August 2019
August Issue
A simple sticker on the side of a work truck could be easily overlooked, but for IBEW members at Entergy Arkansas, that bit of plastic represents something more: a sign of growing pride on the job and an improved relationship with management; a symbol of the values embodied in the IBEW’s Code of Excellence.
A commitment to the values of the IBEW and organized labor, as well as academic achievement, personal character and financial need each were all factors in determining this year’s IBEW recipients of the Union Plus scholarshipsfor the 2019-2020 school year.
Rick Luiten didn’t have to rely on abstract statistics or second-hand anecdotes when he testified in favor of Washington state’s new law imposing tougher penalties on people who assault utility workers.
Just days are left to help save the IBEW’s apprenticeships from greedy nonunion contractors who want to cut corners on training.
An IBEW-backed bill introduced in the U.S. Senate would ensure that the country’s growing number of clean energy construction jobs will be filled by unionized electrical workers and by highly trained brothers and sisters in other union trades.
About 3,000 employees at DirecTV facilities across 13 states voted for IBEW representation and approved contracts in 2016, a major organizing win for a telecommunications industry that has weathered remarkable change over the last decade.
Intensive lobbying by activists from the IBEW and other labor unions paid off on July 24 when a bipartisan majority in the U.S. House of Representatives approved the Rehabilitation for Multiemployer Pension Act by a vote of 264 to 169.
One of the largest projects in the IBEW is finally underway north of Pittsburgh.
Opioid deaths in the U.S. and Canada are at epidemic levels, ravaging communities across regional, ethnic and socioeconomic divides. But no industry suffers higher rates of addiction and death than one of our own: construction.
Five thousand miles from the building codes and safety rules of Ontario, Canada, the team of IBEW electricians had never seen anything quite like the dormitories for older students from a Guatemalan children’s home.
July 2019
July Issue
If knowledge is power, then political knowledge is the fuel of an informed democracy. And according to a recent study, unions are a valuable source.
Members of Trenton, N.J., Local 269 put in long, hard hours during the week. But well-earned weekends aren’t just for relaxing; many members are also committed to the wide variety of community service activities the local sponsors through its “Good of the Union” committee.
In On July 10, Rep. Linda Sanchez of California formally introduced a House of Representatives resolution to designate that date as National Lineworkers Recognition Day.
In Florida, IBEW members are mobilizing to help kill a proposed constitutional amendment that aims to deregulate the state’s investor-owned electrical utilities — a law that, if implemented, could disrupt the livelihood of thousands of electricians who work and live there.
The IBEW has its first new local in the state of Georgia in nearly 40 years. The birth of Atlanta Local 1997 on June 29 marks a major victory for the rights of working people in the Deep South.
The IBEW urgently needs your help to protect our training programs from a pending federal rule that would let businesses run shoddy apprenticeships with minimal standards, oversight and pay.
The House of Representatives voted 419-6 to repeal punitive taxes on many union health plans, a major win for union workers and a rare moment of bipartisanship in Washington.
With the federal election on the horizon, Ottawa, Ontario, Local 2228 reached tentative agreement with the Treasury Board for a new four-year contract that will guarantee an 8% increase in salary for the more than 1,000 members covered.
Secretary-Treasurer Kenneth W. Cooper joined hundreds of labor activists representing the IBEW and other unions Wednesday to rally on Capitol Hill encouraging Congress to pass a bill aimed at rescuing troubled multiemployer pension plans.
An early summer thunderstorm had knocked out power in parts of northwest Washington, D.C.
Led by IBEW members, Nevada’s building trades unions hit a triple in the Legislature this spring, restoring prevailing wage and project labor agreement laws killed by the business lobby in 2015, and ensuring that apprentices from accredited programs fill a percentage of jobs at public construction sites.
As summer temperatures soar to scorching heights, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is here with recommendations and tips to stay safe on the job, even a smartphone app, but no federal standard as to what “safe” actually means.
A globetrotter at heart, John Murphy was already adept at swapping his Queens apartment for digs in Europe, Asia, South America and the Caribbean.
The North American electrical grid is the largest machine ever built by human hands. The interconnecting web of power plants, end users and everything in between has an unknowable number of components that fuel the $20 trillion U.S. economy.
June 2019
June Issue
When the Ottawa River swelled to record levels this spring, IBEW members were there to help.
After four failed organizing drives and two years of negotiation, the 1,400 members of Baltimore Local 410 ratified a first contract on Sunday with Baltimore Gas and Electric.
Bruce Johnson, a Casper, Wyo., Local 322 organizer and avid outdoorsman, has been named the IBEW Conservation Steward of the Year for his leadership on volunteer projects protecting elk and their habitat.
A major initiative is underway to ensure that every IBEW member eligible to vote is registered, aiming to educate members that participating in the electoral process directly translates to power on the job and at the negotiating table.
With just four or five classes to go, Todd Bedard is on the verge of having an associate degree in business management – without accruing a penny of student debt.
A trio of recently introduced bills before the U.S. House of Representatives could help unlock meaningful, long-term employment for IBEW members in Nevada — and beyond.
When the Liberal Party took power in Canada in 2015, the IBEW and working families gained access to halls of power on Parliament Hill that hadn’t existed in the previous four years of Conservative rule and five years of coalition government before that.
Steady and plentiful work is on the horizon for members of Chester, Pa., Local 654, thanks to a newly announced, multimillion-dollar project labor agreement covering the ongoing revitalization of the Marcus Hook Industrial Complex in suburban Philadelphia.
For decades, Jersey City, N.J., Local 164 electricians were among the hundreds of union tradespeople who built nearly two dozen ShopRite grocery stores in New Jersey and New York.
Hundreds of IBEW jobs in Ohio could be in serious jeopardy if the state’s Legislature fails to pass a bill to keep two nuclear plants open.
