As the U.S. presidential election campaign captured the world’s attention last September, Hurricane Ike ripped through the Gulf Coast. Far away from the cameras, Beaumont, Texas, Local 479 surged into action, helping its own members recover from the catastrophe and welcoming travelers to bring a battered ExxonMobil chemical plant and a lesser-damaged adjoining refinery back to operation.

Work on the chemical plant, which produces six different substances from petroleum, was completed in late May, putting back to work more than 1,500 production workers and returning much-needed capacity to the U.S. market for synthetic oil.

At its peak, the project employed more than 700 journeymen working for Newtron Inc., one of the largest U.S. signatory electrical contractors, and 70 instrumentation technicians at Paton Engineering and Design Group. Working seven-day, 12-hour schedules, they completed two years of work in four months at the chemical plant that had been flooded with 10 feet of water. Local 479 invited electricians to live at the union hall for up to seven weeks—until housing opened up in the area—and served meals on several occasions. Many of the electricians slept on the floor of the hall or in tents and trailers in the parking lot.

The IBEW's work was "monumental," says Joey James, a 27-year Local 479 journeyman wireman and project manager of Newtron Inc., which has performed maintenance in the refinery and chemical plant for many years. Complicating every aspect of the job was the fact that blueprints and computers were destroyed by the flooding. "Everything was soaked in sea water for four days until we got the water out," says James.

James, whose own home was without electricity for a long stretch, recalls the hardships faced by many of the residents and travelers. After finding out that workers were taking showers from a hose in the janitor’s room, James worked with Local 479 Business Manager David Gonzales to set up an eight-stall portable shower house.

The chemical plant job was the first construction project for Paton, a 25-year-old nonunion firm. Managers contacted Local 479 soon after the hurricane flooded the chemical plant in Beaumont.

Despite potentially severe dangers on the job—including pipelines that remained pressurized and “live” (explosive) hydrocarbons—only two OSHA reportable injuries, a broken arm and a twisted ankle, were recorded.

At safety meetings each morning, James, journeyman Silver Robles and Shop Steward Kirby Smith, Jonesboro, Ark., Local 1516, passed the hat for a fund to help hurricane victims. They collected more than $120,000 over the course of the job. "Nothing goes in the bank," says Robles of the fund that disburses money within a week of collection and is run by a volunteer committee of travelers.

Robles, a member of Coos Bay, Ore., Local 932, took his first referral in Beaumont in October. It was his last job before retiring with 39 years in the electrical trade, much of it spent on the road. The job was a last chance to work some overtime to build up his retirement average.

After almost four decades of traveling, the Beaumont job stands out as special, says Robles, who says that Project Manager James "should get an award, something like 'IBEW Brother of the Year.'"

“If anybody has a chance to go to Beaumont for work in the future, they should help out. This local has a proven track record of brotherhood,” says Robles, who was presented with a gold watch by Gonzales at a January retirement party attended by 100 co-workers.

Many local members were driven out of their homes by the hurricane, says Gonzales. Some had beach cabins that were wiped away. "But they and members from out of town still exhibited the quality and the sense of responsibility that every Brotherhood member brought to this job." The solidarity extended to the community surrounding the plants.

When Beaumont held a volunteer workday, Local 479 donated 1,600 lunches and electricians offered hundreds of hours of free electric work to residents whose homes were damaged.

Camaraderie was high, despite the tough living and working conditions, says James, who laughs when he recalls directing journeymen on the bus to get to the work site after safety meetings. With all of their lunches and tools, the first on the bus couldn’t occupy the front seats without blocking their co-workers. "Back to the front," yelled James each morning.

With 15,000 homes along the coast flooded, Gonzales knew that many of his own members were hurting. While directing the clean-up of the union hall to better serve them, he received a phone call from Paton Engineering and Design Group requesting workers.

Travis Poe, a Local 479 journeyman wireman who topped out of his apprenticeship in 2000 and went to work as a planner-scheduler for Paton in 2007, told managers the IBEW could satisfy their needs. Poe had completed the local union’s 16-week instrumentation course and knew his peers' range of talent. He set up a meeting.

"I gave a sales pitch on the benefits of using union labor," says Gonzales. Paton agreed on the spot to pay union wages and benefits. Gonzales dispatched six instrumentation technicians the next day. Since the engineering staff was "stressed to the max," says Poe, some of the design work and programming functions were turned over to journeymen. "It was bold of Exxon Mobil to trust a new contractor with full responsibility to repair and test vibration equipment that will signal problems in the plant," says Poe.

Power panels, motors and high-voltage switch gears all had to be dried chemically, re-terminated and re-tested. "This is a job you would see on the A&E Channel," says James, who has worked at Exxon as a site manager for six years.

The plant's electrical system needed to be loop tested to validate that all equipment, including alarms, sensors and flow valves were working to specifications.

In the final stage of the project, electricians performed a mechanical integrity procedure checking every device individually to make certain that it would properly shut down in the event of a future catastrophic event.

The work at Exxon Mobil has positioned Local 479 to reap the benefits of one of the largest markets for construction in the U.S. Before the financial meltdown, over $15 billion of projects—primarily in petrochemical and refining—were anticipated for the region over the next five years. Work could be spread out over a longer time span, but prospects for construction are still promising.

With 125 instrumentation technicians already on the books, Local 479 is preparing for new projects. Classes are filled months ahead of schedule.

At a Business Roundtable luncheon, Gonzales says, Exxon Mobil gave full credit to the IBEW for the start-up of the chemical plant. The safety record on hurricane restoration is another testament to the productivity of IBEW labor. "In today’s market, if you don’t have safe work practices, they won’t let you in the gate," says James.

IBEW International President Edwin D. Hill said during a time when corporations are spending millions of dollars to bash unions, our deeds must speak louder than their money. "There is no better testament to the heart and soul and spirit of organized labor than the work of IBEW members in Beaumont, Texas, after Hurricane Ike."