San Diego Local 569 is celebrating its largest electrical contractor signing since the local was chartered in 1920.

"Ace Electric is a powerhouse," Business Manager Jeremy Abrams said. "These 85 newly organized brothers and sisters are a testament to the power, vision, determination and solidarity that defines our local."

With Ace's nearly 30 years of experience on more than 1,000 projects, "their portfolio speaks volumes," Abrams said.

Some of Ace's most visible work can be found at Southern California landmarks such as San Diego State University's Viejas Arena and Aztec Aquaplex, the San Diego Sports Arena and San Diego International Airport. The firm also serves federal, industrial, health care and renewable energy customers, and it has been working at schools around the area under project labor agreements.

Abrams stressed that getting Ace to sign took effort. "We reached out to them about five years ago," he said.

Since then, several important changes — at Ace and in San Diego — worked in the IBEW's favor.

One of the most significant shifts came after a decade-long flurry of political activity by Local 569 and brothers and sisters in San Diego's building trades unions to help flip the City Council to a solid labor-friendly majority and persuade voters to overturn a 10-year-old citywide ban on PLAs.

"IBEW members knocking on doors, rallying and addressing City Council paid off," Abrams said.

Earlier this year, IBEW members cheered as the council approved a blanket PLA for nearly all city-funded construction, making San Diego the first major U.S. city to require such agreements between building trades unions and project contractors. (Learn more in the January 2023 and April 2024 editions of The Electrical Worker.)

PLAs come with a host of proven advantages for all involved, such as better pay and greater security that projects will get completed by highly trained workers on time, under budget and correctly.

"Local 569 and the building trades in San Diego have made it a priority to elect candidates who support working families," said Ninth District International Vice President David Reaves.

As a result, Abrams said, San Diego is positioned better than ever to compete for lucrative state and federal projects that require PLAs, while unionized signatory contractors like Ace have an edge on gaining work over their low-wage, nonunion competitors that bid on those jobs.

"There could be decades of consistent work on the way for our members," Abrams said.

Amid this favorable shift in San Diego's political winds, Abrams said, "we continued building a relationship with Ace."

Over time, Ace's owners recognized that Local 569's signatory contractors are the future of electrical work in the region, Abrams said, and they knew their company needed to be a part of it.

"They said, 'Unions do so much work here, and we want to be on your side,'" the business manager added. "For us to get that many new members almost overnight is super exciting."

Since the signing, Ace has continued to find solid success in school and public works projects, and the company is winning more work, thanks largely to its new alliance with Local 569.

"They want to meet our friends, and we want to meet theirs," Abrams said. "We're not done yet."