High-voltage line work comes with more than its fair share of dangers, from shocks and falls to hazardous underground conditions. But when IBEW lineworkers are up in buckets or working below street-level, they depend on professional flaggers to keep them safe from a lesser-known, but no less dangerous hazard: traffic. More often than not, however, the men and women working on the roadways aren't protected by a union like the men and women they're there to keep safe.

That's changing, and for a few dozen men and women in West Virginia who work for Area Wide Protective, it's already making their jobs safer and improving their quality of life. Working with Charleston Local 978 and the IBEW's Fourth District, the AWP flaggers from the Huntington and Parkersburg offices voted in March to join the IBEW, and first contract negotiations are underway.

"Their working conditions can be horrible," said Fourth District Lead Organizer Dale McCray. Just like lineworkers, flaggers are on the job in every type of weather. They typically understand what they're signing up for when they apply for these jobs, he said, but it can be very tough, dangerous work.

AWP, which has 60 offices in 20 states across the eastern U.S., provides traffic-management services to support a variety of infrastructure and utility projects. Members of Local 978, which primarily represents American Electric Power lineworkers in the Mountain State and southwestern Virginia, are well-acquainted with the role AWP's flaggers play in keeping IBEW members safe.

"Their main issues were job security and the relatively low pay," said Local 978 Business Manager Jim Richards. Right now, hourly rates typically start around $10 an hour, he said, which is not much more than some folks could make working at a fast-food restaurant or a big box store. "The turnover rate was 50% annually. Terribly bad."

The two offices' service area covers the counties roughly north of Interstate 64 and west of Interstate 79, up to the top of the state's northern panhandle. They also serve nearby portions of Ohio and Kentucky, and McCray noted that Local 978 had received lots of support from nearby IBEW locals, including Huntington, W.Va., Local 317, Parkersburg, W.Va., Local 968, and Marietta, Ohio, Local 972, which is across the Ohio River from Parkersburg.

With such a large coverage area, and depending on a given day's location, Richards said, workers might be forced to drive two or three hours just to get to work. That trip also might include a required detour to pick up co-workers who don't have access to reliable transportation. The fact that these long, required trips went uncompensated, he said, helped motivate the workers seeking IBEW representation.

"Things got rolling when someone at one of the offices contacted the IBEW via the website," said Regional Organizing Coordinator Bert McDermitt. "They reached out to us and we started interacting with them." That was two years ago, the start of an often-contentious battle to bring new members into the union.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, AWP first brought in a union-busting firm out of Ohio, McCray said. Then it deployed an even larger, more expensive California-based company that boasted leadership by a former NLRB member.

That first vote, an onsite election, was an "absolute disaster," McCray said. "AWP violated every rule in the book."

"We lost that election," McDermitt said. "During the ballot count, they tried to get the vote thrown out, and then they actually fired every supporter we had." Immediately, the IBEW filed unfair labor practices charges with the National Labor Relations Board.

McCray noted that, although the national-level NLRB didn't exactly have a reputation for worker-friendliness over the last few years, the career employees out of the nearby regional offices were easier and more reasonable to work with. As a result, the IBEW was able to reach a settlement with AWP, and the NLRB ordered the company to allow a new election to be held.

But AWP's notoriously high turnover rate further threatened the IBEW's chances for success. "Between the first election and the second, half of the employees were gone," McCray said. Even so, "the older employees that stuck around realized AWP didn't keep their promises. They saw that the company didn't seem to care."

There were a few positive outcomes that helped keep spirits high among organizers and supporters. "One guy started out dead set against unionizing," McDermitt said. "When he saw how he and his fellow workers were being treated, he became a true believer. That helped our cause."

In the second vote, notably only 26 of the 60 eligible workers from the Huntington and Parkersburg shops cast ballots, a result of the company's intimidation tactics. Nevertheless, of those 26 men and women, 20 voted to join the IBEW, and that's all it took.

All of this has been happening in a state where, after a prolonged legal battle went all the way to the state's Supreme Court, a right-to-work law officially took effect in 2019. Three years earlier, the state's Legislature also repealed the prevailing wage laws that for decades had helped set a fair standard of pay and benefits for contractors and workers in line with what local businesses normally would provide for similar private-sector work.

Surprisingly, Gov. Jim Justice, in a virtual town hall meeting in February shortly after the start of his second term, admitted that neither of those moves have done anything to help the state's economy or its workers.

