December 2021
December Issue
John McEntagart sounds like a general— a decidedly cheerful one — as he reels off the who, where and how of feeding more than 1,000 people in Sonoma County on Thanksgiving.
Ed White doesn’t mind being the focal point of an event or project, especially if it brings attention to causes and organizations he cares about.
Tina Burd, like a lot of women in the building trades, isn't used to seeing other women on a job site. So it was a bit of a culture shock when she showed up to the area's first-ever "She Build" event where everyone on the crew was a woman.
Great union leaders aren’t born with the skills to rally working people, fight for fair contracts or navigate the challenges that come with leading large organizations. Those skills are learned over time, and an innovative approach to developing future leaders is helping to speed up the education process at Seattle Local 46.
Waldorf, Md., Local 1718's relationship with the Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative has had its ups and downs over the years, not dissimilar to many local utility unions. But Business Manager Rick Mattingly and others noticed the local's 270 members at SMECO were consistently getting hit hard by disciplinary issues.
Thanks to a new order from Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, prevailing wage has been reinstated on certain state-funded construction projects, a move that largely undoes a Republican-led repeal of the wage standard in 2018.
At an unprecedented roundtable with union leaders stung by NAFTA and other trade deals the past three decades, Secretary of State Antony Blinken pledged that new trade pacts and related foreign policy will help, not harm, American workers.
The 650 members of an independent union representing Puerto Rico's utility workers merged with Orlando, Fla., Local 222 in June, giving the IBEW a permanent presence on the island for the first time in decades.
November 2021
November Issue
All across Wisconsin, IBEW women are coming together in important ways, from recruitment and retention to leadership and visibility, and ultimately making the IBEW stronger for it.
Thanks to an unexpected nomination by one of its apprentices, Charleston, W. Va., Local 466 recently was honored by the Defense Department for its strong support of its military-serving members.
Three New England locals managed to avoid a strike and ratify a new contract with Consolidated Communications.
The "handshake for the century" has a new statue in Youngstown, Ohio, and Local 64 members helped make it happen.
Amanda Pratt recently became Kansas City, Mo., Local 53's first woman journeyman tree trimmer, but she won't be the last. Nor is she done taking on more roles.
On Sept. 15, Illinois Governor J. B. Pritzker signed into law the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, the culmination of nearly three years of intensive effort by members of the IBEW and other organizations to save hundreds of nuclear power plant jobs in the Land of Lincoln.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis recently signed legislation, some of it at Pueblo Local 12, that sets the stage for future labor-backed energy policy.
In the 130-year history of the IBEW, there has never been anything quite like the explosive growth of the data center business.
October 2021
October Issue
Federal employees had a difficult four years under the previous administration, from thinly veiled union-busting to unilateral removal of countless workplace protections. But things have been changing quickly under President Joe Biden. Continuing a trend of filling labor-related posts with experienced pro-worker nominees, Biden selected Susan Tsui Grundmann and Kurt Rumsfeld for seats on the Federal Labor Relations Authority.
The saying, "If you can't see it, you can't be it," could apply to many of the young people who come through Grace-Mar's doors when it comes to choosing a career. So, Charlotte, N.C., Local 379 is helping them to "see" themselves as union electricians.
In 2016, the IBEW’s International Convention unanimously passed Resolution 42, urging members not only to work on bringing more women into the union’s trades but also to ensure that, once they’re in, they get the proper mentorship and support they need to stay on the job.
The IBEW has had a productive relationship with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet since the Liberal Party swept into power six years ago.
Brian Bradley, business manager of Colorado Springs, Colorado, Local 113, was a natural choice to be featured on a recent episode of the Sportsman Channel’s “Brotherhood Outdoors” program.
Two years of historic progress for workers’ rights and the building trades in Virginia hangs in the balance as voters go to the polls over the next two weeks to decide between proven labor-friendly leaders and a hostile slate of opposing candidates.
Courtney Tillman envisioned a life of travel while growing up in northeastern Ohio, especially when she found how much she enjoyed studying foreign languages. She also saw an older sister dealing with college debt, so after graduation, she decided to enlist in the Navy.
