'Light at the End
of the Tunnel'
Ohio Apprentice
Honored in D.C.

IBEW Volunteers
Light Up Navajo Nation
Dozens of Homes Wired
for the First Time

Ohio Members Fuel Nuclear Energy's
Next Generation
Local 575 Works First
U.S. Uranium Startup
in Decades

North of 49°
Edmonton Member Earns National Honor for Safety, Performance

Au nord du 49° parallèle
Une membre d'Edmonton reçoit un prix pour la sécurité

Randy Ruth

Boston History Trail
Honors IBEW Sister
Julia O'Connor

THE IBEW DECADE
Electrical Work Is in Demand Like Never Before — Here's How We Win It

The boom-and-bust cycles of the electrical construction business will be little more than a memory over the next decade. The demand for electrical workers will outstrip the current supply of electricians across North America until well into the 2030s.

Since 2020, records have been set in segment after segment of the industry. First it was solar and grid storage. Then data centers, airports and semiconductor factories. Rural broadband rollouts, a U.S. manufacturing surge and unprecedented investments in infrastructure followed.

As 2025 starts, everything is in overdrive.

Over the next eight years, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects there to be more than 80,000 new electrician jobs per year, double the rate of growth for any other skilled trade and nearly three times the rate of growth for all other jobs combined.

"As big as we were always thinking, we were thinking too small," said International President Kenneth W. Cooper. "Record demand for our construction members is not in two, three or six industries — it's every industry. It's not most of North America — it's everywhere. A boom of booms."

The size of the opportunity facing the IBEW is nearly impossible to overstate. Last year, the IBEW hit a construction membership all-time high with nearly 460,000 by adding more than 17,000 new members, a record gained.

In the first three months of this fiscal year, the union is already more than halfway to last year's addition.

"We've never had more construction members, and this is the fewest we may ever have," said Adrian Sauceda, director of inside construction organizing. "The best organizing tool there is is to be put immediately to work in a career with better pay and benefits, and we have that everywhere."

Cooper:
Our Moment Is Here
Noble:
Solidarity in the New Year

NLRB's Captive Audience Ban Opens Door to Organizing, but Locals
Urged to Act Fast;
Where Workers
Won in 2024;
Philly Local Offering Apprentices Fast Track
to College, Grad Degrees

Group Effort Brings in Hundreds of Manufacturing Members in Texas

SELCAT Forges Lineworker Training Agreement With N.C. Community College;
No More Porta-Potties: British Columbia Requires Flush Toilets on
Construction Sites;
Alaska Members to Install High-Speed Internet for State's Remote Population;
Richmond, Va., Passes Prevailing Wage After IBEW, Building Trades Campaign;
Hollywood Local Secures Contract Wins as It Marks Century of Solidarity

November 2024

B.C. Member and Wife Feed Those in Need, Putting 'People Over Profit'