May 2019
May Issue
The future of organizing is here, IBEW leaders say, and new tools and technology will play a key role in recruiting the next generation to meet the needs of a growing electrical industry.
Weeks before Christmas, hundreds of IBEW members swarmed Capitol Hill to kill a proposal that would have crippled multi-employer pension plans.
Identifying and encouraging high school students who might benefit from a career in the electrical trades is the aim of a new partnership between Chicago Local 134 and a school district in the city’s northwestern suburbs.
Rico Albacarys didn’t sulk or stew when he was turned down for a Baltimore Local 24 apprenticeship back in 2010. Instead, he got back to work – and the right people noticed.
When back-up generators at nuclear power stations stop working, the clock starts ticking before federal rules require the main unit to shut down. So, when the 49,000-pound back-up diesel generator went quiet at the Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station in upstate New York, the nearly 75 members of Syracuse Local 97 in the maintenance department had a monumental challenge on their hands.
Growing membership in a manufacturing local is a challenge under any circumstances. American jobs continue to move overseas at an alarming clip, so growth in a right-to-work state makes it even more of an achievement.
Expanding programs for women who might be considering a career in the skilled construction trades, or who are already in them, is the goal of a new joint initiative of Canada’s Building Trades Unions and the federal government.
The Social Security Administration has joined a growing list of federal agencies that are impeding the ability of unions to represent government workers and taking extreme positions in contract talks.
IBEW leaders are asking members and friends to contact Missouri state senators this week and urge them to vote against any bill that would derail construction of the Grain Belt Express, an environmentally friendly, electrical transmission project that will deliver wind power from the Midwest to the East Coast power grid.
Pro-union lawmakers are pushing for landmark federal legislation that would pull the teeth of right-to-work laws and impose stronger, swifter penalties on law-breaking employers, ensuring that workers across the country have the right to join unions and bargain collectively for better wages, benefits and working conditions.
IBEW activists have an extra spring in their step walking the halls of America’s statehouses this year.
Hundreds of people rallied on the Pennsylvania Capitol steps this week, urging the Legislature to save thousands of clean energy jobs – and fast.
Summer is almost here, and that means it’s time for this year’s IBEW photo contest.
Beneath nearly every American city, a crisis is unfolding. While talk of America's crumbling infrastructure focuses on bridges and roads, ports and airports, below ground the aging pipe networks that carry natural gas to homes and businesses grow more dangerous by the day.
Every year, hundreds of construction workers are killed on the job and more than a third die from falls, the number one cause of accidental deaths in the industry. The tragic loss of our brothers and sisters is made all the more bitter because every death or injury from a fall is preventable with proper training and the use of appropriate fall protection.
Iconic sports venues like Augusta National and Daytona International Speedway came to feel like second homes for Neil McCaffrey during an award-winning career as a CBS camera operator.
April 2019
April Issue
The West Block section of Canada’s historic Parliament Hill recently underwent a major restoration and members of Ottawa, Ontario, Local 586 were there to power it.
Union members across the U.S. and Canada will pause on April 28 to remember fellow workers who lost their lives on the job over the past year and to recommit themselves to the effort to prevent workplace deaths and injuries.
An IBEW member’s bill to ban cities and counties in Illinois from passing local right-to-work ordinances has become law, two years after the state’s previous governor vetoed the legislation.
As the number of OSHA inspectors shrinks, enforcement action to safeguard workers is on the decline — at the same time that investigations into workplace deaths and injuries are rising.
One of the legacies of the IBEW’s founding fathers isn’t directly related to organizing or pulling wire, but it remains very much in the spirit of the Brotherhood and unionism. It’s the IBEW Founders’ Scholarship.
The fastest growing jobs in nearly a quarter of U.S. states are IBEW jobs according to projections form the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The IBEW has represented thousands of nuclear energy workers over the years, usually in either the construction or utility branches.
Fredericton, New Brunswick, Local 37 earlier this year won an award from Electricity Human Resources Canada for its Training Trust Fund, a program that offers members continuing education opportunities in a variety of areas including essential “soft skills” – the first time a union has earned the prize.
Last April, Houston Local 66’s young members group had four members. Today, they have close to 50 – and they’re showing no signs of slowing down.
The Latino population in northwestern Ohio has risen steadily over the last 40 years. For Toledo, Ohio, Local 8’s Ricardo Jiménez, this presents a rich recruiting opportunity that can help the IBEW grow as well.
With Canada’s next federal election only six months away, IBEW leaders and activists are reminding Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Liberal Party majority in Parliament that they have not yet made good on one of their 2015 campaign pledges: to bring back the country’s federal fair wages law.
For the federal workforce, the Trump administration’s budget proposal for 2020 reads like a roadmap to civil service demise, with calls for cuts to annual leave and retirement security, pay freezes and a weakening of collective bargaining rights.
W. Jeffrey Koepp is like many baby boomers who grew up in and around the Michigan cities of Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor. He’d long heard tales from older family members who’d worked at the nearby Willow Run Bomber Plant of how the B-24 bombers built there turned the tide of World War II against Germany.
March 2019
March Issue
For more than three decades, New Hampshire has been the lone New England state lacking a prevailing wage law. But after voters in November’s elections sent labor-friendly majorities to the state’s Legislature, IBEW members in the Granite State are hopeful that such a statute could finally be making a comeback.
Ian Oliver has always wanted to know how things work. The nitty-gritty of machinery, how it’s engineered, and what happens mechanically when you pull a lever or flip a switch.
U.S. railroads already are among the safest in the world. But over the past several years, IBEW members have helped install technology across the country that aims to make them even safer.
Two members of Congress are pushing for answers about the National Labor Relations Board’s plans to contract out its unionized staff’s duties reviewing public comments on the controversial joint employer rule.
