The IBEW Changed My Life

This summer, IBEW leaders asked for your urgent help. Our apprenticeships were under attack, threatened by a nonunion contractor-backed Labor Department rule that would allow our competitors to operate second-rate training programs and present them as equal to our own.

More than 65,000 of you, joined by another quarter-million of your union brothers and sisters in other trades, responded by speaking up in defense of the top-quality training you received through the IBEW.

“We don’t yet know how the Labor Department will decide this issue, but I can tell you one thing for certain,” said International President Lonnie R. Stephenson. “IBEW members step up when their livelihoods are under attack, and I couldn’t be more grateful for everyone who took the time to speak out in defense of our apprenticeship training and the quality tradesmen and tradeswomen it turns out each and every year.”

The deadline for submitting public comments to the DOL passed in late August, and by early October the department had processed and posted just under 200,000 of the 325,000 submissions it received.

More than 95% of the comments were from union members urging the administration to exempt the construction industry from its apprenticeship rule. Union leaders hope the overwhelming response will be enough to persuade government regulators.

In addition to their public comments, thousands of members filled out the IBEW’s own survey about their apprenticeships. Those were also compiled and sent to the Labor Department.

The stories that emerged about the IBEW’s role in the lives of its members proved impossible not to share.

Apprentices, like the ones here at Washington, D.C., Local 26’s training center, learn the skills that will prepare them for a long career in the electrical trade. More than 65,000 IBEW members spoke out to the Labor Department in defense of high-quality apprenticeships earlier this year.

“My membership in this brotherhood has meant everything to me and to my family, but I was filled with pride reading the responses from so many of you who felt the same way,” Stephenson said.

“In this month of Thanksgiving here in the U.S., and only a month removed from the celebration in Canada, I thought it was important to take a moment to reflect on how the IBEW and the labor movement has played a role in our lives.”

Because of the nature of the apprenticeship campaign, the stories came primarily from the construction and utility branches across the United States. But IBEW leaders know the union’s effects on members’ lives extend to Canada and across each of the brotherhood’s seven branches.

“We want to give each of our sisters and brothers the opportunity to share their own IBEW story, and we know we’ll be just as moved as more of you reach out,” Stephenson said.

To that end, a new website has been created at IBEW.org/MyIBEWStory where you and your fellow members can share what IBEW membership has meant in your lives and careers.

“Reading these responses brought me back to the start of my own career,” Stephenson said. “I was working in the produce department of a local grocery store during high school, planning to go to college for electrical engineering, when I had a chance meeting that changed my life.

“An electrician, Ray Wells, came into the store on a service call and we got to talking about how you become an electrician. I didn’t have any family in the construction business, but my dad was an auto mechanic part-time, so I grew up around tools and liked the idea of working with my hands.

“Ray sent me to the IBEW hall, Rock Island, Ill., Local 145, where my first-class apprenticeship and a handful of patient, hard-working journeymen taught me the skills I’d need to be successful in this trade.

“I never expected I’d end up as International President of this great brotherhood, but all along the way I had people encouraging me, teaching me, asking me to serve, pushing me to be a leader — demanding excellence.

Baltimore Local 24 wireman Rico Albacarys is part of a series of television commercials featuring the power of the IBEW to change lives. His career in the electrical trade allowed him and his wife, Lauren, to purchase a home for their family and gave him a sense of purpose on the job.

“That’s what this union is all about for me. The Code of Excellence is more than a program we put on hardhat stickers and breakroom posters. It’s a mindset and a way of approaching every little thing we do, whether it’s on the job or in the union hall. I’m proud to be a product of a brotherhood that’s provided for my family and pushed me to be the best at what I do, and I know so many of you are as well.”

The pages in this issue are filled with just a few of the responses pulled from the thousands we received, but they’re stories of veterans and college students, IBEW sons and daughters as well as people who had no connections but came in search of a career to provide for their families. They’re young people just starting out and retirees looking back on long, successful lives — even a few members embarking on second and third careers.

But they all have one thing in common: their membership in the IBEW and the training they received set them up for success and gave them and their families the opportunity for a better life. We hope you’ll share your story as well.

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We want to know how your IBEW membership has changed your life.

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