Detroit’s Tree Trimming Academy recently graduated its first class of tree trimmers, providing much-needed talent in a high-demand field and a lucrative career opportunity for area residents.
President Joe Biden and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis had their eyes trained on Julian Aguilar as the Denver Local 68 journeyman wireman explained how he came to be standing at a podium on a dusty road fronting a solar array at the foot of the Flatirons.
Drivers rarely look as delighted behind the wheel as those who pulled into the parking lot of Portland, Ore., Local 48 on two sunny Sundays in July.
The COVID-19 vaccine is a modern medical miracle, the result of a decade of American-led research into mRNA vaccines and a half decade of research into SARS and coronaviruses. Its rollout was a bipartisan triumph, developed under a Republican president, distributed under a Democrat, and nearly every dose used in the United States was developed and produced in a facility built and maintained by the IBEW.
September 2021
September Issue
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.
Before the fun began with hammers and drills and simulated sections of wall, leaders at the Power Girls camp north of Minnesota’s Twin Cities had a question for journeywoman Jackie Bobick and her IBEW sisters.
Power poles were littered like matchsticks across the Bayou region, transmission lines destroyed, a million people without power.
The cost of declining union membership has been extraordinarily high for both union and nonunion workers, a new study found.
The Biden administration provided a lift to IBEW members and skilled construction workers in Alaska on May 26, when it filed a brief in federal district court defending the Willow gas and oil project on the state's North Slope.
Membership in the union electrical trade is often shared from one generation to the next. So is a passion for hunting, and on the next episode of Brotherhood Outdoors, Syracuse, N.Y., Local 43 member Dustin Morgan brings the two together.
IBEW International President Lonnie R. Stephenson issued the following statement on the 20th Anniversary of the Sept. 11th attacks.
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Local 2034 members are breathing easier since the end of their 9-week strike in May.
The Biden administration’s climate goals will be met only by expanding nuclear energy production, International President Lonnie R. Stephenson writes in an op-ed.
August 2021
August Issue
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.
When Springfield, Ill., Local 51 member Tim Burkhart, was deployed to Afghanistan he probably didn't think he'd be called on to use his IBEW training to save the day, but that's what happened.
Liz Shuler, a member of Portland, Ore., Local 125 who served as an executive assistant to former International President Edwin D. Hill, made history on Aug. 20 when she was named president of the AFL-CIO.
Illinois voters will have the chance to more permanently ban right-to-work laws when they go to the polls next year.
The balance of power at the National Labor Relations Board swung from union-busters to union lawyers in the span of an afternoon in late July when the U.S. Senate confirmed President Joe Biden’s two game-changing nominees.
President Joe Biden took his pitch for a massive investment in infrastructure and American labor directly to the workers July 21, touring the IBEW-NECA Electrical Training Center in Cincinnati to learn about what IBEW electricians do every day on the job.
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm left no doubt how impressed she was as she wrapped up a visit to Richmond, Va., Local 666’s training center last week as part of the White House agenda for infrastructure and good, union jobs.
Trailblazing aides at the Oregon Capitol voted overwhelmingly in May to form the nation’s first-ever legislative staff union, a victory that’s captured the attention of statehouse workers coast to coast.
After more than a decade of dedicated, tireless efforts to reach a negotiated agreement, Comcast technicians working in Fairhaven, Mass., agreed in February on a first contract between Middleboro, Mass., Local 2322 and the massive cable conglomerate.
July 2021
July Issue
Legislation to provide workplace protections against the coronavirus, as well as future outbreaks, has been signed into law in New York. It’s the first state to make such safeguards permanent.
Pablo Baxter knew nothing about unions five years ago when he looked into an apprenticeship with Madison, Wis., Local 159
Business Manager Mike Dunleavy had less than four days’ notice before Kamala Harris, Marty Walsh and an entourage of aides, media and Secret Service swept into Local 5’s headquarters in Pittsburgh the third Monday in June.