There is nothing to break the stark view from the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It floats like a white marble ark in a sea of green lawn and small, white-capped grave markers for the thousands of buried troops. All of Washington D.C.’s grand monuments are hidden from sight across the Potomac from Arlington National Cemetery.
Utility Director Donnie Colston testified before a House subcommittee on March 7, telling members the role the IBEW and other unions can play in meeting the nation’s increased demand for workers in the energy and nuclear industries.
Two IBEW locals and their employer have won the inaugural Edwin D. Hill Award for their expansive efforts to protect good jobs and Nevada power customers, a campaign that led to the landslide defeat of a deceptive state ballot measure last November.
The Trump administration has issued its version of an Obama-era rule to extend overtime pay, one that leaves out millions of working people.
Jay Willis is accustomed to making quick decisions as an audio mixer during major sporting telecasts, primarily while working as a freelancer for CBS.
Tax season is here, and tens of millions of Americans are finding an unpleasant surprise when they enter the final calculations on their return.
The government of Canada has assembled a new council to address the future of jobs in the country, and Vancouver, British Columbia, Local 213 assistant business manager Lisa Langevin will serve as a member.
When Salt Lake City Local 354 member Jared Brydson returned from the IBEW’s International Convention in 2016, he was looking for ideas to increase engagement among new members. Then, he and Business Manager Russ Lamoreaux landed on the idea of a boot camp.
West Virginia’s working people scored a big win on Wednesday when Kanawha County Circuit Court Judge Jennifer Bailey ruled unconstitutional parts of the state’s 2016 right-to-work law.
February 2019
February Issue
Under the guise of modernizing apprenticeships and cutting red tape, Ontario’s provincial government recently pushed through a blatantly anti-worker measure that instead will end up putting skilled people out of work and placing workers’ safety at risk.
Sally McKleinfeld has been helping female friends with their résumés for years. Now she’s developed a program to help even more women within New York Local 3.
From long shifts in driving snow to moving portraits and Pacific sunset views, this year’s photo contest winners captured what it means to be a member of the IBEW.
A little less than a year ago, the Electrical Worker told you about a crisis in our democracy. The picture was dark. Tens of millions of American citizens live in gerrymandered electoral districts with borders surgically created to keep incumbent politicians in office. Millions more voters are locked out of the voting booth entirely.
Bringing his utility truck to a stop at a traffic light south of San Diego on a late January morning, Martin Barraza was shocked to see an overturned sedan, its crushed hood and front roof pressing against the pavement.
IBEW electricians from New York, Illinois and Minnesota swept the top honors at the third annual 2018 Ideal National Championship, held Dec. 1-3 near Orlando, Fla.
Missouri added 25,000 working people to its union membership last year, propelled by a major right-to-work win victory where Show Me State workers made a compelling public case for the value of unions.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has gutted an Obama-era rule that required employers to report on-the-job injuries and illnesses.
After 38 years in the telecom industry and 35 years as an IBEW member in his native Illinois, Randy Phillips wasn’t quite ready to call it a retirement when he left AT&T in 2011. He came from a strong union family with a tradition of fighting for working people.
Retired Manchester, Maine, Local 1837 member Cynthia Phinney and Chicago Local 134 apprentice Lily Wu have been invited as official guests to attend President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday night from the Capitol in Washington, D.C.
All parents want their children to get a good job that pays them a livable wage. For many, that means attending a four-year college institution. But for many others, there’s an alternate path.
More than 100 million people in the United States alone will watch the Super Bowl Sunday night on CBS. And, as usual, the network will rely heavily on IBEW broadcasting members to provide a world-class viewing event.
January 2019
January Issue
The Ville neighborhood on St. Louis’s near north side is an historic one for the region and the IBEW.
In support of broadcast members, the IBEW has joined with about a dozen other unions within the entertainment industry to share resources as part of a pledge to combat workplace harassment.
It took Briane Montoya two days, but she finally found another woman who was an outside lineman like her. For someone who’s often the only woman on her job site, it was a big moment.
As the federal government shutdown drags on with no end in sight, more and more federal employees are going without. IBEW members, including those at Corpus Christi, Texas, Local 278, are stepping in to help.
A little-known federal agency charged with protecting the right of government workers to organize is refusing to recognize its own union.
The union hall of a disbanded Ohio local is finding new life as a museum and learning center, thanks to an innovative partnership forged between the local’s former leaders and a nearby university.
You have the flu.
Modern medicine’s solution is for you to drag yourself to the car, try not to kill anyone as you drive through a pounding headache, then wait who-knows-how-long on a sticky plastic couch to see a doctor you don’t know for a prescription. And you’ll pay for the privilege.
As Interstate 68 curves through Cumberland, Md., the speed limit drops from 70 miles per hour to 40, providing drivers an opportunity to glimpse a historic church that once served as a stop on the Underground Railroad.
Typically, the solution to the stagnant number of women in construction – it’s been stuck at roughly 3 percent for decades – is to recruit more women. The BC Centre for Women in the Trades is taking a different approach: retention.
On Jan. 10, the 20th of day of federal government shutdown, employees gathered outside the AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington, D.C. and in cities across the country to issue a message to Congress and the White House: Do your job so we can do ours.
Fed up with their deteriorating office environment, a majority of the employees at a utility call center in Connecticut recently voted to join the IBEW in a united effort to improve their working conditions.
On what is expected to be the 20th day of the federal government shutdown, the AFL-CIO is organizing a rally to call for an end to the partial government stoppage. More than 30 unions, including the IBEW, are co-sponsoring the event.
The new year has started off on a precarious, if all-too-familiar, foot for the nation’s federal employees.
Every year, the IBEW hands out hundreds –yes hundreds—of 70-year pins to men and women marking seven decades as members of the Brotherhood.