"We passed the right-to-work law in West Virginia," said Justice, who was elected as a Democrat in 2016 but switched his affiliation to the Republican Party a year later. "And we ran to the windows looking to see all the people that were going to come — and they didn't come. We got rid of prevailing wage. We changed our corporate taxes and we've done a lot of different things. And we've run to the windows and they haven't come."

Now, the hard work of hammering out a first contract is underway, and the IBEW recently filed a formal request with the NLRB to begin bargaining with AWP.

Richards, who was elected business manager just two years ago, said he'll lean on the help of experienced local leaders to guide things along. "I'm hoping bargaining will move quickly," he said, "to raise the pay and benefits of every worker at AWP and help improve their job security and safety."

The business manager also believes this could be the start of something good for the IBEW and for AWP employees across the Appalachian region and the U.S. "I feel like we'll be working to bring the protections of a union to workers at the state's other two AWP offices in Charleston and Beckley," he said, and that the union will work to expand efforts to flaggers in other offices, too.

The coronavirus pandemic has hit the tourism and hospitality industries particularly hard, leaving cities like New Orleans with sky-high unemployment rates among the women who make up the majority of workers in those sectors. But opportunities await those women in another field with higher wages and benefits to boot: construction.

"If someone doesn't know what they want to do in life, they should join the IBEW or any other apprenticeship," said New Orleans Local 130 apprentice Grace Kluesner in a webinar that accompanied the release of a report on women in construction in the New Orleans area. "Being paid to learn a skilled trade that you will use and profit from throughout your life is much better than trying to figure out what's next in a minimum wage job without good benefits or the skills to get you a better job."

The Institute for Women's Policy Research released a report earlier this year on the economic effects of COVID-19 in New Orleans, focusing on women, one of the hardest-hit demographics. In a city known for festivals, live music and a vibrant entertainment culture, the pandemic lockdown cut deep into the financial fabric of the city, and a lot of those cuts disproportionately affected women. According to the LA Workforce Commission, the New Orleans metro area lost close to 57,000 jobs in 2020, with over 40% concentrated in leisure and hospitality. The industry isn't expected to recover for several years.

A union construction job is good for anyone who can do the work, but it can be particularly beneficial for women, especially those who are the main breadwinners in their households. In New Orleans, that accounts for more than three-quarters of homes with dependent children.

"When women make smart choices to pursue high-demand, high-wage jobs, it's transformational," said Nunez Community College Chancellor Dr. Tina Tinney. "It not only changes the quality of her life, it changes the quality of her family's life, and it changes generations behind her."

The fact that women working in female-dominated industries make less than men in male-dominated fields isn't unique to New Orleans. IWPR reported that being a woman, especially a woman working in a female-dominated occupation compared to a man in a male-dominated occupation, is much more predictive of earnings than educational attainment. For those women who do enter the trades though, the payoffs are there, if at a cost.

"On a construction site, a woman stands out brighter than a 1000-watt metal halide lamp," said Janelle DeJan, a Local 130 member since 2001 who also participated in the webinar. "There was no switch for me to flip to turn off my skin color or gender so I had to just test the water one day at a time. But I'm very satisfied with my decision to step out of my comfort zone into a nontraditional career path."

While that path may not be common for women, it's not for lack of interest, says Kluesner. Women will stop her at the grocery store after work, while she's still in her boots with her safety glasses holding her hair back, and ask her what she does. One woman approached her outside a Walmart. Another actually entered the apprenticeship after Kluesner told her how.

"These women stopping me were interested enough to have a conversation with a complete stranger. How often does that happen?" Kluesner said. "And it wasn't until hearing that I also began with their same lack of knowledge and experience that they realized it was a real opportunity they could pursue too."

With typical "women's work" jobs predicted to recover slower than jobs in the skilled trades, it's a good time for women to consider a career change. But knowing where to look and what options are out there isn't necessarily straightforward.

IWPR noted that after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans adopted a charter school model to rebuild the public school system and in doing so eliminated career and technical education classes in favor of an emphasis on college preparation. Removing these opportunities can have real consequences for women. Kluesner herself says she was encouraged to take the college route, but eventually decided to pursue other opportunities.

"I quite literally Googled, 'How to be an electrician,'" said Kluesner, who works for Barnes Electric and will top out this October. "Here I am five years later, having grown in knowledge and character, hopefully, but also my bank account."

