A Win for Workers
Unions Help Restore Working Families' Voice
to Congress

BP Turns to IBEW
Code of Excellence Key
to Keeping Refinery Work
in Indiana

Women Build Nations
IBEW Tradeswomen Find Solidarity in Numbers at Annual Conference

North of 49°
Support the Campaign
for 'Lineworker
Appreciation Day'

Au nord du 49° parallèle
Appuyez la campagne pour la « Journée nationale de reconnaissance des monteurs de lignes »

PBF Summary Annual Report

NEAP Benefit Notice

NEAP Summary
Annual Report

After the Storm:
IBEW on the Front Lines
of Recovery

The most powerful hurricane to make landfall in the Florida Panhandle in at least 150 years smashed houses, sent a storm surge dozens of miles inland, tore up thousands of trees and cut power to an estimated 2.6 million customers. At least 39 people were killed, but weeks after Hurricane Michael's Oct. 10 landfall, dozens of people were still missing, and the ultimate toll may never be known.

From all across the state and country, tens of thousands of IBEW lineworkers staged safely outside the heart of the storm, waiting to enter what Florida Power and Light System Council 4 Business Manager Gary Aleknavich called "the devastation."

The Edison Electric Institute said that more than 35,000 lineworkers and tree-trimmers from more than 25 states were sent to Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Virginia and the Carolinas. Many were there for weeks, living in "tent" cities, trailers and, for some, the cabs of their bucket trucks.

"Hurricane Michael — like Florence earlier this year and wildfires in California — asked a lot of the men and women of the IBEW, but I'm happy to report we rose to the challenge, as we always have before," said International President Lonnie R. Stephenson. "I couldn't be more proud of the lineworkers and tree-trimmers who rode into the storm to do their jobs, and I know members from all of our branches will be heavily involved in the recovery effort going forward."

Hurricane Michael made landfall as a near-Category 5 storm with sustained 155-mph winds, stronger than Hurricanes Katrina or Andrew, and far stronger than Florence, which caused more than $45 billion in damage earlier this year. Only the so-called Labor Day hurricane of 1935 and Camille in 1969, when they came ashore, registered a lower barometric pressure, the most accurate way to determine the total power of a storm.

Hurricanes get their power from warm water and tend to weaken when they hit land, but the National Weather Service said this was not the case with Michael and issued an extraordinary extreme wind warning including an all-caps message calling the situation "extremely dangerous and life-threatening."

Stephenson:
On the Front Lines
Cooper:
Agenda for Change

Robert Corraro;
John Faria;
Fernando Huerta;
John "Jack" Kearney

Political Leaders Urge WUSA-9 to Bargain in
Good Faith;
San Jose Local Gives Flyers an Energizing Eyefull

Happy Holidays;
Electchester's Origins;
Facebook Responses

October 2018

Nebraska Wireman Wraps Up an 89-Year Career