For IBEW members employed by the U.S. Department of Energy and dealing with a work-related illness, there could be a new way to get help with your medical bills.
December 2018
December Issue
A staggering 86 members of Vacaville, Calif, Local 1245 found nothing but ash and rubble left of their homes in late November when they were allowed to return to the scene of the Camp Fire, the most catastrophic and deadly fire in the state’s history.
The IBEW has a powerful new advocate on the British Columbia Federation of Labour. First District International Representative Laird Cronk was elected president of the organization on Nov. 29.
IBEW Director of Business Development Ray Kasmark recently was elected chairman of the National Lighting Bureau, a non-profit lighting-education organization backed by IBEW and a number of other associations and government agencies.
The annual IBEW photo contest is a showcase for members to show off their skills with a camera and shine a light on their too-often overlooked jobs.
With visions of presents under every child’s tree, one of Santa’s busiest elves and the big-hearted electricians at his day job are helping spread Christmas magic across California’s Santa Barbara County.
It is not every day that someone goes to work and returns home a hero, but for three members of Milwaukee LocIt’s not every day that a governor is booed at the annual Christmas tree lighting. Then again, it’s not every day that a political party goes into overdrive trying to consolidate power in a lame duck legislative session.
It is not every day that someone goes to work and returns home a hero, but for three members of Milwaukee Local 494, that’s just what happened when they helped save two men and a baby from a house fire.
New York Local 3’s fight with Charter/Spectrum is nearing the two-year mark. Members and their allies are far from rolling over, however.
The call went out Monday Nov. 26: our pensions are under attack.
International President Emeritus Edwin D. Hill, a transformative trade unionist who modernized and shepharded his beloved IBEW through one of the deepest and most painful recessions in history, died Saturday, Dec. 1. He was 81.
November 2018
November Issue
IBEW International President Lonnie Stephenson was in Columbus this week to promote the role unions can play in helping companies solve their labor shortage problems
Canada’s government announced changes to the country’s federal labor standards Nov. 1, and advocates say they will improve working conditions for the thousands of Canadians who work in federally regulated industries.
The National Labor Relations Board was originally established to protect the rights of working people, but a series of recent decisions by the board – now dominated by Donald Trump appointees – rolls back years of employee protections, limiting the ability of workers to come together to win better wages and benefits and restricting their freedom to speak out on the job.
Since taking office as New Jersey’s First District representative in Congress, Folsom, N.J., Local 351 member Donald Norcross has been one of the highest profile proponents of apprenticeships in the nation.
Norcross answered questions from young apprentices on the show about how his life was changed by joining the IBEW.
The scene at the construction site seemed to unfold in slow motion, shop steward Bill Cole recalls, thinking about the moments after an accident involving an unstable jersey barrier left a worker shrieking in pain
Since the 1960s, thousands of Chicago Local 9’s apprentices
and experienced journeymen alike benefited from the quality courses that the
local provided at its Forest Park training center.
Oil refineries along Lake Michigan have been a steady source of good union jobs in Northern Indiana for generations, but they aren’t the guarantee of a comfortable, middle-class life they once were.
Project labor agreements are effective tools for helping ensure that all workers on a particular job receive fair wages. They boost apprenticeship opportunities and provide paths for local contractors to bid successfully on PLA-covered projects. But not everyone agrees about their value, as evidenced by recent developments in British Columbia and Manitoba.
With ballots still being counted in some races, this much is certain: At least 743 past and present union members will give voice to workers in statehouses, Congress and other political offices when new sessions convene in January.
A Message From International President Lonnie R. Stephenson
From union-bashing flyers to deceptive emails, targeted ads on social media, intrusive phone calls and even unwelcome visitors at the door, the crusade against America’s public workers has gone into overdrive since the Supreme Court’s bruising decision in Janus v. AFSCME in June.
Fast forward to Election Day tomorrow. You’re checking in at your precinct when a poll worker tells you you’re not in the book, that you’re not listed as a registered voter.
With Election Day almost here, IBEW members are doing all they can to get out the vote for races across the country. In the Midwest, that includes a handful of governor’s races critical to the futures of working families.
A former mayor and governor, U.S. Senate candidate Phil Bredesen has a history of putting IBEW members to work.
With only a few days before Election Day, the senate race in Big Sky Country is a toss-up between Democratic incumbent Jon Tester and Republican challenger and state auditor Matt Rosendale.
The federal deficit is skyrocketing, wages are stagnant, and corporations are hoarding most of their windfall tax savings instead of investing in jobs and innovation.
Jacky Rosen didn’t have a track record on workers’ rights or anything else when she ran to represent Nevada in the U.S. House two years ago.
October 2018
October Issue
Missouri voters struck a massive win for working families in August, voting down the state’s right-to-work law by a more than 2-1 margin.
Sen. Joe Donnelly appreciates organized labor’s strength, especially at one IBEW local union in northwestern Indiana.
Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona is retiring, and the candidates vying to replace him in the U.S. Senate couldn’t be more different – especially when it comes to issues affecting working families.
Even as record numbers of early voters turn out to cast their ballots before Election Day, many Americans don’t know they have that option or are confused about the rules.
The Texas senate race wasn’t supposed to be close at all, but with just weeks before Election Day, all eyes are on an airtight race in the Lone Star State.
Are you looking to advance your career in the telecommunications industry?
Fighting for pro-worker candidates on November’s ballot, IBEW members across the country are knocking on doors, making phone calls, writing postcards, leafleting job sites – anything and everything to get out the vote on Election Day.
Winning statewide office as a Democrat in North Dakota should be impossible.
Members of Cleveland Local 38 could be floating to the jobsite within a few years if a new six-turbine freshwater wind farm on Lake Erie gets the go-ahead from regulators.
