To driving hard rock guitar riffs, the Membership Development Conference opened in Atlanta on Monday, Oct. 15, with a rapid-fire slide show emphasizing the theme of the gathering – IBEW: The Right Choice.
Florida, the site of an intense two-year-old organizing drive, is showing membership gains of 12 percent, thanks to new job classifications, new organizing methods and new ways of thinking that embrace change and innovation. Fourteen hundred delegates gathered in the vast ballroom of a downtown hotel to celebrate recent gains, compare notes and answer the call to organize from IBEW International President Edwin D. Hill, who told them, thanks to their ongoing efforts, “We’re back on track.”
Hill Rallies Delegates with
Stirring Call to Action
“Join hands with me, brothers and sisters, to draw new men and women into our ranks and make that river of dreams a mighty force for progress, justice and all that is good in our society … Let’s stand together and carry the dream forward.”
With these words, IBEW International President Ed Hill concluded a rousing keynote address to the 2007 Membership Development Conference in Atlanta a speech that had the delegates on their feet cheering.
President Hill focused his speech on the steady progress made by the IBEW in organizing over the past several years with the need for continued hard work to increase the ranks of the Brotherhood. “I see signs all around that we are headed in the right direction. Instead of wallowing in darkness, we are turning on the lights. We have evidence that more and more workers in our industries are finding that the IBEW is the right choice,” he said.
President Hill recounted how Florida was the site of the first IBEW statewide initiative where new strategies and tactics were put to use. He told the delegates that the same game plan was being initiated in the Carolinas, Tennessee, Texas, Georgia and other areas with increasing success.
In speaking of the next steps to be taken, President Hill stressed the need for continued organizing efforts and especially greater involvement by IBEW members in order to build a truly revitalized labor movement.
“Like the powerful river that pushed us to where we are, we must fight to gain the strength to go against the current of adversity. And we can only do that by gathering strength from the contributions of many, until our power is great. If we fail to make progress … if we do not get the renewed strength of others joining us or participating, then we stagnate, and our Brotherhood is in jeopardy, just as it has been. Only this time, we may not be afforded another chance.”
President Hill spoke about new policies and new tools that are in the works to help foster the IBEW’s organizing goals. He said that inaction on the grounds of being too busy is no longer an excuse and that he will be visiting those locals who do not organize. “Life is about to get a lot more interesting,” he promised.
President Hill thanked the delegates for their personal commitment to the future of the Brotherhood and called on their continued dedication to the goal.
“The IBEW has been worthy of our faith and our belief. It has been the means by which generations of our members have worked together to achieve great things… This movement of ours must go on and will go on. It must live in all of us and put the fire of desire in our bellies and the fire of determination in our spirits.”
Buddy Satterfield, Special Assistant to the International President for Membership Development, said the meeting is the largest leadership conference in the Brotherhood. “There is nobody I respect more than the people in this room,” he said, marveling at the positive change that the union is undergoing. “You can feel it, you can sense it, you can see it. If we continue to do the right thing, truly lead, our members will follow.”
Fifth District Vice President Joe Davis welcomed the delegates to the district, home to the Florida effort and the recently launched Georgia Initiative. He also recognized Atlanta’s host locals, which represent workers from each branch of the IBEW: 84, 613, 632, 1193 and 2127.
Longtime labor supporter and civil rights pioneer Rep. John Lewis (D-GA-05) also addressed the delegates. A leader of the civil rights movement, he has represented in Congress the people of Atlanta since 1987. “The members of the IBEW have been loyal and dedicated friends since the beginning, and I never forget my friends,” Lewis said.
Satterfield reported on one industry night which in Florida alone brought out more than 1,200 nonunion electricians to meet with IBEW signatory contractors and organizers in September.
He also emphasized the importance of every local in the Brotherhood volunteering their time and energy for organizing campaigns. “When I asked locals for help, they have always told me ‘anything you need brother, we are there to help’… I haven’t seen that kind of labor solidarity in a long time.”
Satterfield spoke of the importance of the theme of the conference, “IBEW… The Right Choice.”
“We need to make that slogan known, from North to South to East to West, to every contractor and nonunion electrician,” Satterfield said.
Former Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service director, Richard Barnes, treated delegates to a presentation on promoting positive change in an organization. Successful organizations adapt to change, emphasize teamwork, listen to each other and dare to stray from their narrow comfort zones, he said.
“I’m so thrilled to see this union set out from this mind set,” Barnes said, praising President Hill’s willingness to make mistakes and course corrections. “This is the most progressive union in our nation.”
International Secretary-Treasurer Jon F. Walters reviewed with delegates the successful course of the year’s organizing campaigns which were funded with special dues increase voted on by the last International Convention. “You are proving every day that the direction set by President Hill at our last Convention was the right one,” Walters said.
He also reminded delegates of the challenges that still lay ahead. “The decline of union density is real and threatens our standard of living.”
Gene Morrill, senior staff emeritus at the National Labor Center, gave an interactive presentation about the importance of communication skills in organizing campaigns. “All organizing is communications,” Morrill said. A successful organizer is someone who can listen and use what they learn to persuade nonunion workers to join the IBEW. “If you get the reputation as someone who listens, you will be way ahead of the game.”
Delegates were invited on stage to practice their communication skills with Morrill by playing out skits based on real organizing situations.
Mark Lundholm, a speaker who is hard to categorize, used humor and emotion to impart his points about empowerment and human relations. He emphasized that the differences between people can be used to make a difference for good and spoke forcefully about the obligation we all have to pass on knowledge and experiences to the next generation.
Father John Adamski, from Atlanta’s first Black Catholic church, Our Lady of Lourdes, delivered the invocation.