Michael Myers is a Boston Local 103 member who, over the last 30-plus years, has spent a lot of his spare time cycling. For him, it’s more than just a hobby.
Kamloops, British Columbia, Local 993 has been working for years to be more inclusive, and its efforts were recently recognized by the B.C. government with a Breaking Barriers award.
July 10, 2021 will mark the 125th anniversary of the death of the founder and first president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Henry Miller.
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.
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.
The story of the “Ellensburg 6” almost seems scripted for Hollywood. Almost.
June 2021
June Issue
America’s current labor law leaves much to be desired from the worker’s perspective, according to new research from the Economic Policy Institute. But there’s a way to fix it – if Congress decides to act.
Almost since its inception, the IBEW has been a family affair. Children have been following parents into the union trades for more than 100 years, chasing the same middle-class dreams that they grew up enjoying. But it’s not often that four children follow a parent into the profession.
President Joe Biden proposed the largest investment in American infrastructure since World War II at the end of March, introduced by Mike Fiore, a member of Pittsburgh Local 29. Four weeks later he renewed his call for the $2.3 trillion American Jobs Plan from the House floor, again with the IBEW at the heart of his pitch.
When the developers of a large solar farm in Ohio needed help getting a nonunion project finished, they turned to IBEW members from Cincinnati, where Local 212 stood ready to pick up the slack.
Following months of phone calls, emails and text messages from IBEW members in New Hampshire, Democrats and Republicans in the state’s House of Representatives voted last Thursday to reject yet another attempt to enact a so-called “right-to-work” law.
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.
May 2021
May Issue
The coronavirus has forced millions into unemployment, with many wondering what their next steps should — or even could — be. For two members of Hollywood, Calif., Local 40, the answer came right from their local union.
When Kamloops, British Columbia, Local 993 member Alison Klie got to the Royal Inland Hospital jobsite, she saw something very different from just about every other job she'd been to in her 10-year career: another woman.
When Donna Hammond was assigned a young apprentice who made a racist comment, she could have joined the calls for him to be punished, but she didn't. Instead, she did what she's always done in these circumstances. She educated him and she changed his mind.
Here is a sure sign summer is on the horizon: Entries are now being accepted for the 2021 IBEW Photo Contest.
Nearly 5 million Texans lost power Valentine's Day weekend, most for days as temperatures plunged to minus 2 degrees Fahrenheit in Dallas, colder than Anchorage, Alaska.
Sometimes the picture that wins the IBEW's annual photo contest captures a quiet moment. A portrait or a vivid sunset.
The twin smokestacks of Moss Landing power station have been a landmark on the Monterey Bay coast for more than 50 years. They tower over the bright green fields of artichokes and are visible from Santa Cruz to Monterey.
Long-shot efforts to roll back right-to-work laws in Michigan and Virginia aren't likely to level the playing field for working people this year, but a new study provides fresh ammunition for pro-union lawmakers in the fight for repeal.
Detroit Local 58 member Felicia Wiseman joined a diverse set of women who were featured recently in the Lifetime special, “Women Making History,” including Vice President Kamala Harris.
April 2021
April Issue
Vice President Kamala Harris praised the IBEW’s apprenticeship programs and said they are a key part of the Biden administration’s American Jobs Plan, which she promoted during a visit to Dover, N.H., Local 490 on April 23.
A new White House task force is charged with making sure the federal government acts to promote unions and collective bargaining, the first mission of its kind to fulfill the nearly century-old promise of the National Labor Relations Act.
Each year the Labor community comes together on Apr. 28 to remember those workers who lost their lives on the job over the past year.
Hundreds of IBEW members took a virtual trip to Capitol Hill this month, making the case for infrastructure, pro-union legislation and other issues in nearly 300 online meetings with lawmakers and their staffs.
On Wednesday, President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate retired Tenth District International Vice President Robert P. “Bobby” Klein to serve a five-year term as a member of the board of directors for the Tennessee Valley Authority. More than 2,500 IBEW members work for the government-owned utility, providing electricity to nearly 10 million customers across Tennessee and parts of Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina and Virginia.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics report on unionization rates in 2020 shows how a union can make a real difference in a working person’s life, even – or especially – during a once-in-a-lifetime global pandemic.
