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IBEW Local 1015 in south Texas received its charter from President Edwin D. Hill at a special celebration on August 12.

Local 1015 will represent IBEW construction workers in Hildalgo, Starr, Cameron, Willacy, Webb and Zapata counties, an area in the southern tip of Texas bordered by the Rio Grande River. Until now, the IBEW presence was small. With the lowest wages in Texas and construction work totaling more than $1 billion dollars a year, the area was ripe for an organizing campaign, said Seventh District International Representative Ralph Merriweather.

"Were organizing on a constant basis," Merriweather said, and predicted within two years the local could have 400 members.

President Hill and Secretary-Treasurer Jerry OConnor welcomed 200 members at the August 12 ceremony.

"This local stands for a new day here in South Texas," President Hill said. "We are here to write a new chapter in historyin the history of the IBEW, of the electrical construction industry in south Texas."

Seventh District Vice President Jon Gardner said the IBEW will help improve the lives of workers. "We want this local to be a vehicle to bring economic justice to electrical workers and also the greater community in south Texas."