The most powerful hurricane to make landfall in the Florida panhandle in at least 150 years smashed houses, sent a storm surge dozens of miles inland, tore up thousands of trees and cut power to an estimated 1.3 million customers. At least 11 people have been confirmed dead.
Pennsylvania IBEW locals have received more than $2 million in state grant money to expand their training centers as a part of Gov. Tom Wolf’s push to support apprenticeships.
November's Election and the IBEW Members Leading the Charge for Change
A push is on in Canada to designate July 10 as National Lineworker Appreciation Day there, and IBEW International President Lonnie Stephenson is encouraging all members in the union’s First District to help make it happen.
As Washington, D.C., Local 1200 marks a year battling for a fair contract at CBS-affiliate WUSA-9, members of Congress and other area leaders are urging the station’s corporate owners Tegna Inc. to show its workers the respect they deserve at the bargaining table.
A prominent member of Republican leadership recently announced support for cutting Medicare and Social Security benefits to pay for the ballooning budget deficit created by last year’s sprawling federal tax cuts.
It’s well documented that right-to-work laws lower pay and benefits. What they also do, according to a new study, is increase the chance of dying on the job.
Taking a stand for the workers who keep their cities running, more than 40 mayors coast-to-coast have signed a pledge affirming their commitment to public employees’ rights and the unions that fight for them.
September 2018
September Issue
Garry Rogers and Todd Edgerly hit it off the first day they met, two electricians who lived half a world apart.
Residents displaced by an historic, months-long volcanic eruption have a safe place to stay thanks in part to members of Honolulu Local 1186.
If Brett Kavanaugh, the president’s nominee for U.S. Supreme Court Justice, is confirmed, what will that mean for working people, particularly those in dangerous jobs?
Altice USA became one of the dominant cable companies in New Jersey two years ago when it acquired Cablevision. But the company’s attitude toward its workers after the deal wrapped up convinced technicians that IBEW representation was right for them.
The Republican-dominated National Labor Relations Board took a big step backward on Sept. 13 when it announced it was proposing a new rule on its joint employer standard, a decision that could negatively impact millions of working people, including some IBEW members.
Even before Hurricane Florence made landfall last Friday, thousands of IBEW members from more than 17 states and parts of Canada had already been mobilized and were making their way toward the storm’s projected route, ready to repair damage the storm was expected to leave behind.
Folsom, N.J., Local 351 inside wireman and business agent before his 2014 election to Congress, Rep. Donald Norcross is more familiar than most U.S. House members with the roadblocks to economic security for tens of millions of American workers.
Firefighters across California are still battling dozens of wildfires as the state deals with one of its worst — and costliest — wildfire seasons ever.
Five IBEW members have been honored for acting heroically to save lives last fall during one of the deadliest mass shootings in United States history.
The Hudson River crossing between Nyack and Tarrytown, N.Y., is a terrible place to build a bridge. The river is three miles across, one of the widest spots on the entire river, where, in places, the bedrock sits deep beneath hundreds of feet of sandy riverbed.
The Oct. 1 deadline for IBEW’s 20th Annual Photo Contest annual photo contest is just around the corner.
President Trump has made his decision on whether federal workers should get a pay raise next year. The answer is, “No.”
A Republican lawsuit being argued in federal court in Texas this week would gut Obamacare and strip affordable coverage – or any at all – from tens of millions of Americans with everything from high cholesterol and asthma to cancer, heart disease and other life-threatening medical conditions.
This Labor Day, a new study confirms something union members always suspected was true: unions are good for workers. All workers.
August 2018
August Issue
Despite a well-documented labor shortage in the midst of a construction boom, the U.S. Department of Labor shockingly rejected an application for Canadian members to work on construction of the Plant Vogtle nuclear station in Georgia.
It’s been described as Procter & Gamble’s biggest
construction project ever, and dozens of electricians represented by
Cumberland, Md., Local 307 are working diligently to make the half-a-billion-dollar
manufacturing facility a reality.
Kentucky workers got a little less safe in July when Republican Gov. Matt Bevin issued an executive order eliminating an independent board that oversees the state’s worker safety program.
Canada’s recent decision to buy a western provinces pipeline and oversee its controversial expansion has many in the IBEW’s First District hoping for an increase in job opportunities for members in British Columbia and Alberta.
As California’s brutal wildfires devour forests, destroy homes and leave thousands of people without power in suffocating heat, the welcome sight of IBEW linemen is never far behind.
Thanks to the hard work and expertise of San Diego Local 569’s members, the city’s Major League Baseball franchise kicked off the 2018 season leading the league – at least when it came to solar power.
Last year’s California wildfires killed dozens of people and left more than 2,100 square miles of costly destruction in their wake. Now, with the 2018 wildfire season already underway, IBEW members in the Golden State are working with utility companies and lawmakers to craft fair legislative solutions to help lessen wildfire frequency and severity and to ensure that future wildfire victims will continue to have access to their due compensation — all without bankrupting utilities in the process.
In a resounding victory for the IBEW and working families, Missouri voters overwhelmingly rejected a right-to-work law on Aug. 7 that had been passed by the GOP-controlled state legislature and signed by former Gov. Eric Greitens.
In union-dense New York City, Local 3 has long operated a medical clinic for members from its headquarters in Queens. Its nearly 30,000 members could populate a respectably-sized small town, so it’s little wonder the local has the means to offer its Pension Hospitalization and Benefit Plan participants a wide range of services, from apprentice entry exams to X-rays.
With crucial midterm elections drawing near, America's working families are being squeezed tighter every day by anti-worker policy decisions from every branch of government.
Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Local 728 member Phil St. Jean isn’t one to walk by when he sees someone in need, especially not when it’s in Dominica, his home country.
