Related Articles

Newly organized Laird Electric signed an agreement with Local 995 in November 2000.  Pictured at the Laird Electric job site are, from left: journeymen Bobbie Matthews and Michael Pinney, fifth-year apprentice Mikel Arnold, organizer Cliff Zylks, first-year apprentice Aaron Stevens, journeymen David Raborn and George Hughes, organizer Tim Overmier, organized apprentice Edward Ellis, first-year apprentice Samuel "J.J." Grimes, and third-year apprentice Eric Smith.

A Case Study: Baton Rouge Local Rebounds with Organizing and Training

Located in the heart of a right-to-work for less, open-shop region of the United States, IBEW Local 995, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is doing a great job of organizing unrepresented workers. Utilizing salting and training as major organizing tools, the local is successfully rebounding from a big reversal in the mid-1980s when it lost almost half its membership.

Local 995s success was chronicled in the December 17, 2000, edition of Union Labor Report, published by the Bureau of National Affairs. Grass was fixin to grow up in our parking lot, Local 995 Business Manager K.E. Ricky Russell, the locals organizing director, told the BNA. From a high of 1,000 members in previous years, by 1986 the local had shrunk to fewer than 500 members. About 90 percent of its members were unemployed during the 80s, a time when the Reagan and Bush administrations were running us out of business with their anti-labor policies, added Russell. Also contributing to the locals problems was an exclusionary mindset then prevalent among members, the business manager continued. We were taught to exclude people from becoming part of the union, like we were a country club. We really didnt understand that as a union we were a people organization representing all the workers. As members faced layoffs or retired, membership declined sharply, and this attitude of not bringing in new members just about did us in, reported Russell....................

In 1994 the local decided to make organizing a top priority. It soon became clear, however, that most younger workers have no experience with unions and little understanding of their benefits, having heard only negative propaganda. As a result, younger workers would not even come to the union hall, noted Russell. So, the local decided to use saltsthe building and construction trades organizing strategy of having union employees seek employment with nonunion contractors to organize from within.

When local union members volunteer as salts at a nonunion jobsite, they show the younger, unorganized workers what good workers IBEW members really are, Russell told the BNA, noting the IBEWs five-year apprenticeship program. Most look up to us when they see everything is done right and looks good. With nonunion contractors, most workers merely learn the electrical trade on the job, and in such a setting the expert skills and higher union wages of IBEW members make a big impression.

Membership on the Rise

Today, Local 995s membership is growing again. More than 600 members strong, the local union is proud to have more women and blacks as members, said Russell. Salting has kept our local in business.

Among the recent organizing successes are Robac Electrical Company and Laird Electric, small nonunion companies that were having trouble finding well-trained electricians. In October 2000, Local 995 organizers Cliff Zylks and Tim Overmier met with the owner of Laird Electric. Laird had run an ad in our local paper, and Cliff and Tim were applying for work, said Russell. Cliff talked to the owner about the unions ability to supply him with qualified electricians and said he would have the locals business manager call. After Cliff met with me, I called the owner and after about three meetings, Laird Electric signed an agreement on November 16 and brought in five new members to Local 995 and has hired about 11 men through the hall.

Zylks helped bring about the win at Robac Electric after just three days on a job with the company. When the foreman saw the 23-year IBEW members work skills (and his pay stub), he asked to join the union, and the other employees signed a card check for IBEW representation on the spot. Robacs owner came to the jobsite and signed an agreement with the union immediately because he realized the union would send him skilled electricians, enabling him to build his business and bid on bigger jobs.

International Vice President Melvin W. Horton noted that Local 995 is doing a good job of organizing new members even though it is in one of the toughest areas of the district to organize. The antiunion Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) is a strong presence in the region and has a chapter in Baton Rouge.

Baton Rouge is one of the hot spots, said Business Manager Russell. He noted that Local 995 is part of the IBEWs Petrochemical Campaign, in which nine locals from Corpus Christi, Texas, to Mobile, Alabama, are organizing industrial sites. Local 995 is just one example of how IBEW local unions are making strong gains by reestablishing the goals of the Brotherhoods founders as a top priorityto train and organize every person working with the tools of the trade.

March 2001 IBEW Journal

New Local 995 Member Finds Warmth and Welcome

In August 1999, I was looking in the classified ads to see what petrochemical contractors were hiring for a hot job with overtime. I saw an ad for an IBEW open house on Saturday afternoon at Local 995 in Baton Rouge. This meant that the union is receptive to new members. I wanted to see what this was about. What could that hurt? 

I knew no one in this organization. I had no buds I could call, no acquaintance with anyone who was union. Being oil field, southern and farm oriented, this was totally strange to me. However, the IBEW did show an interest in new members by the ad from the week before. So, with this in mind, I bravely walked in [to the Local 995 union hall] expecting a cold sheet of paper thrust at me by someone talking on the phone who stopped for a moment to get me out of their way. You know the feeling. Didnt happen! This group dropped all previous occupation and directed their interest toward me like I was their millionth customer. I was immediately passed along to the party in chargenot passed off. This guy had time. I felt I had not wasted this effort this day.

I considered the opportunity to work union, thinking of all the nonunion contractors I had worked for. I always felt like a cowboy to some degree. Captive to a situation I just could not be. After thinking long and hard, I could see no reason not to try. I took a job in Beaumont, Texas, with E.I.U. [Electrical Instrumentation Unlimited], where we knew the brothers were salting the job. With the agreement of the brothers there, I worked alongside union members. With warmth and a welcoming attitude, I was brought into the IBEW through Local 479 and later transferred to Local 995, my home local.

Since then I have hit the road to Illinois and Kentucky as an IBEW traveler. I have traveled alone as to my nature. I have made my own judgments about situations that I have seen. I can tell you this now by my own experience. I have felt warmth and welcome from union brothers. I have a freedom of life that no one anywhere outside the Brotherhood could have. I have security that even the wealthy would desire. I have no remorse for leaving whatever it was I left behind. I am 48 and still have time to build retirement while working in the most secure environment I ever hoped for.