“My father was an IBEW member, and I remember all the picnics, Christmas parties with the union renting out an entire civic center for an event. Everybody my daddy worked with was my uncle, and it was exciting to be a part of. It was a dream.
My dad was one of the Tuskegee Airmen, and I became a combat fighter in the Marines, trying to follow in his footsteps as his only child. As a combat engineer, based at Camp Lejeune, I was routinely dropped by aircraft to get the barracks wired so that the soldiers can get set up and be taken care of. I came into the IBEW as a civil/electrical engineer about two years ago, and I’ve felt my expertise totally appreciated within the IBEW.
As a master electrician, I tend to work on different projects all the time. Presently, I’m a traveler from my home base, Montgomery Local 443, working with Mid-City Electric in the Columbus, Ohio, region. We have about five projects going with Whiting-Turner, and I’m sent from project to project.
I have five children — four boys and a girl — and the IBEW has been a blessing. I was out there working independently for more than 15 years with no retirement, no pension, just my savings, and that’s why I came into the union. There were so many positives to it: making good money, making friends, meeting new people, learning new things.
These battery plants I’ve worked on are new. They’ve only been up for three years, and I’ve worked on them for two. With two years in the union, I’ve completed six battery plants. So getting this new trade exposure offers new things to learn, new experiences. I’m now working on an AI project for the government, and it’s all new dynamics that I’m learning. Very few have this range of experience. Among the positives of the IBEW is that you’re doing things that have never been done before. And to have that on your resume — you stand out.
I love the union — that’s never going to change. We are a family, and we JWs tell apprentices that the IBEW has been good to us and they’re going to continue being good to us. We tell them what we know, what the IBEW has done for us members. They’ve shown us. I’m a single mother of five, and I’ve been in the IBEW for two years, and this is the best thing that’s ever happened to me.
When you love what you’re doing, it’s not work anymore.”
