A quadrupling of membership in the past four years helped Raleigh, N.C., Local 553's Rob Axford capture the Organizing Business Manager of the Year award at the IBEW's 2024 Membership Development Conference in Chicago, an honor he calls "overwhelming."

"I always have strived to be as good as the other business managers in the IBEW, the fierce, super-intelligent business managers that are steering those ships with thousands of members," said Axford, who has served as Local 553's business manager since 2018.

For a long time, Local 553 "was a small local with very few contractors working in that area," said Tenth District International Vice President Brent Hall. When Axford took over, the local's membership figure hovered around 100, with members frequently needing to travel to find work.

In each of the last four years, however, Local 553 has landed on Membership Development's list of top 20 organizing locals, with its numbers rocketing from 200 in 2020 to more than 850 as of press time.

"We're still growing, of course," Axford said. "Every day, there's somebody taking the IBEW oath in the front of the hall."

Tenth District International Representative Chuck Moore, who services Local 553, noted that the IBEW Constitution lists "establishing friendly relations with employers" as one of a business manager's top responsibilities.

"That's what Rob has done," Moore said. "He has really developed that trust with local contractors. They're growing because they trust him. He gets them on board and shows them that the union isn't bad and what the benefits of working with us are."

Axford added: "We've been doing everything we can to advocate for contractors. All I'm interested in is the results."

North Carolina and the other states in the IBEW's Tenth District — Arkansas, Tennessee and South Carolina — have enacted right-to-work laws that attempt to kneecap unions by letting bargaining-unit workers enjoy all the benefits of being in a union without having to pay for things like contract negotiations or enforcement.

"When I came in as vice president, I told everybody, 'Right-to-work is a hurdle that we can see, so let's just put that to the side,'" Hall said.

Axford said he welcomes any opportunity to grow the local, such as by supporting pre-apprenticeships and filing grievances tactically and by encouraging younger members' participation in RENEW and starting up social events like picnics.

"We continue to try to do as much as we did last year, this year," said Axford, who recently marked 30 years of IBEW membership. "The name of the game is jurisdictional workers and trying to support our contractors and get more contractors."