Built Back Better
Highlights From 3 Years of a Pro-Union Administration

New Chapter in
Labor History
Canada Enacts Anti-Scab Law Unveiled at Local 213

More Resources
for Members

North of 49°
B.C. Local Moves Quickly
to Be First With Veterans Committee

Au nord du 49° parallèle
Le local en C.-B. forme un comité des militaires à la retraite

Wesley Summers

Lighting the Way in
the Halls of Power

The most radical change to the American economy in nearly a half-century is happening now.

After decades of neglect, America is reinvesting in itself, from hundred-billion-dollar factories to a small Wisconsin field on the edge of Lake Michigan, where Racine Local 430 members are racking and connecting the first union-built solar farm in the local's history.

"We're a small local, only 180 people, and until really recently, the biggest job any of us could remember was a hospital that peaked at 65 people," said Business Manager Chris Gulbrandson. "Having 30 members on one job, and a solar job that is just the first of three? That has never happened before."

Local 430 signatory contractors won the job because of provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act that reward companies with a 500% higher tax credit when they build the carbon-free economy using registered apprentices and paying prevailing wages. That economic incentive strongly favors union workers.

"The IRA definitely changed everything," Gulbrandson he said.

The IRA is one of four landmark laws passed by the Biden administration — also including the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and the CHIPS and Science Act — that reversed a half-century of economic policies that punished working families and rewarded corporations for stripping the nation for parts and shipping jobs overseas.

Local 430 is far from alone. More than 11,000 IBEW members are currently working on projects supported by these Biden-era laws. Tens of thousands more are set to work on projects breaking ground in the next 18 months.

"There is no way we have this work without the IRA," Gulbrandson said. "It's a hell of a contrast to what we saw seven years ago."

Cooper:
Our Growing Power
Noble:
Focused on Jobs

Todd Newkirk;
Al Davis;
Danielle M. Eckert

For Workers, High Stakes
in the States;
NLRB's Historic Progress
for Workers Hangs in the Balance;
Inside the GOP Plan to Kneecap Unions;
Decertification: Florida's Battering Ram to Break Down Unions;
The Members and the Work: The IBEW's Nonpartisan Federal Strategy

W.Va. Local's Big New Building Will Deliver
Training Closer to Home;
IBEW Clout at
the White House

June 2024

Wisconsin Member Is 'Problem Solver' on
Local Commission