Kluesner was able to avoid racking up student loan debt while learning a trade that pays her a living wage, something that appeals to all kinds of people. But they have to get in the door. And they have to know that there is a door for them to open.

"So many men that I work with are electricians because they 'didn't know what else to do,' so they simply became a tradesman like their dads or other family members. For women, when we're unsure of what we want to do, working in the trades is not our, 'whatever, I'll just do this for the time being,' fallback option. But it could be! And it should be if the interest is there. Each woman I have met in the trades is here because we chose to be here. Not because we didn't know what else to do."

As for how to get more women to apprenticeships, IWPR recommended increasing high school programs and pre-apprenticeships, setting gender and diversity goals for public projects, and ensuring that women have the support they need, which includes addressing issues like childcare and reliable transportation as well as things like women's committees and anti-bullying training.

In 2000, when DeJan walked into the Local 130 office to apply for an apprenticeship, she knew she would be one of very few women in the classroom and on the job. But she did it because she believed the benefits would be worth it.

"I was willing to contend with being in the minority for the opportunity to receive equal pay, structured advancement from apprenticeship to journeyman status, and the ability to earn money while being trained," DeJan said. "I thought I was going to have to be strong and brace myself for the worst, but it turned out it wasn't nearly as bad as I imagined. My co-workers and the contractors I worked for always treated me with respect and equality."

That's because the IBEW fosters a strong dynamic between apprentices and journeymen, DeJan said.

"We were a team and my advancement was a reflection of their ability to train," said DeJan, who is now an electrical instructor with NOTEP, a local trade school that works with high school students and young adults interested in the trades. "Clear-cut expectations and standards of what makes a good apprentice and journeyman took precedence over gender."

DeJan says she's seeing more and more ads promoting women in the trades and the variety of opportunities that await them, especially in a place as historic as the Big Easy.

"New Orleans is a city that's 300 years old. We have a lot of historic buildings here. I love to get my students to think about what it took to build them, how they function to serve residents or businesses, and how long the buildings have endured," said the New Orleans native.

Unfortunately, despite the efforts of the IBEW and others to recruit and retain more women, Local 130 Business Manager Paul Zulli says some contractors still need to come around. Three of the local's largest contractors have a fitness for duty test that requires a person to lift 75 pounds in order to get hired, something women can struggle with.

"I am very disappointed that we do all we can to encourage women and high school girls to apply to our program only to have these contractors erect this unnecessary barrier," Zulli said. "We can bring them in and send them to school, but most can't go to work for those employers."

Zulli says the contractors who use the test claim it's to make sure their employees are healthy enough for the job, but only new hires are subjected to it.

"If they honestly cared about their employees, then everyone would have to take this test, but they don't," Zulli said. "As a former general foreman, we put our members on several different tasks based on their ability. We wouldn't put a member in a situation where they will be lifting materials, tools or equipment that would cause injury."

Such a questionable requirement doesn't just hurt women either. Zulli says it can also disqualify older members with years of experience. And if someone fails the test, they have to wait three months before they can take it again.

"What are these people supposed to do in the meantime? I have members who are looking to get out because they can't work for some of my biggest contractors, who have the most work to offer."

That work is going to have to be done by someone. IWPR noted that before the pandemic, construction, manufacturing, transportation and warehousing jobs were estimated to increase substantially by 2026. And the 2019 Greater New Orleans Jobs Report highlighted the need for a pipeline of workers for jobs in these fields, as they've grown more than four times as fast as overall employment in the region, leading to skilled worker shortages — which will likely only get worse once the aging workforce starts to retire. While the pandemic has slowed some projects, the Building Trades Council in New Orleans noted that, as of December 2020, there were no signs of retrenchment of major commercial construction projects.

There will always be people — women and men — who simply aren't cut out for a job as an electrician. As any member can attest, it's hard work. But if Kluesner and DeJan's stories are any indication, there are a lot of women and girls who can in fact do the work. And that helps them, their families and their communities, not to mention the trades.

"I love learning new things as an electrician," Kluesner said. "I was just telling my foreman that I think what I've learned from the IBEW apprenticeship, in skills and as a person, will take years to reveal and realize. I'm continuously learning new things each day that can be applied elsewhere and it builds my confidence and self-reliance."