Opponents of Missouri’s anti-worker Proposition A seem to have done everything right. First, they collected more than three times the signatures needed to get a referendum on the ballot to repeal the state’s right-to-work law.
This time, it looks like there will be no repeat of contentious contract negotiations with Verizon.
July 2018
July Issue
The Trump administration has issued three executive orders seemingly designed to undercut the federal workforce and its workers’ right to representation.
Illicit drug overdoses are claiming a staggering number of lives in British Columbia, and Vancouver Local 213 members are learning how to help.
It was already approaching 80 degrees in Washington, D.C., as more than 70 IBEW members gathered near the western edge of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool early on Sunday, July 1.
The average American workers’ paycheck has a few more dollars in it than it did a year ago, but it doesn’t stretch as far.
An Obama-era rule designed to grant more transparency to union election campaigns has been rescinded by the Department of Labor.
The IBEW and others in the electrical industry celebrated National Lineworker Appreciation Day on July 10. The timing was fitting in Southern California, where hundreds of IBEW members worked to repair power outages caused by some of the area’s hottest temperatures on record.
Six days before the filing deadline for Pennsylvania’s May primary, a texting SUV driver swerved into the wrong lane and slammed head-on into Bill Troutman’s van.
A lot has changed since 1998, when Boston Local 103 retiree Susan Eisenberg published her first book detailing the struggles of women like her in the building trades. And yet, as she notes in the preface to the recently-released second edition, a lot has stayed the same.
The multi-year campaign to cripple public sector unions did not begin with the Janus case in 2017, and it did not end with the 5-4 Supreme Court decision in June. Now the billionaires who funded the campaign are turning their attention, and their wallets, to convincing workers to quit their unions.
The IBEW and other Canadian trade unions are urging the federal government to scrap a measure that would lead to major cutbacks in retirement benefits for the country’s nuclear workers.
More than a dozen IBEW members and family members are among this year’s recipients of Union Plus scholarships. One young recipient on the list, however, never knew his journeyman lineman father.
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh would cement the court’s big-business, anti-worker majority for years to come, squarely positioning all three branches of government against the rights and financial security of working people. His track record on the federal bench – including a 2016 ruling against an IBEW local – proves it.
July 10 is Linemen Appreciation Day, a moment to celebrate the men and women who keep our country running and memorialize those who have been injured or killed doing their job.
Strolling the tidy green grounds along the gently curving streets of Electchester, Queens, you pass classic red-brick apartment buildings, playgrounds, a grade school, a public library, a police substation, a small shopping center, a medical clinic, even a 48-lane bowling alley.
IBEW officials joined with fellow transportation trades representatives in June to make an impassioned argument for stronger enforcement of federal whistleblower laws.
One of three IBEW bargaining units that represents Frontier Communications employees has reached a tentative four-year agreement with the company that guarantees wage increases and protects the current pension system.
June 2018
June Issue
It took three tries and a special election, but the resolve of Seattle Local 77 paid off this spring when Washington state lawmakers passed a move-over law to protect roadside utility crews.
In a 5-4 ruling by its conservative majority Wednesday, the Supreme Court overturned 40 years of established law in a case intended to cut the legs from under public sector unions.
Ben Nevers has filled a wide variety of roles since entering the apprenticeship program at Bogalusa, La., Local 1077 more than 50 years ago.
Alarming headlines this month are raising fears that Social Security and Medicare are going bankrupt – which is exactly what lawmakers clamoring to slash benefits want Americans to believe.
It’s that time of year again. The days get longer. The sun rides higher in the sky. And heat-related illnesses start claiming lives and sending working people to hospitals at alarming rates.
IBEW railroad branch members covered under the U.S. National Freight Agreement ratified the proposed 2015-2019 contract in May, International President Lonnie Stephenson announced, and arbitration is set to resolve the few remaining issues.
A majority of people view the role of unions as a good thing, says new research from Pew, and that’s good for working families everywhere.
The IBEW has been tapped to join a task force created by the Trudeau government to assist coal workers and communities with Canada’s transition away from coal-fired power plants.
Jennie Sherwood bursts with enthusiasm as she talks about her run for the Nevada statehouse. And it’s plain to see that the first-time candidate is brimming with a natural energy that she isn’t afraid to let show, even in the often-stodgy business of politics.
In a blow to Michigan’s working families, the Republican-led Legislature voted to repeal the state's prevailing wage on June 6.
Missouri voters will still have their chance to repeal the state’s recently-passed right-to-work law, but Republican shenanigans mean the vote will come this summer instead of during November’s general election.
Elections in Ontario take place this Thursday, and IBEW members have worked hard in the weeks and months leading up to Election Day to educate their fellow working Ontarians about what’s at stake.
The city of Henryetta, Okla., has become a favorite spot for organized labor in a right-to-work state because of its Labor Day Festivities, which are some of the largest in the state.
The stars of Hollywood shine brightly in Los Angeles, but it is the city's world-famous sunshine that has catapulted the City of Angels atop the list of America's most solar-friendly cities.
May 2018
May Issue
In 2007, Charlotte, N.C., Local 379 held its meetings in a two-car garage.
Colleen and Rich Scheid each grew up in northern Indiana, but the two journeymen inside wiremen didn’t meet until 2004, when they were working at the Pastoria Energy Facility near Bakersfield, Calif.
The IBEW regrets to announce the death of former International Treasurer Thomas P. Van Arsdale, one of the giants of the Brotherhood from a family of icons. He was 94.
Nearly eight years of high-stakes lobbying by the banking industry paid off this week when the U.S. House voted to dismantle regulations that pulled the country out of the Great Recession, put millions of Americans back to work and protected consumers from financial ruin.
Are you looking to advance your career in the telecommunications industry?
Working families in Michigan were dealt a break last week in the Republican Legislature’s extraordinary long-running attack on the state’s prevailing wage, but the state’s building trades warned the reprieve may be only temporary.
