayers and plasterers installing 25 percent of the tile. Under the new agreement, the three unions shared equally in the work. Because the acoustic tile wasn't due to be installed yet, the strike created no real delay in the work. A fourth jurisdictional dispute also threatened to disrupt work at the site. Bricklayers and glaziers both wanted to install structural glass in each building's lavatories. But, to the relief of federal officials, no strike ever occurred. Completion The Railroad Retirement Board Building was completed on September 15, 1940. Three floors of the Social Security Administration Building were finished on October 1, and the rest of the structure on November 1. The total cost of construction for both was $14.25 million. Due to the large number of employees to be housed in the two structures, more than 1,800 telephone lines had to be installed. To accommodate the lines, the Department of War had to have its own telephone exchange (REpublic 6700) assigned to it for the first time. The two buildings were joined by a tunnel, and each had special loading docks to speed deliveries to them. To air condition the buildings, seven cooling units were purchased from the Carrier Corporation and installed on-site. The two buildings were among the first in buildings in the District of Columbia to feature air conditioning, acoustic ceiling tile, and fluorescent lighting. The Quartermaster Corps occupied the Railroad Retirement Board Building on October 2, 1940, and the Corps of Engineers moved into its quarters in December 1940. After the end of World War II, the Railroad Retirement Board Building was turned over to the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. The building was colloquially known as "HEW-South". Renaming On October 16, 1971, Mary E. Switzer died. Switzer became director of the