Four years after the income tax deduction for union dues was ripped out of the U.S. tax code, pro-worker lawmakers are fighting to bring it back and, for the first time, make it available without itemizing.
Cars stretched as far down the road as volunteers could see as they hefted 30-pound boxes of perishables and loaded them into trunks and back seats outside their Local 110 union hall in St. Paul, Minn.
IBEW members employed by Canadian Pacific Railway have been under plenty of stress during the COVID-19 pandemic. One thing they no longer have to worry about, however, is a new contract.
A bill in New York’s state Senate would provide much-needed workplace protections from the coronavirus and future airborne pathogens, filling a void left by inaction at the federal level during the previous administration.
Eppie Griego fell just a few votes short when he lost his first bid for a seat on the Pueblo County (Colo.) Board of Commissioners in 2012. That didn’t discourage him in the least.
Keeping ahead of the latest electrical technologies has helped IBEW members capture work and market share for 130 years. A timely new grant program for electrical storage and microgrid (ESM) system training in California will help members and locals there continue to stay ahead of the curve of the green energy revolution.
It's been a while since Eleanor Rogan has sold any electrical supplies, but she remembers those years fondly, thanks in large part to the IBEW.
Briskly making good on his vow to be “the most pro-union president ever,” President Joe Biden is acting decisively to balance the scales for workers and affirming their rights with more forceful words than any White House has uttered in generations.
President Joe Biden announced the largest investment in American infrastructure since the end of World War II and at its heart was organized labor and the IBEW.
March 2021
March Issue
President Joe Biden announced the largest investment in American infrastructure since the end of World War II and at its heart was organized labor and the IBEW.
Union membership is low in the growing wind energy industry once construction wraps up. But with the help of the IBEW, Jeremy Warren and fellow wind technicians at Invenergy’s Grand Ridge Energy Center in northeastern Illinois are looking to add to those figures.
Countless IBEW brothers and sisters regularly give their time and money to worthy causes. But few go to the lengths of some members of Baltimore Local 24, who volunteer each year to allow their hair to be publicly sheared off to raise money in the fight against childhood cancers.
Former Boston Mayor Marty Walsh was sworn-in as U.S. labor secretary Tuesday evening, the first union member in 45 years to lead the Department of Labor.
A multiyear, multimillion-dollar project to modernize traffic signals in Maine is set to give the green light to a wealth of work for scores of IBEW members.
Anti-union lawmakers and their out-of-state corporate backers are working to revive a right-to-work effort in New Hampshire. But the state’s working families and union activists hope to deal the effort a similar fate as to the recent one in Montana, where right-to-work was beaten back in the Legislature in early March after a wide bipartisan vote.
The House of Representatives passed the most significant potential change to labor law in more than 70 years on March 9.
A sweeping movie musical bringing to life the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike, when 30,000 private and public sector workers shut down their city for six weeks, will be widely available soon — but IBEW members get to see it first.
When you're the nation's largest government-owned power provider, it's important to have all your employees, spread across some 80,000 miles and 60 worksites, on the same page. For the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Code of Excellence has been a vital part of its recipe for success, and a key ingredient of that has been the ambassador program.
Early last year, news reached Toronto Local 353 that CEC Services Ltd., based in nearby Aurora, Ontario, was looking to buy an IBEW-signatory contractor through its parent company, the Beswick Group of Companies.
Leaders shaped by deep and personal union roots are filling jobs at every level of the Biden-Harris administration, signaling a new era inside the federal government for America's workers.
Joe Biden promised Americans during the 2020 campaign that he would put cash in their pockets, accelerate the anemic vaccine rollout and throw a lifeline to struggling city and state governments – many of which employ IBEW members.
President Biden got to work quickly in establishing a new, pro-union atmosphere for the nation’s federal workforce. On his just second full day in office, he signed an executive order to rescind some of the most egregious attacks by the previous administration against federal employees and their right to representation.
