The promise of a full and dignified retirement has been restored for members of Niagara Falls, N.Y., Local 237, thanks to the local's determination and IBEW-backed federal legislation that shores up pensions.

Entire industries were hollowed out in the local's Western New York jurisdiction in the past two decades, sending ripples of economic damage through the trades. Local 237 leadership tried putting money back into the pension at different points, but nothing seemed to stop the downward spiral. By 2019, only two options remained: Let the fund go insolvent or make some serious cuts.

"It was a terrible feeling," said Local 237 Business Manager John Scherrer, who ran for office in large part to help rescue the plan. "If our pension would've went away, our local would've went away."

First, the local applied for assistance through the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act, which allows plans like Local 237's that are in critical status to suspend benefits to avoid insolvency. The application was approved in 2020, and membership voted to go ahead with the cuts, knowing it was a necessary, if dire, action to take.

"It hurt all the way around," said Local 237 retiree David Naus of the decision to take a roughly 25% cut in benefits that would give the apprentices and younger workers some type of pension in the future. "We were all going to lose something."

For retiree David Saph, a third-generation IBEW member and Air Force veteran, those cuts meant he and his wife had to take a long, hard look at their own budget. They reduced overhead where they could and paid down some debt, but they still ended up selling their house.

"It changed my life a lot," Saph said. "When I was young, I didn't know what a pension was. Now that I'm here, I understand it. Without a pension, you're going nowhere."

Enter the American Rescue Plan. The pandemic relief bill, signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2021, included IBEW-backed legislation called the Butch Lewis Act — championed by labor allies including Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio — to offer relief to certain multiemployer pensions.

Scherrer said the local was initially hesitant to take the aid. It seemed at first that the help would come at the cost of the future health of the fund.

"We didn't want to take the money and leave our apprentices with nothing," Scherrer said.

Seeing an opening, the local submitted a letter during a comment period regarding implementation of the law to explain its situation. Those comments were addressed, and in the final version, certain pension plans, including Local 237's, were allowed to use a different calculation that would let them take the financial assistance they urgently needed without potentially curtailing the fund down the road.

In the end, they received just over $32 million, enough money to put the pension back on track while also paying back the retirees who had taken cuts.

"I didn't know exactly how it was going to work, but it meant my pension wasn't going to end in 2027," Saph said. "I thank God every day for that."

For retirees like Gerry Manzi, the ARP wasn't just the right thing to do, but it also corrected for outcomes like deregulation and automation that impacted multiemployer pensions like theirs through no fault of their own.

"It's our money," Manzi said. "We negotiated this. You gotta pay the people that are retired."

For a lot of younger workers, the idea of a pension can seem as antiquated as a rotary phone. Only about one in 10 Americans working in the private sector has one.

But public views may be shifting. While they weren't ultimately successful, members of the United Auto Workers called for expanding their defined-benefit plan to those hired after 2007 in their recent contract negotiations.

The job-search platform Indeed found that more people are searching for such a benefit, and more job postings are mentioning pensions.

When the ARP passed, it did so without a single Republican voting for it. It's something Scherrer said he reminds his members of.

"He saved the most important thing to each member — our pension," Scherrer said of President Joe Biden, who pushed for the pension provision and signed the bill into law.

It's a sentiment shared by a lot of retirees, including Naus, who sat on the pension board before retiring in 2016.

"They've all helped us," Naus said of Democratic New York Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, along with Rep. Brian Higgins, another New York Democrat, who shepherded the bill through their respective Houses in Congress. "Believe in the system. … There is an end to the tunnel."

With multiple large projects in the area and more coming — thanks in large part to legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the infrastructure law — job prospects for Local 237 are strong and should continue to be so for years to come.

That's good news for today's young workers and the future of the pension plan. Scherrer said the local's fund is earning more money than predicted when it got the aid, and it's bringing in more apprentices than expected. And they've even got a new training center to teach the next generation of members.

"The work is the best I've seen in my whole career," said Scherrer, who started as an apprentice in 1995. "We definitely have a bright future. I got no worries now."

IBEW locals across the U.S. are benefiting from the historic labor-friendly provisions in the Biden administration's three major infrastructure and manufacturing laws, which incentivize contractors and developers to use union workers.

This includes Huntington, W. Va., Local 317, which is celebrating among its recent wins an agreement with its third traffic signal contractor, Cross Lanes-based Stealth Ltd.

And while Local 317 Business Manager Shane Wolfe attributes much of this accomplishment to the local's decades-long reputation in the community for quality work and thorough training, "that [infrastructure] money helped us make this deal," he said.

Fourth District International Vice President Gina Cooper applauded the agreement. "Every time our locals close a deal and win new work like this, it's a win for the entire Brotherhood," said Cooper, whose jurisdiction includes West Virginia. "Our leaders worked closely with the Biden administration to make sure strong labor standards were included in these three landmark bills. I'm proud of the business managers who aren't letting these opportunities slip away."

