APPOINTED — Jennifer Gray has been appointed director of the Civic and Community Engagement Department, bringing extensive organizing experience to a department ripe with opportunity as the IBEW seeks to expand its ranks among women, people of color and young workers.
“We have to keep opening up the pool of who we recruit,” said Gray, who served as the Membership Development Department’s director of professional and industrial organizing prior to her appointment on Nov. 6. “And the groups that we focus on in CCE are a great catalyst for that.”
Gray said a top priority is to organize around the IBEW’s political gains like the passage of major legislation including the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, as well as the union’s close relationship with the Biden administration.
“The president isn’t afraid to say ‘union,’ and he’s more than happy to say ‘IBEW,’” she said. “That’s only good for us.”
Gray said “the time is now” to capitalize on recent momentum for workers in North America, pointing to high-profile bargaining wins and the most positive public sentiment for unions in decades.
“It hasn’t been this way for unions in the entire time that I’ve been a member,” she said. “People are seeing the strength in unions, and that puts us in a great position.”
A member of Vacaville, Calif., Local 1245, Gray was hired at Pacific Gas and Electric in 2006 and quickly became active in the local, becoming one of the youngest shop stewards and unit recorders for her Sacramento clerical unit.
The local’s leadership soon recognized her enthusiasm and potential, sending her to the AFL-CIO’s inaugural Next Up Young Workers Summit and out to work on various campaigns, including a statewide ballot initiative. In 2012, the California Federation of Labor named her Young Trade Unionist of the Year. She also helped start Local 1245’s Electrical Workers Minority Caucus chapter and counts the Coalition of Labor Union Women as one of her earliest exposures to the AFL-CIO and the broader labor movement.
In 2011, Gray attended the IBEW International Convention in Vancouver, representing the state of California, where a resolution on young worker involvement was introduced that eventually led to RENEW/NextGen.
“I was part of something larger than just my cubicle, or my job or my local,” she said. “I realized that I was part of an organization with the power to fight for me every day. I look forward to doing that for others.”
The Northern California native also represented the Ninth District on the RENEW advisory council and served as assistant business manager at Local 1245 before being appointed to be an international representative in the Membership Development Department in 2018.
Gray said she looks forward to supporting the work of the labor movement’s different constituency groups like retirees, LGBTQ+ workers and veterans, and to carrying out the mission of the EWMC and the IBEW’s affinity committees like RENEW/NextGen and the International Women’s Committee.
“It’s very empowering to be able to spark the interest of these members,” she said. “I’m excited and honored to get back to this work. It’s like coming full circle.”
Jammi Ouellette, who’s known Gray since 2006 when they both started at PG&E and is now executive assistant to the international president, said Gray is in a good position to replicate what she accomplished at the local level.
“I think it’s really exciting for her to do this next step, and I expect to see great things,” Ouellette said.
Ouellette also noted that Gray, who she described as “driven” and “very detail-oriented,” has a strong organizational understanding of the IBEW, which will serve her well.
“Half of being part of a large organization is understanding the structure, and she’s a master at that,” Ouellette said. “She’s bringing some real, tangible tools with her.”
Gray said she wants to engage local unions as much as possible.
“We need to share the value of being an IBEW member,” she said. “And who better to talk to groups like women and young workers and people of color than other IBEW members who share those identities?”
“I’m excited and honored. … It’s like coming full circle.”
