March 2021
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Also In This Issue New Day in Washington
Biden Puts Union Members in Key Administration Positions read_more

Still on Top
Despite COVID Changes,
Members Shine at National Electrical Championships read_more

North of 49°
After Years of Work, Electrical Company's Employees Say 'Yes'
to the IBEW read_more

Au nord du 49° parallèle
Après plusieurs années de travail, les employés d'une compagnie électrique disent « oui » à la FIOE read_more

Grounded in History The IBEW's Historic Firsts read_more

My IBEW Story Michael Boxx read_more

PBF Summary
Annual Report
read_more

PDF

GoGreen

UnionSportsmensAlliance

Change of Address


 

Cover Photo

A YEAR LIKE NO OTHER
IBEW Members Rise to Meet the
Challenges of COVID-19 at Work

For most of us, the pandemic of 2020 has transformed our lives. Commutes, gone. Offices, gone. Drop-offs at school, gone. Sadly, too often loved ones gone as well.

But one of the most remarkable aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic for the members of the IBEW was how often and how often we were called on to maintain stability and provide the foundation that kept life and the rest of the economy from collapsing.

For the last 12 months, our members have made it possible for millions of people to work and study from home. The data centers that made billions of video calls possible were built with our hands. The hospitals, permanent and temporary, were built with our hands. Overnight, the 100-year-old model of where and when power is consumed changed completely — offices never lit up, houses never went dark — and we handled it without skipping a beat.

Someone out there coined the term, "The International Brotherhood of Essential Workers," and it stuck.

It has been a full year since much of North America saw offices and schools shutter. For most of the members of the IBEW, work didn't stop. Our jobs changed. Policies changed. The people we work with changed along with the shape of daily life. But it was still our work, and we did it with pride and a renewed commitment to safety.

And we did the unhappy, necessary work at the darker edges of the pandemic. We built the field hospitals in parking lots and fairgrounds and convention centers. We wired the temporary morgues because it had to be done and we were the ones able to do it.

When work needed to be done, we stepped up. We slept in trailers on parking lots outside grid operation centers.

When we traveled hundreds of miles for mutual assistance work after hurricanes or major storms, we slept in our trucks. We ate alone.

We did it because our families depended on us. Our neighbors depended on us. We did it because it was our job. read_more

  Local Lines and Retirees

Officers Column Stephenson:
One of Our Own read_more
Cooper:
A Year of Adversity read_more

TransitionsJohn A. Hunter;
John P. Widener Jr. read_more

PoliticsBiden Fires Union-Busting NLRB Lawyer, Names Pro-Worker Champion as Chair;
The First Energy Bill in Half a Generation Means IBEW Jobs, Now and in the Future;
House Members Announce Labor Caucus read_more

Organizing WireIBEW Organizing Illinois' Growing Wind Energy Industry read_more

CircuitsTVA Ambassador Program Takes Code of Excellence to
the Next Level read_more

Spotlight on SafetyUnions Make Ontario Jobsites Safer, Study Finds read_more

LettersRemembering a
Lost Brother read_more

In MemoriamJanuary 2021 read_more

Who We AreAlabama Local Offers Opportunity, Hope to Forgotten Men read_more

IBEWMerchandise