What does a local do when it has more apprentice applications than available spots and a need for workers in its manufacturing arm? If it's Chicago Local 134, it brings them together for a job fair.

"It couldn't have worked out better," said Local 134 Business Manager Don Finn, who also represents the Fifth District on the IBEW International Executive Council. "It did exactly what we wanted it to do."

Local 134 has the admirable problem of getting, on average, more than 1,000 applicants to its electrical construction and communications apprenticeship while only having about 200 spots available. And recently it got more than 4,000. It's signatory manufacturing companies, however, have been having a hard time filling positions, particularly in the switchgear and lighting divisions. Ryan Madiar, a business agent who handles the majority of Local 134's manufacturing signatories, saw an opportunity to solve both issues at once. They would host a job fair for their manufacturing companies and invite the applicants who didn't get into the construction and communications apprenticeships to attend.

"When there is a need and the IBEW has the means, the IBEW has an obligation to help," Madiar said. "These applicants are motivated and want to be in the electrical industry, and a lot of good candidates are turned away every year. I recognized that this is an untapped labor pool that could be made available to the signatory manufacturers."

The first-of-its-kind event was held in October at the IBEW-NECA Technical Institute with about 20 signatories and close to 300 job seekers attending. About 25 have already been hired, Madiar said.

"We never dreamed what would come through that door," Finn said. "It was a really positive event all around."

Unlike the construction side, manufacturing doesn't have a referral hall for when employers need candidates. That's usually handled by the employers themselves and not all of them have a human resources department to do it. Madiar, who's currently pursuing a master's degree in Professional Studies in Human Resources and Employment Relations, started thinking about how Local 134 could bridge the gap between job seekers who want to work in the electrical industry and employers who need strong candidates.

"I learned about the recruiting process for employers, how expensive and time consuming it can be, and how high employee turnover can negatively impact profitability," Madiar said. "In recognizing the need, I thought about some different options and landed on a job fair. Each of the signatory manufacturers I reached out to immediately said they would participate."

Madiar pitched the idea to Finn and others, including Gene Kent, the director of apprenticeship programs. They were all on board. With very little advertising outside of a flyer that was sent to all the applicants and utilization of long-established networks, they ended up with a turnout that exceeded their expectations.

"It was successful because it was Local 134 reaching out to the applicants with an opportunity to become a member and prospective jobs ready to go," Finn said.

The employers who attended covered a wide range of the industry, including switchgear, lighting, passenger train car, communications systems, appliance repair and generator maintenance. They even had the Museum of Science and Industry participate.

They also collected resumes from each job seeker who attended the fair and created a database that Madiar can now draw from in the event a signatory contacts the hall looking to fill a vacancy. It's a way to keep interested applicants in the Local 134 family, Finn and Madiar said.

"If I could take 4,000 apprenticeship applicants I would, but it's just not possible," Finn said. "We don't want to lose them though. This gets everyone under our roof. At the end of the day, they're all IBEW."

The database is also a way to strengthen ties with signatories.

"A lot of employers said that they didn't have to do recruitment for a year based on the number of resumes they received at the fair," Madiar said. "This saves them time, money and gives our signatory employers a competitive advantage over nonunion rivals."

Madiar also pointed out that someone who doesn't get into the construction apprenticeship but does get hired by a manufacturing company could very well be building the components that inside electricians are installing on jobsites, which gives them an advantage should they decide to apply for the apprenticeship again.

"It provides an alternative career path for apprenticeship applicants that has never been offered before," he said. "And by Local 134 providing more employment opportunities to job seekers in the community, it enhances our already great reputation."

Madiar also sees a potential benefit with future contract negotiations.

"This could strengthen our position at the bargaining table since we're providing a solution to help signatory employers thrive."

The success of the job fair, which Local 134 plans to do again this year, could be another tool for organizing, Madiar said.

"If you think about it, the manufacturing and construction sectors, though treated as separate entities, are intricately connected. One branch feeds the other," he said. "That concept can be applied to organizing."

Madiar noted how in manufacturing organizing, they are competing with other unions, but having the construction and communications apprenticeships as something to offer as a future career option puts the IBEW at an advantage. Someone could start out on the factory floor in a switchgear shop and by the end of their career they could be a foreman, superintendent, or even a business manager.

"Other unions do not have the boundless opportunity in the electrical industry that IBEW apprenticeship programs offer," Madiar said. "The message to workers is that if you join the IBEW, you have more prospects for career growth than any other union or employer out there."

Frank McIntosh wasn't familiar with VEEP. He had not given much thought to being a lineman, either.

But in 2021, his best friend from his early days in the U.S. Army took part in the program at the Lazy Q Ranch in La Grange, Texas, one of the top lineman training programs in the country. McIntosh was stationed at Fort Cavazos near Killeen, Texas, about a two-hour drive away, and his friend stayed with him during breaks in the intensive curriculum.

McIntosh enjoyed his time in the Army, but he and his wife were looking to settle in a community after all the moves brought on by military life. He attended his friend's graduation ceremony from VEEP, which allows active-duty personnel to take part in pre-apprenticeship training while still on active duty.

"I thought, 'Man, I can do this,' said McIntosh, a native of southern New Jersey who was deployed to Eastern Europe, Saudi Arabia and Korea during his nine-year military career. "You make enough money to support a family and work outside. It's all the things I enjoyed about the Army, except I get to sleep in America at night."

McIntosh was part of his VEEP graduation class at Lazy Q last December. He's now an apprentice lineman and a member of Kansas City, Mo., Local 53. He found himself working on a project in Minnesota in mid-January.

"Anyone who does well in the military can do well in the line trade," he said.

"Everything you work with is heavy. Everything can crush you. You have to keep your head on a swivel and be situationally aware. You have to trust the guys around you that they're not going to put you in a bad spot."

