How Will 'Wave' Election Affect Workers?

Nov. results spawn electoral divide

Workers hope to avoid the squeeze

How to get involved

Jobs: A Good Investment

How NOT to Cut
the Deficit

Fla. school trains future members

September 2010 Executive Council Meeting

North of 49°
Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro Project in the Works

Au nord du 49° parallèle
Le Nouveau Complexe Hydroélectrique de
Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador en Préparation!

From city councils to the U.S. Senate, newly elected officials across the country take office this month in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. And while corporate America has restored its profit margins to pre-recession levels, working Americans continue to feel the pinch, battered by job losses, declining wages and rising health care costs.

Unemployment still hovers near 10 percent, with more than 15 million people out of work. And those are only the official numbers. The number of workers who have been unemployed for six months or more keeps rising, hitting 6.3 million in December—a new record.

For IBEW members in the construction branch, the numbers are even worse, running closer to 20 percent nationwide and more than double that in some particulary hard-hit regions.

America's No. 1 priority in the midterm elections was made clear in poll after poll: jobs, jobs, jobs.

That means every elected official has a mandate to cut through the partisanship to focus on jumpstarting the economy and getting America back to work.

There is a heated debate going on—from kitchen tables to state houses up to Capitol Hill—about what our country's priorities must be. Some lawmakers say that high levels of unemployment are here to stay. They say we need to focus on cutting programs like Social Security and Medicaid and hope that more tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans will do the trick. Some want to take away our right to a decent wage and freedom to join a union, driving down working standards even
further.

Hold the Tightwads Accountable

Scholarship Established
in Memory of Apprentice;
Labor Communicators Award IBEW Video,
Social Media;
Remembering an Organizing Pioneer

The Real Problem;
A Man's World?

Donna Hansen

On Second Tour, Ohio Veteran Sees Progress
in Iraq;
Ontario Member Joins Afghanistan Peacekeeping Force

November 2010

Union Leader Program Mentors Next Generation of IBEW Activists