Jobs for America's
Last Frontier
Biden Backs
Alaskan Project

Clearing a Path
for Organizing
VP Visits IBEW Local to Listen to Union Members

A Path to the Top
Detroiters Given Opportunity for Success in the Treetops

North of 49°
Manitoba Hydro Members End Successful Strike for a Fair Contract

Au nord du 49° parallèle
Les membres de Manitoba Hydro ont mis fin à une grève réussie

Dave Class

Restoring Lady Liberty

Building History:
IBEW Members Working to Modernize the Birthplace
of the Atom Bomb

The birthplace of the atomic bomb is getting a massive makeover, and an increasing number of IBEW members are on the way to help ensure that this much-needed upgrade is taking place safely and professionally.

Inside eastern Tennessee's Y-12 National Security Complex, a sister facility to its more widely known neighbor, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, researchers on the Manhattan Project enriched the uranium used in the atomic bombs deployed over Japan to bring an end to World War II in 1945.

IBEW members were there then, and they're still there nearly 80 years later, working at Y-12 and continuing to support its mission to prepare and store uranium for installation in modern warheads as well as for use in the reactors that power the U.S. Navy's nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers. Workers there also safely dismantle decommissioned weaponry and securely stow their nuclear payloads right on the site.

But eight decades can be a long time for any facility, a primary reason why the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration broke ground in 2018 on a replacement for the aging Y-12 complex: the multibillion-dollar, state-of-the-art Uranium Processing Facility, or UPF.

Since then, IBEW members in ever-growing ranks have been recruited not just to work on a significant national security project, but also to better understand the important work that's been happening for decades in the Volunteer State.

"It's a massive undertaking," said Tenth District International Vice President Brent Hall. "It says a lot about the IBEW that we've been able to staff this job so well."

By the end of 2021, upwards of 800 journeyman wiremen and apprentices are expected to be in place to help install more than 600 miles of wire and cabling throughout the buildings that make up the new facility.

Oak Ridge Local 270 Business Manager Daniel Smith says his members, who are charged with handling the entirety of the UPF's electrical construction, are ready for the coming influx of workers who will be working for the project's contractor, Consolidated Nuclear Security. "Everything's going in a really good direction," he said.

Stephenson:
A Stronger IBEW
Cooper:
Celebrating Our Freedom

Greg Logan;
Johnny Simpson;
Edward C. Troy

IBEW Mobilizing Helps Kill Right-to-Work in New Hampshire, for Now;
Illinois Moves Forward With Right-to-Work Ban;
Biden Budget Proposal Extends Lifeline to Existing Nuclear;
The Limits of Labor Law —
and How the PRO Act
Can Fix it

Statehouse Pioneers:
Oregon Legislative Aides First in U.S. to Unionize

Wisconsin Member Turns Pandemic Downtime
into Scholarship;
'Unusual' NRC Commissioner Puts Workers First;
Illinois Member's IBEW Training Helps Avert a
Crisis in Afghanistan

Making Our Kids Proud

June 2021

North Carolina Apprenticeship Director
Wins Statewide Award