The year 2024 was a groundbreaking one for the outside curriculum portion of VEEP. The Veterans Electrical Entry Program was founded in 2019 by the IBEW in conjunction with the National Electrical Contractors Association and Electrical Training Alliance to ease veterans' transition from active duty to civilian life.

Veterans have attributes that make them ideal for an electrical career, such as working with advanced technology and a deeply ingrained sense of teamwork, so VEEP allows them to complete a pre-apprenticeship program.

It helps them better adapt to real-life stresses and provides the IBEW a group of new members who previously might have been harder to reach. There are pre-apprenticeship programs in VEEP for both inside and outside construction.

Lazy Q partners with VEEP for a 16-week pre-apprenticeship program. Tuition and fees were waived for all participants, who received health insurance while taking part in the program.

Participants received 800 contact hours in the field during the 16 weeks at Lazy Q. That gives them a big step up in their careers. Labor Department guidelines require an apprentice to have a minimum of 144 contact hours per year for three years.

VEEP graduates are slotted into apprenticeships at one of nine AJATCs across the country. McIntosh is one of 365 graduates to date.

"It's very competitive to get in and graduate," said Jason Iannelli, the Electrical Training Alliance's Director of VEEP. "There's no guarantee. Our students earn their seat every single day.

"Wherever they go for that first job, they will be very well prepared for it," he added. "It's very important we give the industry a candidate that is ready on Day 1. If we send them one who is not, the next time I call a training coordinator and ask them to take [a VEEP graduate], they'll say, 'We're good, the last one didn't work out too good.'"

Utility Director Donnie Colston, who worked for many years as a utility lineman, said the job is a 24-hour, seven-day assignment. Companies and utilities must respond quickly in emergencies, and it's a point of emphasis made during the interview process.

Many potential apprentices have a hard time understanding that they must ready whenever called upon, he said. Those with a military background generally do not.

"These workers understand the responsibility to report when you are needed most," Colston said. "Military applicants are dedicated and committed to reporting for work and emergency response. I have been very impressed with their desire to learn all aspects of the training to be a successful lineworker."

Lazy Q gets its name from Quanta Services, a Fortune 500 company that provides infrastructure for electrical, industrial and communications projects.

Another benefit of the program: VEEP participants learn about the importance of solidarity and union membership.

McIntosh, who was a staff sergeant when he left the Army, said he wasn't exposed to unions while growing up and knew little about them until being accepted into VEEP.

He appreciated being taught the importance of taking calls and how Local 53 will help him find a job even when work cools off. McIntosh, 29, and his wife plan to settle in eastern Kansas not far from Kansas City.

"There's no other school that pays and houses and feeds you to learn how to build power lines," he said of his time at Lazy Q. "As far as line schools go, you can't beat it. There's no other program like that."

Thanks to the IBEW and other members of the Affiliated Construction Trades Ohio Foundation, guidance counselors in the Buckeye State will now have the information they need to present trades apprenticeships as a viable career option on par with four-year colleges and the military.

"We need to educate the educators on the benefits of a construction career path," Fourth District International Representative Ed Moore said. "Counselors are on the frontlines in the schools, helping students make determinations on their future. By exposing them to our exceptional apprenticeship training centers and providing critical information about our programs, we can create thousands of advocates across Ohio that will point young people our way."

The training program, developed by ACT Ohio with early help from TradesFutures, part of North America's Building Trades Unions, is the product of a law passed last year with bipartisan support and signed by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine.

"This wasn't aligned with a D or R political ideology," said Kitty McConnell, ACT Ohio's director of marketing, communications and outreach. "It's just good policy for hardworking tradespeople."

McConnell said the initiative focuses strictly on workforce development in one of Ohio's most in-demand occupational segments: construction. In fact, building trades apprenticeship enrollment comprises half of all such enrollments across all industries.

Counselor training is required at a joint labor-management registered training center, and about half have been scheduled at IBEW JATCs, including the first one, hosted by Newark Local 1105 in October. More than 1,500 counselors have registered so far, with about 2,000 expected every year, Moore said.

The training, which applies to counselors who work with students in grades 7-12, consists of four hours of multi-trades curriculum based on TradesFutures' educational material. Each session begins with an overview of Ohio's building trades, the current employment market for skilled tradespeople and a mapping of the registered apprenticeship system in the state. The final hour of the session consists of a tour of the training center and a question-and-answer period with instructors and apprentices.

The training at Toledo Local 8 went longer than expected because the counselors had so many good questions, Training Director Glenn Rettig said.

"The counselors liked the Q and A," Rettig said. "They seemed very interested in the opportunities that our apprentices have. Exposing them to the cost of the training along with the pay and benefits a unionized worker can make was a real eye-opener for them."

McConnell said Ohio policymakers have long been concerned with providing graduating students with relevant skills and information needed to find careers in the state's in-demand sectors. They've made it a priority to advance apprenticeships, and the counselor training requirement is part of that.

"Union apprenticeships are the best kept secret in the United States," Fourth District International Vice President Gina Cooper said. "They provide all the training, job placement, good wages and benefits at no cost to the student, allowing them to graduate debt-free with a career in the electrical trades."

Ohio's elected leaders also recognize the economic advantage that a skilled construction workforce provides, McConnell said.

"The quality-of-life outcomes that families and communities experience as a result of these middle-class careers and tuition-free apprenticeships are something every elected official can see in their home districts," she said.

Rettig noted that by educating counselors throughout the state, the pool of potential apprentices will grow.

"Typically, better students are pushed toward four-year degrees, and only vocational students are told about the trades," Rettig said. "The hope is that all students will get information on what these apprenticeships offer. But counselors can't give advice on something they're not exposed to."