IBEW Products, Services Featured at Expo

September 8, 2006

The 2006 Electrical Industry Exposition opened on Friday with a ribbon cutting by President Edwin D. Hill and Secretary-Treasurer Jon Walters before a crowd of delegates and guests eager to visit over 110 exhibits of American and Canadian-made products and services. “The range of vendors here shows the breadth of the industries the IBEW represents in the U.S. and Canada,” said President Hill, welcoming the citizens of Cleveland and thanking them for hosting the 37th International Convention.

Behind President Hill was i-bew, the union’s robot, and the Klein Tools Indy racer, driven by Dario Franchitti, fourth place winner in the 2005 Indy Car series.

From 100 percent union-grown, union-roasted coffee to high-quality lineman’s tools, worker-oriented investment plans and IBEW hats and T-shirts, the Expo has something for everyone.

One booth featured a table full of safety-related literature from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health.  George Kuers, chairman of the labor division of the National Safety Council urged visitors to take some information home and order more of the free materials for their locals.

At the Southern Company booth, Michael Walker, vice president of Tallassee, Ala., Local 904, a fleet technician, explained the scope of IBEW work at the utility.

Visitors were invited to play “Who Wants To Be a Union-aire? a computer interactive quiz on the history of the IBEW produced by the IBEW Research Department.  Visitors could also have their picture superimposed on a special edition cover of the IBEW Journal.

The Expo will be open through Sunday, September 10, at the Cleveland Convention Center.