As we have been reporting in The Electrical Worker, our economy’s hunger for electrical workers is increasing every year.

AI, electrification and the clean energy transition have created a historic opportunity to grow the IBEW, and we are taking full advantage of it.

We have more “A” members than any time in our history, and we are growing at rates we haven’t seen in decades. The work picture is still slow in some areas, but overall the outlook is as good as I have ever seen it in my career and there is little reason to expect it to slow down anytime soon.

So why am I concerned?

Because last year, we lost a little ground to nonunion in the measure that matters above all others: how much of the electrical construction market is done by our members.

Market share measures our collective power to ensure good wages, decent benefits and a dignified retirement for every electrical worker in North America. Our long-term ability to do that drops with every dollar our members do not earn.

We do very well in new construction for commercial, industrial and manufacturing, and in retrofits and tenant improvement.

But we have been weakened by the growth of the segments we don’t come close to controlling, including small commercial, light industrial, maintenance, upgrades and repair, and nearly all aspects of residential.

This wasn’t always true, and it’s in our power to change. The cover story talks about three powerful tools to win back work we either let go or never had. These tools work. The numbers prove it.

And too many locals are just not using them.

I know how hard it is for local leadership to think about new market segments when there are open calls you’re tearing your hair out trying to fill. The new contractor training, transition agreements and small works agreements are there to make it easier.

You have members eager to go into business. Help them.

You have scrappy, lean contractors with a niche nailed down that would love a partner at the IBEW that would help them crush their competition and own that niche.

You have small jobs in your jurisdiction — the breeding ground for future competition — that could be profitably bid by new or signatory contractors if you just put out the welcome mat of small works agreements.

This isn’t a luxury. It isn’t controversial. And isn’t optional.

Ensuring that we are filling every call must be every IBEW leader’s priority, and these new tools are there to help you get the job done. Maintaining and growing our power in every segment of the electrical construction industry is how we will secure a bright future for current and future generations of IBEW members.