Members of IBEW's manufacturing branch have survived and thrived, even in the face of the loss of 6 million U.S. manufacturing jobs over the past decade. This is no small achievement for workers like those workers at SPX Transformers in Waukesha, Wis., featured in this issue of The Electrical Worker.

Our members, our signatory contractors and employers in construction and utilities are often in the market for transformers, electrical components, tools and devices that our own manufacturing members produce. Too often, however, we have failed to make it easier for them to buy IBEW and buy union.

No more. Our new website www.ibewmade.com is live. The site allows purchasers to view products made by our members and review their specifications.

Please look to IBEW-Made first before ordering equipment. It's part of union members looking out for each other. And it's part of not giving up on the need to strengthen and grow our nation's manufacturing sector, where too many bad trade deals and too many plant shutdowns have undermined our national economy.

While we continue to oppose trade deals like the Trans-Pacific partnership that have undermined our manufacturing base, we also know that a globalized economy is not going away. We need to build alliances with trade unionists overseas who are employed by the same corporations with whom we bargain at home.

That's why we invited a representative of IG Metall, Germany's largest metalworker's union, along with representatives of the IUE-CWA to this year's Broadcasting, Manufacturing and Telecom Conference. All of our unions represent members at Siemens, a global giant.

We pledged to work together to convince Siemens to stay neutral, rather than oppose organizing drives at their nonunion U.S. plants. And we traded notes with German unionists who have a major voice in their workplaces through workers' councils.

We are putting all of our union's resources behind supporting our manufacturing branch and reviving American manufacturing. We can start by buying IBEW-made products.

Also: Chilia: Messin' With Texas