A Winning Combination
World's Largest Solar + Storage Project is Transforming the Oil-Rich California Desert

Big Wins for Workers
White House Unveils Worker-First Agenda

The IBEW's Got Talent
Local 3 Member Sings
at NHL Arena He
Helped Build

North of 49°
Canadian Government Promotes Skilled Trades with New Campaign

Au nord du 49° parallèle
La campagne du gouvernement fait la promotion des métiers spécialisés

Christopher Todora

How Locals Get
Their Numbers

NEBF 2022

PBF Summary
Annual Report

Back to its Mission
Labor Board Returns to
Putting Working People First

THE MERCILESS conditions at an eastern Illinois cooking-spray factory cried out for a union.

Poverty wages, grueling shifts, daily indignities and policies so punitive that grieving workers burying family members were disciplined for being absent.

With jobs scarce in their once-thriving industrial region, the owners of Full-Fill Industries believed they held all the cards.

They clung to that belief even as workers bravely organized in 2019, becoming members of Danville Local 538. Management refused to bargain, eroding the unit's support with dirty tricks and withdrawing recognition after a year, all the while shrugging off grievances and unfair labor practice complaints.

Employers knew they had little to fear at the time from a National Labor Relations Board openly hostile to workers and unions.

Then Joe Biden took office and immediately fired the board's virulently anti-union general counsel.

With new lawyers and a board majority reflecting the Biden administration's pro-union values, today's NLRB is a sizzling revival of the agency created 87 years ago to protect workers' rights and encourage collective bargaining.

As swiftly as possible, the new team is undoing the wreckage of its predecessors, rebuilding field staff, and going to the mat for workers in ways that were unimaginable in the recent past.

For the struggling Illinois unit, that means a board willing to fight for them in federal court to force their employer to the table.

"Oh man, politics matter," said Local 538 Business Manager Mike Arbuckle. "If you don't think so, look at how the NLRB is standing up for us. They have our backs and that wasn't true when this campaign started. We'd file ULPs and they weren't going anywhere because of who was sitting on the board."

Stephenson:
A '180' at the NLRB
Cooper:
Rebuilding America
Right the First Time

Stephen Schoemehl;
James E. Meyer

Iowa Plan to Cut Unemployment Benefits
Puts Squeeze on Construction Members;
How Unions Strengthen Communities and
Democracy

BC Local Organizes Workers at Coast Mountain Hydro

Indiana Local Adopts
Sea Cadet Division;
Frustrated Illinois Municipal Workers Turn to the IBEW

The 'Old' LaGuardia Led Me to the IBEW

February 2022

Trailblazing Alabama Member's Passion Is
a Blessing for
Special Needs Community