The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers is one of the most progressive unions in existence today representing some 775,000 members.
Involved in the leading edge of technology, IBEW members serve the nation by helping to keep us warm in the winter and cool in the summer. IBEW utility members from all over the country battle some of the most adverse weather conditions to insure that people have heat and electricity. In fact, it’s almost impossible not see the results daily of IBEW members at work.
In the Utility Industry, the IBEW represents linemen, groundsmen, repairmen, machine operators, watch engineers, boiler operators, turbine operators, switchboard operators and dispatchers. And of course there are the radio dispatchers, meter installers, testers, clerical workers, cable splicers and welders; all doing their job so that we may have electricity in our homes.
The IBEW represents thousands of people in the Gas Industry from clerical workers to the employees involved in the transmission, distribution and maintenance of gas lines for heat and other uses. They provide gas safely to our homes and businesses.
Inside Wiremen install the electrical systems in residential, commercial and industrial buildings. It requires five years of apprenticeship and on the job training for someone to call themselves an IBEW Inside Wireman, insuring that your home, office or workplace is a safer place to be when the work has been "union installed." Our members have been trained to read blueprints and to install and service complicated electrical equipment from small voltages to high voltages, not leaving you with "loose connections," one of the leading causes of home and industrial electrical fires.
The advancements in personal computers, integrated systems and fiber optics have skyrocketed the growth for the Sound and Communications Systems Technicians in the IBEW.
This work is “state of the art” to the Telecommunications Industry, being installed and maintained by IBEW members through guidelines adopted by BICSI (Building Industry Consulting Service, International) and the curriculum of our NJATC (National Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee), to promote standardization through education. Information Systems Managers are now pushing the limits of design/build networks, because IBEW trained and certified technicians guarantee their systems to work right the “first time.” This new trade is evolving into the fastest, most diversified, and powerful industry ever recorded. The current demand of trained technicians has boomed ten times over, making the need for more certified technicians in the field a necessity for the IBEW. The sound and communications systems technicians are providing the vehicle of transportation into the new Millennium.
The next time you relax at home in front of the television, stop for a moment and remember the workers who made America's favorite pastime possible. IBEW Communication Workers work behind the scenes to insure that your television is there for you. In a field of continuing changes in technologies, IBEW members stay on top. Cable Television uses thousands of IBEW members in the installation, maintenance and operations of television delivery systems.
If you talked to one of your friends today over the phone, chances are IBEW members were involved in seeing that it was possible. The greatest communication system in the world is no accident. IBEW members have been there from the beginning; erecting poles, stringing lines, and bringing the world into your home. From Ma Bell to the hand held cordless phones, IBEW members have been there doing quality work. Stop for a moment and consider the telephone linemen, cable splicers, station installers, plant engineers, draftsmen and all the other IBEW members who are out there helping the next time you place a call to your friend who lives several miles away.
Yes, the IBEW is proud.
We are proud of our record of achievements, both individually and collectively. But we can't stop until all workers are given a chance to bargain collectively for better wages and better working conditions without the fear of losing their jobs or the security that they worked so hard for. If you would like to "be union" or to help unionize the place where you work, contact the IBEW.
We can show you how and we can help you.
The only qualifications you have to have is to be interested in making your world a better place to live and having a voice in your own future and then be willing to do something about it.
The preamble to our IBEW Constitution says it all.
Our purpose is:
- To organize all workers in the entire electrical industry in the United States and Canada, including all those in public utilities and electrical manufacturing, into local unions,
- To promote reasonable methods of work,
- To cultivate feelings of friendship among those of our industry,
- To settle all disputes between employers and employees by arbitration (if possible),
- To assist each other in sickness or distress,
- To secure employment,
- To reduce the hours of daily labor,
- To secure adequate pay for our work,
- To seek a higher and higher standard of living,
- To seek security for the individual,
- And by legal and proper means to elevate the moral, intellectual and social conditions of our members, their families and dependents, in the interest of a higher standard of citizenship.
So, what is a Union?
It is an organization of workers joined together for a common purpose, for mutual aid and protection, to engage in concerted activity and collective bargaining, to elevate their conditions of life and labor; an organization by which ordinary people do extraordinary things.
Thousands of workers across the U.S. and Canada belong to the IBEW. Together, we strive to improve ourselves knowing that together we are strong. We think we are better off for being in one of the most respected unions in existence today, the IBEW.
For more information, call any one of the local unions of the IBEW. You will find someone there more than happy to speak with you.
ORGANIZING THE UNREPRESENTED ~ OUR FIRST PRIORITY
Organizing into trade, industrial, and service unions became a legal right when the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) originally passed in 1935.
Long before the NLRA, the IBEW began with the efforts of a small group of linemen who gathered together in 1891 to form the National Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. These individuals traveled across the United States and helped electrical workers everywhere to form local unions and become members of the NBEW. This heritage of organizing built the NBEW and continued until the organization grew outside the United States into Canada when it became the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). The IBEW began before there was a law to protect a worker's right to join, assist, or form a union. Since the National Labor Relations Act passed and provided that right, the Union has grown to nearly one million members.
The very foundation of the IBEW is anchored in organizing and is defined in the instrument that makes the organization a democracy, its Constitution. The IBEW Constitution has slowly evolved over one hundred and twenty-seven years. During that time, the basic philosophy upon which it was written has not changed.
Whether you work in the Construction Industry or in a Professional or Industrial type of job, the IBEW is where you will find dignity and respect in your workplace!