From door knocks and worksite visits in Georgia to a Boston phone bank that drew the commander-in-chief, IBEW members pulled out the stops to turn out union voters in the U.S. Senate runoff election Dec. 6.

Their pivotal role in labor's campaign to reelect Sen. Raphael Warnock helped ensure that Georgia workers would continue to be represented by a steadfast friend and fortified a slender pro-worker Senate majority for all Americans.

"All the hard work really paid off," Atlanta Local 613 Business Manager Kenny Mullins said. "Every day in our union hall, you could feel the energy and excitement."

That was true up north as well, where members of Boston Local 103 packed into their union hall to call IBEW brothers and sisters in Georgia the Friday before the runoff — a get-out-the-vote phone bank launched with a special pep talk.

"What you're doing here makes a gigantic difference," President Joe Biden told some 150 volunteers after joking about how their Boston accents would be received at the other end of the line.

Local 103 Business Manager Lou Antonellis laughed about it, too. "Worlds were definitely colliding on the phone, North and South and the accents and everything that goes with it," he said the day after Warnock's victory.

Biden made several calls himself, choosing from a list of names that Mullins provided. "One of my members, a journeyman in 613, called me afterward and told me how much he appreciated it — that it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," he said.

The four-week campaign began immediately after the Nov. 8 midterm election. Warnock led opponent Herschel Walker, but neither topped 50% of the vote, spurring a runoff under Georgia law.

The AFL-CIO was ready with a Georgia-centric game plan, refining the massive operation it rolled out in late 2020 when both of the state's U.S. Senate races went to runoffs.

With labor's wind at their backs, Warnock and Jon Ossoff bucked the odds and beat the anti-worker incumbents that year. Ossoff was elected to a full six years, while Warnock won an unexpired seat with two years to go, putting it back on the ballot in 2022.

The senators' twin victories on Jan. 5, 2021, gave Democrats and Republicans 50 seats each, a split that favors the party in the White House but with limited power. That didn't stop Democrats from plowing forward with life-changing legislation, some of it passing by the narrowest of margins with Vice President Kamala Harris's tie-breaking vote.

With Warnock's latest win, Senate Democrats had the numbers to take full control of the chamber when the 118th Congress began its session Jan. 3.

Among other advantages, pro-worker voices now have more seats and a larger say on Senate committees dealing with unions, pensions, energy, health and other issues affecting workers' rights, jobs, safety and quality of life.

"What our members did in Georgia benefits workers and their families in every state in the nation," said then-International President Lonnie R. Stephenson, who retired in January. "I couldn't be prouder of their commitment or more thrilled about their success."

Team IBEW got a shout-out during the campaign's final week in an AFL-CIO blog post headlined "IBEW Goes All-In for Georgia's Runoff."

Beneath a photo of members serving morning biscuits and handing out fliers at Children's Hospital of Atlanta, it read: "The Electrical Workers union is executing a key element of the labor movement's program in Georgia by holding worksite visits focused on the issues and the candidate who will fight for working families."

Mullins hailed the tireless efforts of members across Georgia and beyond, including a Local 134 delegation that Business Manager and International Executive Council member Don Finn brought from Chicago.

On election night, an Associated Press reporter asked Mullins how many votes for Warnock he'd credit to the IBEW's outreach.

"Thirty," Mullins told him, pausing a beat. "Thirty thousand."

"Our guys killed it across the state — Macon, Savannah, Albany, Athens," he said, emphasizing the domino effect. "In Atlanta, we gave out over 1,000 biscuits and 1,000 fliers at worksites over three days. Those guys go home and talk to their families, and that's now 2,000 people at least, and they talk to friends and extended families and so on."

Canvassers and callers said little or nothing about Walker, focusing instead on Warnock's character and resume — a lifetime social justice activist, a reverend who preaches from the same pulpit that Martin Luther King Jr. did, a senator with a perfect pro-worker, pro-IBEW voting record.

"Everybody in the IBEW is just good people, solid people with good hearts," Mullins said. "I'd tell them: 'This man is dedicated, he has compassion, he truly, genuinely cares about people. And he's voted with us 100%.'"

Biden expounded on that while visiting Local 103. Accompanied by Massachusetts Sens. Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren, he stressed the difference a single vote makes in today's Senate and the urgency of adding one more to build on historic progress.

"We've created more jobs because of your two senators and because of Senator Warnock than any president has in his first two years. Over 10,500,000 jobs — it even surprises me when I say the numbers," Biden said. "We've got a lot more we're going to get … for the American people."

At an election-night watch party in downtown Atlanta, it was a mix of confidence and nerves for IBEW members and leaders as the results came in. Just before 10:30 p.m., the race was called for their candidate.

"The room erupted so loud that I almost had to put ear plugs in," Mullins said. "You can't imagine how crazy it went. I got chills. It was amazing."

A three-year IBEW battle on behalf of six illegally fired telecom members has led to a historic change in U.S. labor law that gives wronged workers new recourse for financial losses.

The National Labor Relations Board used the union's case against Thryv Inc. as the basis for a "make-whole" remedy that goes beyond reinstatement and back-pay awards that have done little to deter unfair labor practices, or ULPs.

"The decision expands remedies in all unfair labor practice cases, and I'm pleased that the NLRB adopted many of the arguments that we made," said IBEW General Counsel Jon Newman, who handled the case.

The December ruling holds employers liable for all "direct or foreseeable" harm, such as the medical bills that piled up for the former sales workers at Thryv, a conglomerate that began as the Yellow Pages.

In 2019, the company laid off the workers unilaterally and revoked their health care, in violation of its contract with then-San Francisco Local 1269, now North Hollywood, Calif., Local 45.

The NLRB put out a call for briefs seeking supporting and opposing views on expanding the standard remedy for unfair labor practices. The IBEW and the AFL-CIO filed a joint brief arguing in favor of broadening it.

An administrative law judge sided with Thryv originally, finding the layoffs lawful. His ruling was rejected unanimously on appeal, with all five NLRB members saying the company failed to bargain in good faith before terminating the workers.

The full board also affirmed that the standard NLRB remedy should include compensation for direct harm such as medical costs. Among the consequences for Thryv workers were unsurmountable bills for a woman with a high-risk pregnancy.

The board's two Republican members dissented from the majority's finding that the remedy should also apply to the foreseeable harm of indirect damages.

"As a result of being fired unlawfully, a worker may lose their car or their house, or their kid may have to drop out of college, or they may have to put their rent on a credit card and get buried in fees and penalties," Newman said. "It's reasonable to say that those kinds of damages are the foreseeable result of unlawful conduct on the employer's part."

But he cautioned that the debate is only beginning. "Exactly what is and what is not 'foreseeable' will have to get sorted out in future cases," he said.

The ruling joins a long list of actions by the Biden-era NLRB to reverse generations of erosion of workers' rights and strengthen unions, one of the board's founding principles under the 1935 National Labor Relations Act.

"As the enforcement arm for workers' rights, the NLRB is essential to making President Biden's pro-worker, pro-union agenda a reality," International President Kenneth W. Cooper said. "IBEW members can be proud of the role that our union played in such a significant case, one that benefits every working person."

The outcome is especially satisfying for Local 45 Business Agent Harry Esquivel, who filed the ULP charges in 2019.

"This is a decision that is long overdue and, at the very minimum, will cause employers to review how quickly they make dismissal decisions," Esquivel said. "Hopefully it wakes people up to recognize the power of unionism and unions, and what that power can do for them."