Residents in coastal and rural British Columbia, including 44 First Nations, are about to get an internet upgrade thanks in part to members of Vancouver, Local 213.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Ed Markey and other Massachusetts political heavyweights joined hundreds of IBEW members on the state’s South Coast May 12 to rally against the outsourcing of more than 150 local jobs to Mexico.
A bill to repeal a new tax on union dues and unreimbursed job expenses has stalled in the Senate, a significant financial blow to many working families and union members.
The road that took Curt Minard to PyeongChang for the 2018 Paralympics wasn’t an easy one. He almost died — three times. But he wouldn’t change it for anything.
Terry Waters and his fellow Frontier technicians in southwestern Alabama and western Florida weren't upset with their employer or working conditions. They did, however, think they could do better.
For “tireless efforts to rally fellow union members for conservation,” the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance honored Washington, D.C., Local 26 Business Manager George Hogan this spring for accomplishments that include restoring a popular Potomac River fishing pier.
For more than 25 years, Paul David Ross has enjoyed a satisfying career as a journeyman inside wireman, a member of IBEW Local 317 in Huntington, W.Va.
The next two national elections could decide the future of organized labor in America.
Nearly 700 Atlanta Gas Light workers will join newly created Atlanta Local 1997 after a successful election held April 19.
For two decades, IBEW members across the U.S. and Canada have been sending us the images that tell the stories of who we are and the work we do. We've been proud to share those pictures with you, and this year we're celebrating a milestone - the IBEW's 20th Annual Photo Contest.
They’re advocates for their union and the building trades, mentors, volunteers and friends who understand what it’s like to be a woman in a male-dominated industry.
April 2018
April Issue
In 2009, then-President Barack Obama said the future of electricity was the smart grid.
Nearly 5,200 workers died on the job in the United States in 2016, the most recent year for which statistics are available. There were more than 900 workplace fatalities in Canada that same year.
Just north of Cincinnati, union activism, community service and politics go hand in hand. And Matt Von Stein hopes it stays that way.
An award honoring a successful labor-management effort to save jobs and fight for a clean energy future in Illinois was presented in March to Dean Apple, business manager at Downers Grove, Ill., Local 15, and to Exelon CEO Chris Crane.
For nearly three decades, energy consumers have been sending a clear message: they want clean, affordable and reliable power. Billions of dollars have been invested in scrubbing coal, switching to natural gas and building renewables.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership had to be renegotiated after the United States pulled out of the controversial trade agreement in January 2017. Yet, even under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s pro-labor government, the proposed deal remains a concern for Canada’s skilled construction workers.
In a major victory for the IBEW and all unions, the U.S. Senate failed to pass the Tribal Labor Sovereignty Act on April 16, avoiding what would have been the biggest rollback in workers’ rights since the anti-union Taft-Hartley Act of 1947.
Labor and working families in Wisconsin got a boost on April 3 when IBEW members and labor allies racked up impressive victories in municipal and judicial elections, sparking enthusiasm they hope will carry into the November elections.
More than 300 local leaders converged on Capitol Hill last week to talk with lawmakers about issues vital to IBEW members' jobs and economic security, as well as the broader fight for workers' rights.
A controversial Department of Labor rule that critics alleged would have allowed employers to steal their employees’ tips was stymied last month, but not before the department suppressed evidence of the potential damage to working families.
Management lawyer John Ring was appointed chairman of the National Labor Relations Board on Thursday, one day after the U.S. Senate narrowly confirmed him as an NLRB member.
A massive pipeline project spanning the southern half of Pennsylvania has helped bring steady jobs for hundreds of IBEW members across the state, but after four long years, the first phase is finally nearing completion with the second close behind.
On Feb. 26, the National Labor Relations Board reversed its previous ruling on the controversial Browning-Ferris case, a stunning backtrack of its December decision to undo the Obama-era rule aimed at protecting working people from unaccountable corporations. Are you looking to advance your career in the telecommunications industry?
Are you looking to advance your career in the telecommunications industry?
Every April, members of Augusta, Ga., Local 1579 work at nearby Augusta National Golf Club during The Masters, providing world-class electricians during one of the golfing world’s highest-profile events.
Members of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce toured a D.C.-area IBEW training facility, where they received an education of their own about the value of electrical apprenticeships.
March 2018
March Issue
Mike Ellison learned more about politics as a teenager than most people do in a lifetime.
IBEW leaders on Tuesday urged the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to reverse course on a late-night deal that awarded a $200 million contract extension for power restoration work in Puerto Rico.
Michael Soriano had a college degree in hand and had worked in jobs he enjoyed. But nearly 25 years ago, he changed his career path and followed his father into the trades when he began a New York Local 3 apprenticeship.
With the U.S. Supreme Court expected to issue a major anti-union decision later this year, and the National Labor Relations Board rolling back worker protections left and right, the future might seem bleak for unions. But there’s reason for hope.
IBEW members in Kentucky joined with labor allies to put a stop to the state’s attempt to roll back unemployment benefits. The attack on working families would have had far-reaching consequences for members of the IBEW’s construction branch, in particular.
Of all the things that enthuse American teenagers, you wouldn't expect new textbooks to be high on the list.
The first ship built by Vancouver, B.C., Local 213 members under the Canadian government's National Shipbuilding Strategy launched late last year from Seaspan's Vancouver shipyards.
In a victory for working people that seemed impossible just weeks ago, Pennsylvania union members tipped a deep red congressional district blue in a special election Tuesday.
The first 24 hours are crucial when you’re nursing an emaciated horse back to health, says Tammy Barnett, co-owner of the Horse Shoe Equine Rescue. That’s why she’s spent entire nights outside, in the freezing cold, monitoring and slowly feeding the neglected animals. Now, thanks to volunteers including members of Terre Haute, Ind., Local 725, those nights are over.