For almost 20 years, members of St. Louis Local 1 have volunteered their time and skills to repair the homes of their low-income neighbors, and while the coronavirus put a pause on their efforts last year, they were out in full force this spring.

"It's a feel-good day," said Local 1 Financial Secretary Dave Roth, who has been heading up the effort for the last 10 years. "It's a great opportunity to be able to help your neighbors in need."

On a rainy Saturday in April, some 150 journeymen and apprentices, along with 22 signatory contractors, came out and teamed up to repair 15 homes in the St. Louis area. The effort is part of the work of the Electrical Connection, a partnership between the flagship IBEW local and the National Electrical Contractors Association. In collaboration with local nonprofit Rebuilding Together St. Louis, members provided much-needed repairs to the homes of residents including the disabled and the elderly, as well as veterans.

"While everyone has struggled during the pandemic with unprecedented challenges, it has been especially hard for those who do not have the means or ability to make home repairs themselves," said Local 1 Business Manager Frank Jacobs to area publication Construction Forum. "Our workforce and contractors believe it's important to help stabilize lives and communities, especially after such a challenging year."

For the apprentices who participate, they not only get to log some community service hours, they also get an education in working on what can be 100-year-old homes with outdated electrical wiring.

"Some of these homes still have old knob-and-tube wiring, which dates back to the turn of the last century," Roth said. "It's not something they're likely to see anywhere else in the field."

Another thing the volunteers get is the very real satisfaction of helping a person in need. A lot of the work that Local 1 members do is commercial, or it's work on new homes. While rewarding in itself, it doesn't necessarily come with the benefit of helping someone who may be on a fixed income or otherwise unable to afford the proper repairs: someone who could really use the help and might not get it otherwise.

"The people are really grateful. It's incredibly rewarding when you see someone's face light up after you've fixed their ceiling fan and they can finally feel that air on their face," Roth said. "That personal connection isn't something our members always get in the field. You don't get to touch the hearts of people in stress. These volunteer days are a benefit for our members as much as the people we're helping."

Repairs included installing new light fixtures, ceiling fans, switches, security and porch lights, and where needed, service changes and new lines.

"There's really nothing we won't tackle," Roth said. "We'll go to the bitter end."

Over the years, Local 1 and its signatories have provided over $800,000 worth of supplies and helped more than 500 families, reported local news station Fox 2, who came out to cover the event.

"It's good to see why we do what we do … keeping people safe, lighting up the neighborhood," J. West Electrical owner Sabrina Wesfall told Fox 2.

Roth says much of the work members end up doing is fixing the subpar work of the nonunion contractors who came before them.

"People have done some very dangerous things to people's homes," Roth said. "They're cutting and splicing old wires and they don't know what they're doing. In a way, we kind of get to show off that day by coming in and bringing everything up to code. We can show people what we're all about, and how we're a step above."

The annual volunteer day often brings out community leaders as well, including the mayor of St. Louis. For Local 1 though, it's all part of their year-round volunteer efforts. Members also work with churches and food pantries and wire all the Habitat for Humanity homes in the area.

"Local 1 makes giving back to our community a priority," said Business Representative Chris Clermont, who also helped with this year's efforts. "Rebuilding Together is just one of the many programs we're involved in that supports our communities."

Even the random person who calls the local, possibly from seeing members out in the community doing volunteer work, can count on help. Sometimes the Electrical Connection will pay for a journeyman who's between jobs to help. Sometimes it's Roth himself, like the time he helped a retired ironworker who had fallen on hard times and lost power.

"It stole my heart. I kept picturing that being my dad," Roth said. "I told him, 'you'll have power before I leave here.' And he did. He got his heat back."

It's that sense of community mixed with the ability to perform such an essential service that motivates so many members like Roth.

"It's kind of a treat to have a skill that provides so much to others. There's nothing better," Roth said. "Sometimes all you need is a pair of electrical pliers and a screwdriver, and you can change a person's life."

Dozens of IBEW members in southern Ohio are set to start working not only on what is being touted as the first utility-grade solar installation farm in the Buckeye State, but also on what Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley is calling the largest municipal solar array in the U.S.

The IBEW was well represented at the May 13 groundbreaking ceremony for developer Hecate Energy's New Market solar project, with Portsmouth, Ohio, Local 575 Business Manager Dan Shirey, whose jurisdiction covers the project site about an hour east of Cincinnati, on hand to mark the start of the important new green-energy project.

