Former Minneapolis Local 292 Business Manager Pete Lindahl has stayed happily active with the IBEW since his retirement in 2019, thanks largely to the union’s longstanding partnership with the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance.

“It’s easy to do things like that when you really like what you do,” said Lindahl, a longtime USA member and lifelong outdoorsman.

The IBEW was one of the first labor organizations to join the union-based alliance after it was formed in 2007. Since then, USA, now with 350,000 members in the U.S. and Canada, has engaged with countless union men and women and their families on a variety of nature conservation activities that foster members’ connections with their communities — and with each other.

“Most IBEW members are outdoors-type people,” said Lindahl, who joined the IBEW in 1987. “They’re gun owners and hunters. They fish and do other things like that. They get it.”

Lindahl was first elected business manager in 2014 after working the tools for more than two decades and later serving the local as a business agent. Throughout his successive terms as business manager, he supported Local 292 members’ participation in USA-themed events, along with raffles that benefited both the organization and a local food distribution charity. Lindahl also expanded his interest in other alliance-sponsored activities during that time, taking part in events such as sporting clay shoots.

“Minnesota has [the alliance’s] largest attended shoot,” he noted, with members of Local 292 joining dozens of their brothers and sisters from other IBEW locals and other trades. “Probably close to 300 shooters go to it. It’s a ton of fun, it’s a good way to show the value of the USA, and it helps get more members to other events.”

In retirement, Lindahl has remained an active helper and participant in the alliance’s activities, including chairing some of its fundraising conservation dinners.

“Four or five dinners can raise a lot of money,” he said, noting that funds help prove to community officials the alliance’s seriousness when it proposes things like recreational renovations.

“The USA’s projects allow for the different trades to build relationships,” Lindahl said. “For example, if there’s an old fishing pier that’s very popular but it needs to be replaced and they don’t have money in the budget to do that, we can donate the materials, and our time as craftsmen, to build it.”

Signatory contractors often contribute the use of their equipment, too, he said.

“We’ll get a lot of miles out of a project like that because we became partners more with our employers,” Lindahl said, “and we let the public know that we’re here and we’re a value to this community.

“It’s such a fulfilling feeling when you’re a part of it, that you help make it happen,” he said.

When Local 292 hosted a recent conservation dinner at its union hall, Business Manager Jeff Heimerl said, event chairman Lindahl was right there to help.

“It was such a good time,” Heimerl said. “Pete participates in any [alliance] event that comes around. He’s always sending folks to them.”

USA Event Coordinator Eric Bakken also appreciates Lindahl’s passion and reliability. “If it’s folding tablecloths, taking out the trash, helping at registration — whatever it is, he doesn’t care,” Bakken said in an article posted to unionsportsmen.org. “And his relationships are so strong that even years after retiring, he can still make one call and fill a room.”

After Lindahl retired, he worked for companies that helped him forge new friendships with members of the IBEW and other unions across the western half of the U.S. One of those companies was Humana, a national partner with the alliance.

“Humana allowed me to go to all kinds of USA events,” he said. “I probably have done 13 or 14 events every year for the last four years.”

Recently, Lindahl opened his own agency, Northstar Health Solutions, to continue helping members of the IBEW and other trade unions with their health care issues. “Now I can do things the way I want to and put retirees first,” he said.

Lindahl also spends as much of his spare time outdoors as he can.

“In the fall, my go-to is upland bird hunting and deer hunting,” he said. Often joining him are his daughter, Lauren; his son, Jack, a third-year apprentice with Local 292; and their dog, Zetta.

Union Sportsmen’s Alliance CEO Walt Ingram said his organization provides IBEW members many ways like these to unplug, go outdoors, and bond with family and friends.

“Just like union leaders need to educate their members about how to pass on their work of unionism, we also need to be wise stewards of our land and resources and teach people how to connect in the outdoors and pass on that heritage to their families,” Ingram said on a recent episode of “The Line: Leadership to Membership,” the IBEW’s official podcast.

International President Kenneth W. Cooper agreed. “It’s so important to the IBEW that we’re always connected to our communities in every way,” he said on the podcast, which can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube. “But the most important piece of all the outdoor things we do is that camaraderie that we have and the relationships — and the fun.”

Lifetime membership in the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance is free for IBEW members. Visit unionsportsmen.org to learn more.