February 2021
February Issue
Homelessness has many causes, but one near-universal effect: hopelessness. But thanks to a unique partnership with a local shelter, Birmingham, Ala., Local 136 is tackling the issue in an innovative way, offering hope to a portion of the city’s homeless population in the form of training, jobs and a crash course in union solidarity.
Like most major events over the last year, the COVID-19 pandemic put serious restrictions on the Ideal National Championships, which annually pits the top electricians from across the United States against each other in skill competitions. Organizers dramatically scaled back this year’s event to comply with health guidelines.
Labor leaders invited to discuss jobs, infrastructure, stimulus spending and more with President Joe Biden last week say it was the most substantial Oval Office meeting in years for working people.
2020 was a year like no other. In-person events became risky affairs and Zoom stepped in as the new way to connect with coworkers and family alike. But as with all dark clouds, there were silver linings, and one of them came from Vancouver, British Columbia, Local 213 members.
There was beauty in 2020. We have the proof.
One week after providing viewers with the sights and sounds of the Super Bowl, IBEW technicians are back on a national stage this weekend.
The results of a recently updated study commissioned by the Ontario Construction Secretariat have helped to reaffirm what the IBEW has long known: that a unionized construction jobsite makes for a safer jobsite.
The most important reform to U.S. energy policy in more than a decade passed nearly unnoticed at the end of December.
Toronto Local 353 Business Representative Karen Pullen will chair the newly formed Ontario Building and Construction Tradeswomen committee.
The COVID-19 pandemic has made this year’s Super Bowl different from any other. It’s cut back on the number of fans, media and corporate sponsors descending on Tampa, Fla. The traditional parties are gone, replaced by social-distancing guidelines and reminders to wear a mask.
Seven years after a series of accidents that placed it among the lowest-rated nuclear power stations in the country, Entergy's Arkansas Nuclear One is now officially back among the ranks of the best.
Members of Sarnia, Ontario, Local 530 got the chance to give back to a piece of their childhood when they volunteered to help upgrade Camp Attawandaron, part of Scouts Canada.
Members of Hamilton, Ontario, Local 105 have a history of supporting a local women's shelter. And while they couldn't sport their usual pink high heels last year, they still raised a lot of money.
January 2021
January Issue
The headquarters of the IBEW's very first local looked a little different this past fall, at least from the outside, as it lit up its building with teal and purple lights in honor of National Suicide Prevention Month.
The Ontario government will provide CA$37 million in funding to increase job training, with CA$450,000 dedicated to the Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council to support women in the trades and health and safety training.
President Joe Biden swiftly began to make good on his promises to American workers on Wednesday by demanding the resignation of the fiercely anti-union attorney for the National Labor Relations Board, then firing him when he refused.
When the Gines family had to move out of their home because of its dilapidated state, they weren’t expecting to get a renovation out of it, but thanks to Denver Local 68 members and others in the Colorado Building and Construction Trades Council, that’s just what happened.
Members of Canton, Ohio, Local 540 recently completed work on a new outdoor venue downtown that was specially built to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the National Football League. It’s the latest of several major projects that are likely to bring steady work for the local and its members as the city continues to capitalize on its role as the birthplace of the league and home of its Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Leaders at St. Louis Local 1 are doing their part to make sure the IBEW plays a big role in the booming growth of solar energy in their region. The local recently assumed a leadership role in an innovative pilot program designed to help city leaders identify and recruit men and women into the electrical field, especially those from often untapped communities.
Washington, D.C., Local 70 members working for signatory contractor L.E. Myers Co. performed the on-shore transmission work for the first offshore wind farm in federal waters, as Dominion Energy’s two-turbine pilot project off the Virginia Coast began operations in October.
This past October, U.S. Army veteran Raul Gutierrez became the first person to finish his pre-apprenticeship program completely online.
One year after the first cases of COVID-19 were diagnosed in North America, vaccines from Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Moderna are on the verge of becoming widely available.