"We'll probably have 70 to 80 of our members on it at peak," said Shirey, whose local is coordinating with signatory contractor PayneCrest Electric to staff the project. Additional operations and maintenance jobs at New Market should provide work opportunities for Local 575 members for years to come, he said.

"There's been a history in the Midwest, and Ohio, of people taking our resources and not leaving much for us," said Mayor Cranley during the ceremony. "We owe it to our kids and grandkids to move to a cleaner future." Also there to show support for the project were representatives from developer Hecate Energy, Highland County, the local Chamber of Commerce and nearby landowners.

Hecate officials said that the company chose the New Market site based in part on studies by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which considers Ohio's southwestern region the sunniest part of the state. When the project is finished, the developers plan to connect it to a nearby transmission line substation owned by Dayton Power and Light.

Solar work is relatively new for Local 575, which historically has worked mainly in industrial settings, Shirey said — for example, at the Kenworth truck assembly plant in Chillicothe. But Shirey, who has provided public testimony in support of this and other nearby solar and wind projects, said he isn't worried about any manpower challenges when it comes to the construction of solar farms like the New Market project.

"We're excited to add some folks to the local," said Shirey, noting that work is being completed on a new training facility that will help prepare future generations of electrical workers for what lies ahead for them throughout southern Ohio.

But basically, he said, electrical is electrical. "It's not all that different in the long run from what we've been doing," he said. "Solar covers a lot of space, but it's the same types of cabling and high-voltage connections we do every day."

New Market's 310,000 photovoltaic panels, spanning an area roughly the size of 750 football fields, are expected to generate 203,000 megawatt-hours of energy a year, which ought to provide plenty of power to meet the needs of Cincinnati's various municipal services.

With most of New Market's generated power set to flow into Cincinnati Local 212's jurisdiction, Crum noted that Local 212 Business Manager Rick Fischer was instrumental in helping Local 575 gain access to a project labor agreement, locking in guarantees that New Market will be built using union workers, contractors and developers. The project's estimated $125 million cost is being covered by a 20-year power-purchasing contract between Hecate and the city of Cincinnati.

Crum said that many solar energy development companies like Hecate appreciate the availability of skilled, local union electrical workers that the IBEW provides, not to mention the state's payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) program, which allows a steady revenue from such projects to get reinvested in their local communities. In New Market's case, that should come to about $9,000 per generated megawatt per year going to help fund local government services such as schools and first responders over the life of the project. Weather permitting, the site should be fully operational by January.

"The New Market project sends a clear signal that the IBEW's concerted efforts toward finding more work for current and future union members is paying off," said Fourth District International Vice President Gina Cooper, whose jurisdiction includes Ohio as well as West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia.

"We're going after every project that we can," Crum added, noting that there are more than 30 major renewable energy projects before the Ohio Power Siting Board District right now. This has kept local and district officials from the IBEW busy, Crum said, attending dozens of community and public-input meetings.

Unfortunately, these other projects could be paused, if not outright stopped, if a pair of bills before the Ohio Legislature become law. The companion Senate Bill 52 and House Bill 118 aim to create additional, unnecessary hurdles for wind and solar projects throughout the state.

If enacted, these measures would grant vocal opposition groups within townships the power to vote down or force expensive modifications on future projects, even ones that already have completed the Ohio Power Siting Board's thorough — and expensive — project-approval process.

A 2020 study by Ohio University found that utility-scale solar projects in the state could generate nearly 55,000 construction jobs and over 600 operations and maintenance jobs. But IBEW members in Ohio are rightly concerned that if the companion bills become law, those projects could move to neighboring states, taking away potential opportunities from members.

The solar community, educators, the Ohio Farm Bureau, and chambers of commerce across the state are joining the IBEW to oppose the legislation, Crum said, and the union's fight against the measures is ongoing as legislative committees meet and hold hearings throughout the summer.

"We're trying to keep the locals educated about when meetings are and turning out the membership to show up and make our voices heard," Crum said. "We're trying to bring balance to the conversation, talking about jobs and family-sustaining wages and benefits, with the real potential for workers to take on one job after another over years-long careers."

Cooper urged all IBEW members in Ohio to call and write letters to their representatives in the Ohio Legislature to voice their opposition to SB 52 and HB 118. Members with questions should contact the Fourth District office at IVPD_04@ibew.org.