New Day in Washington
Biden Puts Union Members in Key Administration Positions

Still on Top
Despite COVID Changes,
Members Shine at National Electrical Championships

North of 49°
After Years of Work, Electrical Company's Employees Say 'Yes'
to the IBEW

Au nord du 49° parallèle
Après plusieurs années de travail, les employés d'une compagnie électrique disent « oui » à la FIOE

The IBEW's Historic Firsts

Michael Boxx

PBF Summary
Annual Report

A YEAR LIKE NO OTHER
IBEW Members Rise to Meet the
Challenges of COVID-19 at Work

For most of us, the pandemic of 2020 has transformed our lives. Commutes, gone. Offices, gone. Drop-offs at school, gone. Sadly, too often loved ones gone as well.

But one of the most remarkable aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic for the members of the IBEW was how often and how often we were called on to maintain stability and provide the foundation that kept life and the rest of the economy from collapsing.

For the last 12 months, our members have made it possible for millions of people to work and study from home. The data centers that made billions of video calls possible were built with our hands. The hospitals, permanent and temporary, were built with our hands. Overnight, the 100-year-old model of where and when power is consumed changed completely — offices never lit up, houses never went dark — and we handled it without skipping a beat.

Someone out there coined the term, "The International Brotherhood of Essential Workers," and it stuck.

It has been a full year since much of North America saw offices and schools shutter. For most of the members of the IBEW, work didn't stop. Our jobs changed. Policies changed. The people we work with changed along with the shape of daily life. But it was still our work, and we did it with pride and a renewed commitment to safety.

And we did the unhappy, necessary work at the darker edges of the pandemic. We built the field hospitals in parking lots and fairgrounds and convention centers. We wired the temporary morgues because it had to be done and we were the ones able to do it.

When work needed to be done, we stepped up. We slept in trailers on parking lots outside grid operation centers.

When we traveled hundreds of miles for mutual assistance work after hurricanes or major storms, we slept in our trucks. We ate alone.

We did it because our families depended on us. Our neighbors depended on us. We did it because it was our job.

Stephenson:
One of Our Own
Cooper:
A Year of Adversity

John A. Hunter;
John P. Widener Jr.

Biden Fires Union-Busting NLRB Lawyer, Names Pro-Worker Champion as Chair;
The First Energy Bill in Half a Generation Means IBEW Jobs, Now and in the Future;
House Members Announce Labor Caucus

IBEW Organizing Illinois' Growing Wind Energy Industry

TVA Ambassador Program Takes Code of Excellence to
the Next Level

Unions Make Ontario Jobsites Safer, Study Finds

Remembering a
Lost Brother

January 2021

Alabama Local Offers Opportunity, Hope to Forgotten Men