Vice President Mike Pence was governor of Indiana in 2015 when the state’s GOP-dominated Legislature passed a repeal of the state’s prevailing wage laws, arguing the measure would save taxpayers money without cutting workers’ salaries.
Construction and Maintenance Department Director Jim Ross testified before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Energy Feb. 27 about how the federal government can improve the state of the nation’s energy infrastructure.
Senate Republicans are making a rapid push to weaken banking regulations that pulled the nation out the Great Recession and put tens of thousands of IBEW members back to work.
It didn’t take a miracle for members of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Local 163 to turn a closed Catholic school into an IBEW-NECA joint training facility, but leaders hope the building’s holy vibes will continue to bless the work being done inside
One of Bobbie Lynn Mayfield’s greatest joys is making Christmas special for people who otherwise would have little or nothing under the tree.
IBEW members working underground have experienced sweeping changes in recent years. Private contractors are performing an ever-larger share of the work once done by public utilities. Increasingly technical equipment has put more demands on everyone. And concerns about safety linger, in part because there's been little standardization throughout the industry.
Nearly 1,776 feet above Manhattan, Joe Buonocore did something very few others would: he looked down.
Instead of vertigo, Buonocore, a journeyman inside wireman and specialist climber for New York Local 3, captured his mind-bending view of fellow Local 3 member Chris Bugeaunu hanging from the spire of One World Trade Center.
February 2018
February Issue
“My vote won’t make a difference.”
Embracing the IBEW’s Code of Excellence, the Tennessee Valley Authority and its union workforce announced a historic partnership Feb. 6, intended to strengthen shared values and inspire new levels of cooperation between labor and management.
The U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments Monday in an ominous case threatening the ability of workers to bargain collectively for fair wages, benefits and job conditions, the latest assault on unions financed by some of America's richest families and corporations.
On Monday, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in what some are calling the most important union rights case of the century. And many labor leaders and working people are bracing for the worst when a decision is handed down later this year.
As cruise ships began to return to St. Croix last November, tourists seemed surprised to see so many work crews busy on the largest of the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Family-wage jobs. Safe workplaces. Retirement security. Tax fairness. Quality, affordable health care. A voice at work.
Thinking about retirement can be overwhelming. The list of things to consider often seems endless.
Two days before the U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in a case that could have a devastating effect on working people's collective-bargaining rights, IBEW International President Lonnie R. Stephenson is encouraging members across the country to take part in a national "Working People's Day of Action."
The race to fill southwestern Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional seat ends March 13 and tens of thousands of union members will play an outsize role in determining the winner.
When the family of a paralyzed teen needed help making their home more accessible, members of New Haven, Conn., Local 90 jumped into action to donate their time and skills.
U.S. House Democrats unveiled a sweeping plan Thursday to invest $1 trillion in the nation’s decaying infrastructure, creating 16 million new American jobs by tackling everything from rickety bridges and railways to safe water, renewable energy and high-speed internet access.
One of the largest transmission projects in North America is coming to an end, and when it does, it will have connected two Canadian provinces for the first time and employed approximately 3,500 IBEW members along the way.
For decades the Democratic party has relied on organized labor for support at the ballot. Now the staff of the Idaho Democratic party has voted to join Boise Local 291 for support on the job.
The AFL-CIO and Mexico’s National Union of Workers formally complained to the Department of Labor that Mexico is violating the already low labor standards of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement.
A bill designed to wreak havoc among public sector unions in Florida passed the state House on Jan. 25, and it now awaits action in the Senate.
January 2018
January Issue
Recruiting women into the trades is getting a little easier, Lisa Langevin has found over more than 15 years as an electrician. But getting them to stay is another story – even as construction is booming across British Columbia.
Congress is close to passing the largest retreat on labor rights since the implementation of the National Labor Relations Act in 1935, and several wavering Senate Democrats will cast critical votes deciding whether the anti-worker effort succeeds or fails.
There’s an old adage that you only have one chance to make a good first impression. It’s also critical to orienting – and organizing – new members into the union.
West Frankfort, Ill., Local 702 Business Manager Steve Hughart learned recently that a 96-year-old widow of a retired IBEW member was having trouble accessing her late husband’s benefits. Business agent Jason Woolard didn’t just help her secure those benefits; he went to her home and spent several hours helping get her finances in order.
A lawyer with a history of working to promote anti-worker policies was among 17 nominees who advanced quickly this week toward near-certain appointments to lifetime terms as federal judges.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is down at least 40 workplace safety inspectors since early 2017, a troubling trend attributable to Donald Trump’s hiring freeze coupled with attrition. Budget cuts under consideration by the White House are likely to make matters even worse for worker safety.
The IBEW and other unions scored a win in Delaware on Jan. 9, when the GOP-dominated Sussex County Council voted 4-1 against a proposed right-to-work law.
The U.S. unemployment rate has remained in the low single digits for the past several years, a sign of a strengthening economy since the 2008 recession ran roughshod over millions of working Americans. But finding a solid middle-class job can still be a struggle for some, especially for someone who has spent time behind bars.
Trump Administration officials have suggested ways to save the government money in the next budget. And, no surprise, some of the savings are expected to come at the expense of working people.
The National Labor Relations Board put its first Republican majority in years to quick use, issuing a flurry of decisions in a single week in early December that unraveled important pro-worker gains made over the last eight years.
On the coldest New Year’s Eve in the history of Peoria, Ill., members of IBEW Local 34 gave residents a dazzling reason to brave the weather.
KC Matthews says she hopes to be an electrician someday and it’s thanks in large part to Bob Thomas and the Inmate Ward Labor program at the Central California Women’s Facility.