In a U.S. presidential election year, it can be easy to get caught up in partisan fighting and forget who your true friends are. Fortunately, the IBEW’s policy agenda, from new nuclear jobs to apprenticeship standards and speedy permitting, cuts across party lines.
"It’s extremely important for the IBEW to identify and help elect candidates, whatever the letter after their name, who are committed to creating good union jobs and securing our hard-won job protections and benefits,” said International President Kenneth W. Cooper.
The IBEW’s nonpartisan priority must always be — and only be — on the members and the work, Cooper stressed.
“What matters to us is that they support us and our families,” he said. “It’s what we ask our members to keep top of mind when they cast their ballots.”
There are many common-sense and worker-focused parts of the IBEW’s policy agenda that members should remember as they speak with officials and as they vote, added Danielle Eckert, assistant to the international president for government affairs.
“There’s nothing stopping local voices from being heard,” Eckert said. “We should be ‘in the room’ with all of our elected officials to help lay the groundwork for their support on the IBEW’s legislative priorities.”
One recent example of this strategy’s success is the bipartisan passage of the ADVANCE Act, an IBEW-backed bill to make it easier for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to develop and deploy new nuclear energy facilities. The new law builds on the pro-union, pro-worker language that the IBEW lobbied for and won in such legislation as the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law by directing the NRC to prioritize redevelopment of brownfield and retired fossil fuel sites. This supports the IBEW’s objective of finding good jobs in the growing nuclear power industry for workers laid off when coal- and gas-fired power plants close.
There’s lots more to do, Cooper said. “We need our members to help us push for more project labor agreements, for registered apprenticeships that train more of our brothers and sisters, and for expanded Davis-Bacon prevailing wage provisions on more public works projects,” Cooper said.
Here are some other national-level policies the IBEW is working on:
There is strong agreement among Republicans and Democrats that the U.S. power grid needs to be transformed to handle the country’s growing electricity demand. Approving transmission line construction permits can create thousands of jobs for IBEW members, but these jobs are often held up because the process for granting permits, already lengthy and complex, gets further bogged down — sometimes for years — by lawsuits or other legal tactics.
Last year, independent Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia introduced the Building American Energy Security Act, something Cooper called “a good bipartisan first step” toward speeding up the permitting process in a way that achieves the country’s energy objectives while respecting community input and following environmental laws.
After the fiery February 2023 derailment of 38 freight train cars near East Palestine, Ohio, Sen. Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, introduced the Railway Safety Act, which not only aims to prevent similar future disasters but also includes language to require rail car and engine inspections be performed by qualified and trained mechanical inspectors, something that would secure more work for the IBEW’s Railroad Branch members. Brown’s bill, along with Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. Christopher Deluzio’s companion measure in the House, also would mandate two-person crews on freight trains, another IBEW safety priority. Both bills have co-sponsors from both parties.
Another rail-focused bill backed by the IBEW that has bipartisan support in both houses of Congress is the Railroad Employee Equity and Fairness Act. Companion versions introduced by Democratic Rep. Janice Schakowsky of Illinois and former Republican Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio aim to insulate payments made from the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Account from automatic, across-the-board budget cuts.
The Biden administration and the NLRB have found success in using the federal rulemaking process to make it easier for workers to gain union representation. A U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June, however, could hobble that process and threaten the NLRB’s ability to administer labor law.
That’s another reason the IBEW continues to support passage of the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, or PRO Act, which aims to strengthen workers’ rights to organize, appropriately classify contract workers as employees and impose harsher punishments for employers that violate workers’ rights. The act also would impose stiff penalties on employers that violate the National Labor Relations Act.
Companion versions of the PRO Act now making their way through both houses — introduced by independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Democratic Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia — had the support of nearly half the Senate and House when this article was posted.
Lawmakers in both parties have shown a willingness to take on China over that country’s actions that harm U.S. commercial interests. In March, the IBEW joined four other national labor unions in asking U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to investigate, under Section 301 of the Trade Act, China’s unfair policies and practices to undermine fair competition and dominate maritime, logistics and shipbuilding industries. Tai has pledged “to undertake a full and thorough investigation into the unions’ concerns.”
Where to Get Voting Information
Did you know that only 66.8% of the voting age population actually cast a ballot in 2020? With so much on the line, from preserving the right to organize to making sure that President Joe Biden’s massive job-creating laws are fully enacted, it’s never been more important to make your voice heard and to do your part to elect pro-worker candidates at all levels of government.
Get the information on where and how to vote in your state at ibewgov.org/additional-resources. From there, you can download and print a flier with your state’s specific information to share with others.