The infrastructure laws' pro-union provisions also are helping the IBEW and other organizations overcome some state-based anti-labor roadblocks. For example, West Virginia's Legislature in 2016 approved a so-called right-to-work measure that allows nonunion workers to enjoy the fruits of collective bargaining agreements without paying a cent toward maintaining those agreements. That same year, the Legislature also repealed the state's prevailing wage mandates for public works projects.

Local 317 has continued to thrive in the face of these anti-union setbacks by touting the IBEW's reputation for quality education and workmanship with contractors like Stealth.

Along with the other two traffic signal contractors represented by Local 317, Specialty Groups Inc. and Pritchard Signal and Lights, Stealth's workers are being tapped by the state to handle signal construction and maintenance work all over West Virginia, where the mountainous terrain and weather extremes can be tough on the components of an outdoor traffic signal system. But a handful of nonunion contractors also get this work.

"Signing on Stealth helps us get more of that market share," Wolfe said.

As infrastructure work — and traffic signal work in particular — takes off across the state, Stealth's owners told Wolfe that they are looking to grow their 20-employee company. "We told them about our training center, with classrooms and hands-on training," Wolfe said. "We have a signal apprenticeship here, specifically. We will teach them skills they'll never forget."

In addition to traffic signal workers, Local 317 represents members working in inside and outside construction, line clearance tree trimming, radio/television, telephone, and utility. The local's jurisdiction covers 24 of West Virginia's 55 counties, along with 15 counties in eastern Kentucky, 19 counties in southwestern Virginia, and two counties in southeastern Ohio.

Wolfe is also overseeing construction of the local's new training building.

"We outgrew our footprint," Wolfe said. "So we bought up some of the vacant residential lots behind the hall and got them rezoned" as neighborhood commercial.

Local 317's existing office and training center campus have been a prominent part of its largely residential community for decades, he said, enjoying a friendly relationship with the neighbors as well as with the city's leaders — including Steve Williams, Huntington's mayor since 2013 who is running for governor with Local 317's full support.

The expansion building is going in adjacent to the current facility to help handle Local 317's projected workload — from other federally funded infrastructure projects, from work on such things as a new $3.1 billion steel plant being built near Point Pleasant, and from the ongoing growth and improvements at Marshall University — "one of our best friends," Wolfe said.

The new center also is designed to handle the training of as many as 500 apprentices per year, a dramatic increase from the current 60 per year figure.

"It will be useful for all of our branches," Wolfe said, helping to take away the local's need to outsource some of its training.

Braun Electric Co. has long seemed a natural partner for Bakersfield, Calif., Local 428. Now, thanks to a mutual interest in renewable energy and a long courtship, the two are working together.

Braun became a Local 428 signatory contractor in early November, welcoming nearly 100 new members into the union.

"They had been the largest non-signatory in our area for a long time," Business Manager Brian Holt said. "Conversations have been ongoing for years."

California's Central Valley is one of the leading U.S. regions for natural gas exploration. Braun has been part of the community since its founding in 1945 and has a long history in the gas and oil industry .

In recent years, the company has shown more interest in renewable energy, likely driven by its contractors and partners seeking more work due to incentives from state and federal governments.

The Inflation Reduction Act signed by President Joe Biden in 2022 — which the IBEW lobbied heavily for — extends tax credits of up to 30 percent for companies investing in renewable projects if they pay prevailing wages and employ workers from qualified apprenticeship programs.

At the state level, a law signed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom added skilled and trained labor requirements to petrochemical work, a boost for trade unions with high-road apprenticeship programs.

These legislative requirements and investments have made it even more attractive for Braun and other companies to partner with Local 428 and other IBEW local unions. In addition to the tax incentives, they get access to highly trained Local 428 members already working with renewables.

"The oil and gas extraction business has been shrinking," Holt said. "We've been successful working with developers up and down the state on some [renewable] projects. When the IRA hit the streets, those other developers said, 'We're going to go for the tax credit.'"

The agreement included requirements on which Braun electricians immediately qualified to become journeyman or move into Local 428's apprenticeship program, depending on their experience and training.

Holt noted Local 428 members have seen increasing work opportunities in renewable energy for nearly a dozen years as investor-owned utilities expand their portfolios into renewable energy sources.

Renewables are important but they are just one key piece of the deal. The oil and gas industry is not going away anytime soon. In the near term, Local 428 will pick up maintenance work at oil leases that employ Braun workers.

Holt said conversations between Local 428 and Braun always have been cordial. He noted that talks were ongoing before he took over as business manager nearly three years ago.

He praised the company and its president and CEO, David Morphis, for being receptive to the IBEW. Local 428 Assistant Business Manager Mark Dewey, the Ninth District office and the local NECA chapter also played key roles in getting the deal finished, Holt said.

"Even working on the details of the transitional agreement, it never felt like a negotiation," he said. "It was a team effort, and I could not feel more proud of the team. We're looking forward to working with the Braun companies."