Specialized apprenticeships across the IBEW are on the way for members who work in the battery and advanced manufacturing industries, thanks to recent efforts from local leaders throughout California and in the union’s Ninth District office.
In June, Ninth District International Vice President David Reaves announced the creation of the Clean Transportation and Advanced Manufacturing Electrical Training Trust. This new initiative seeks to pair IBEW educators with employers to craft apprenticeship and skilled training courses. Training targets include industrial manufacturing technicians, electric vehicle mechanics, and others who work in battery and advanced manufacturing.
Reaves noted that the Manufacturing branch was once the largest in the IBEW, with nearly 400,000 members. The White House’s emphasis over the last 3½ years on infrastructure funding to expand U.S. manufacturing and bolster the country’s supply chain has resulted in nearly 800,000 new domestic production jobs so far, a portion of which has gone to IBEW members.
Boosting domestic manufacturing also has helped reverse a four-decade downward employment slide, brought on by past presidential administrations’ policies that made it easier for corporations to send their industries offshore.
“The unprecedented federal investments from the Biden-Harris administration are creating high demand for skilled workers in the battery and manufacturing sectors,” Reaves said. “The IBEW is ready to meet this moment, and we are bringing national resources to this initiative, spearheaded by local unions, to ensure these sectors are creating middle-class, unionized career opportunities for our members.”
Reaves said the IBEW is speaking with employers about these apprenticeships, which can combine modules created by the Electrical Training Alliance and the National Utility Industry Training Fund with those customized for whatever needs an employer might have.
These new apprenticeships are being designed to leverage the IBEW’s established electrical expertise in a way that gets workers ready for thousands of current and potential jobs in the industrial, manufacturing and technology sectors.
“What’s great about these apprenticeships is that they take what the IBEW already does so well to train our construction members and expand it for those of us who work a new set of employers,” said International President Kenneth W. Cooper.
Reaves noted that his predecessor, John O’Rourke, had seen what was coming in manufacturing and battery work and wanted to make sure the IBEW had a foothold. “He knew it was going to take training to do that, so we kept things rolling and, with help from some of our California locals, built it out from there,” Reaves said.
The Ninth District Battery Committee includes representatives from Diamond Bar Local 47, Los Angeles Locals 11, 18 and 1710, San Diego Locals 465 and 569, and Vacaville Local 1245.
“After we started it here in the Ninth District, we took it to President Cooper, and now we’re rolling it out across the IBEW,” Reaves said.
Training at the union’s JATCs will provide workers with classroom and lab experience to complement the skills they gain on the job. The new trust also will help JATCs adapt to handle such things as manufacturing training or maintenance of zero-emission vehicles.
“Once a company hears that there’s established IBEW training, they get excited about it because a lot of federal funding is tied to having training,” Reaves said.
Some of these companies are national and global, he noted. “You get an agreement in one of their areas, it could leapfrog into their other facilities as well,” he said.
Reaves thanked the business managers who are helping the new trust get off the ground, as well as Ninth District International Representatives Robert Brock and Micah Mitrosky.
“We want to make sure your union is there to help handle the training needs of the current and next generation of workers,” Cooper said. “We see this trust as a way to bring IBEW-backed standards across these critical industries.”