Worker Relief
With the COVID-19 pandemic essentially closing the American economy, the House and the Senate sent an unprecedented $2 trillion bill to the White House, where the president signed it.
Find out if you are eligible for stimulus checks or other unemployment-related benefits.
Parliament passed and received royal assent on a relief package that will provide $2,000 a month through July for those who have lost their jobs or who are going unpaid as a direct result of the disease.
Safety and Health Resources
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration released a new webpage at the end of May with guidance for construction employers and workers as states and municipalities relax restrictions put in place to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration
Legislative and Election Updates
Rules and dates for 2020 elections are changing due to the pandemic. Here’s what you need to know. Also, the health, welfare and safe working conditions of IBEW members are paramount in our legislative affairs work. Here’s how we are advocating for IBEW members.
Broadcasting
Hundreds of IBEW members hired by CBS for the now-canceled NCAA men’s basketball tournament will still be paid thanks to the union’s whirlwind efforts to help protect workers from the financial fallout of the coronavirus crisis.
Telecommunications
The IBEW has negotiated agreements with Verizon, AT&T and other companies that will provide telecommunications employee-members added flexibility in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.
Construction & Maintenance
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration released a new webpage at the end of May with guidance for construction employers and workers as states and municipalities relax restrictions put in place to stop the spread of COVID-19.
North America’s Building Trades Unions issued specific advice for construction industry employers to protect IBEW members and other construction professionals from spreading the virus that causes COVID-19.
The IBEW and its partners at the National Electrical Contractors Association have signed an emergency agreement to help construction workers and contractors navigate these turbulent times.
Railroad
Regularly updated guidance from the IBEW’s Railroad Department
U.S. Railroad Retirement Board
General Interest
With personal protective equipment in short supply, a number of enterprising IBEW members have stepped up to make face shields and masks for health care workers with their personal 3D printers.
No state but New York has been hit harder by the COVID-19 pandemic than New Jersey. And while media reports have largely focused on New York City’s overwhelmed hospitals and the Empire State’s astonishing infection and mortality numbers, New Jersey’s IBEW locals have focused their attention and efforts on their own first responders in need.
The havoc the coronavirus is wreaking on the entertainment industry was the focus of a national media call last week that included the impact on IBEW members in sports and news broadcasting, and how their union is fighting for them.
Across the United States, empty facilities are being converted into much-needed hospitals for patients suffering from the coronavirus. In Reno, Nev., members of Local 401 performed that critical work in an especially unique place – a parking garage.
Part of responding in an emergency is working though the crisis with what you have, even though that often looks nothing like what you need.
The Wisconsin State Fair Park outside Milwaukee has been converted into an alternative care facility to deal with the Coronavirus pandemic and Local 494 members were there to power it.
With help from some travelers, members of Long Island, N.Y., Local 25 are powering two overflow hospitals to deal with the demand from the Coronavirus pandemic.
For half a decade, the members of Hamilton, Ont., Local 105 made the Joseph Brant Hospital Foundation one of the main recipients of their charitable donations each year.
From safeguarding members to community service, Los Angeles Local 11 is playing a leading role helping the nation’s second-largest metropolitan area respond to the COVID-19 crisis.
Linda Georgiu affectionately calls the clerical workers she represents at Windsor Regional Hospital and Windsor’s Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare in Ontario as “my girls.” Only two men are among the 548 members working at the two facilities.
Members of Detroit Local 58 are providing critical power to two centers being repurposed as overflow hospitals to help combat the COVID-19 virus.
The Dubuque Area Labor Harvest sprung to life in the 1980s to help feed union members and their families in a city ravaged by recession and sky-high unemployment.
Several dozen IBEW utility members have been sequestered at their work sites in California and New York since early April to protect critical power infrastructure and personnel from the threat of COVID-19.
Few states have seen more devastation due to the COVID-19 pandemic than New Jersey. Not surprisingly, the IBEW and its local unions there stepped up to provide a huge assist to frontline healthcare workers.
Amanda Mertes was online exploring the shortage of personal protective equipment and the viability of cloth masks when she got a phone call that turned her curiosity into a mission.
IBEW locals across the country are pitching in to power the facilities being repurposed for production of much-needed ventilators to help with the growing Coronavirus pandemic.
As volunteers delivered care packages of food to Chicago Local 134 retirees and widows at the end of March, Elbert Walters said it was a little like “reverse trick-or-treat.”
Boston Local 103 has stepped up to help address the shortage of face masks needed to combat COVID-19.
The IBEW-partnered National Lighting Bureau is offering free LED lights to remote COVID-19 testing sites being set up nationwide to help combat the global pandemic.