Sisters and brothers, we're writing to you together this month to mark an important milestone in this pandemic: the reopening of our cities and the resurgence of communities and our economy.

Now, for many of you who have been working as usual throughout the last year, this may not seem like much of an occasion. You've been doing the hard work of keeping the lights on and the water and gas flowing. As leaders in the IBEW, we're so proud to represent each and every one of you.

We're proud of the way you kept the construction sites humming and the manufacturing lines and railcars turning out products and getting them to people who needed them. We're proud of our telecom members who kept us connected, our broadcast members who kept us informed and our government members who performed key national security and other important work throughout this pandemic.

The U.S. and Canada would be dramatically different places today if not for your personal sacrifices and your dedication to your work. So, thank you to each and every one of you for all that you've done and continue to do.

Thank you, also, for taking care of one another.

We've talked in these pages recently about being one another's keeper, about looking out for your union sisters and brothers and about your responsibilities to each other. Over the last year, that's meant wearing masks and socially distancing to minimize the spread of COVID-19, and you've risen to that challenge and done the right thing by your co-workers, your families and your employers.

But now that summer's here in full force, we know masks are hot and uncomfortable and no one wants another summer like last year's where extra PPE and worksite restrictions were required to safely do our jobs. And there's good news on that front as well.

More than 140 million Americans have been fully vaccinated. More than 20 million Canadians, too. Worldwide, more than 500 million people are now fully protected against this horrible virus and more than 2 billion shots have gone into arms.

Back in January, the front-page story in this paper was about the critical work IBEW members have done and continue to do to develop and manufacture these life-saving vaccines.

From Silicon Valley to Boston, St. Louis to Kalamazoo, Mich., IBEW members have been a critical part of the research, production and distribution of these vaccines.

Your fellow members have built the labs, wired the production lines and installed the freezers that make storage and distribution possible. Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson simply could not have made this medical miracle happen without the men and women of the skilled trades, including the IBEW.

Now, it's almost over. We can see the end in sight. As vaccination rates tick higher, the world economy is set to go off like a rocket ship. Demand for workers is already off the charts, and wages are up as a result of that.

Our industries are going to benefit greatly, and we're ready here at the IBEW to meet those manpower challenges head-on.

In the U.S., we're excited about the possibility of a long-promised infrastructure plan that will put hundreds of thousands of you to work creating the transportation and energy distribution systems of the future, and we're working hard to make sure it's not held up by politicians who would rather give tax cuts to billionaires than invest in working families.

We'll need your help to make that happen, and we'll keep asking you to call your senators and demand action on the American Jobs Plan.

We're excited about travel returning and the border restrictions that have kept us from seeing many of our Canadian brothers and sisters for so long being eased.

And we're looking forward to being able to safely hold our 40th International Convention in-person next year in Chicago.

There's so much to look forward to after the year we've had, and we hope as more people are vaccinated and it's safe to do so that you all take advantage of the benefits of your contracts and take time off to reconnect with friends and family that you've been unable to see the past 16 months.

In the meantime, please keep following your own state, provincial and community guidelines off the job and your employer and worksite rules on the job. It's important that we don't let the encouraging news distract us from driving this virus from our communities for good.

Thank you for all that you do for the IBEW, for your communities and your countries. We're proud to call you our sisters and brothers.