In January, the Biden administration announced an additional $623 million in federal funding to build electric vehicle charging stations across the country. This was on top of the more than $7 billion invested as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which was signed into law in 2021.

It also served as a reminder for IBEW members to receive the proper training so they are ready for these projects.

"Thousands, if not millions, of these charging stations are going to be installed to meet demand," Construction and Maintenance Director Matt Paules said. "We need to do that work."

Indeed, White House Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi mentioned the Brotherhood during a call with reporters alongside Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

"When those chargers go into the ground, we've got the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers — good paying union jobs being spurred in communities from coast to coast — to do the work."

Members got an inside track at building the emerging EV network when the Transportation Department recommended in 2022 that the Brotherhood's Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Training Program serve as the preferred national training standard. The program had been in existence for nearly 10 years and was developed by the IBEW in conjunction with its signatory contractors and other industry partners.

In some areas of the country, the demands of those signatory contractors will put even more emphasis on IBEW members performing the work.

Jacksonville, Fla., Local 177 Business Manager Alan Jones noted that Miller Electric, which is based in Jacksonville but is a leading signatory in much of the country, wants to have a major role in electric vehicles and the charging stations.

Miller also provides about 75-80% of Local 177's work, Jones said. It's obviously an important relationship and another reason to ensure that enough members take part in the training.

Jones said he urges all Local 177 members to do just that.

"Miller Electric is going after this," he said. "They've done their research. They're not going to throw money after nothing."

"I see all the potential," Jones added. "The IBEW is ahead of something instead of chasing it. Sometimes, it seems like when new technology is out, we're chasing it. I want to see our guys doing this work instead of the unrepresented electrical worker."

In California, one of the leading states in the transition to electric vehicles, San Diego Local 569 members trained in the EVITP program are installing chargers at several stations, including the Chula Vista Metropolitan Transit Service Facility and Kaiser Permanente San Diego Medical Center.

Boston Local 103 landed about $95 million in EV-related work in 2023, ranging from local and state governments to car dealerships to private homes, Business Manager Lou Antonellis said.

"That's a decent amount of work, and it runs the whole gamut of projects," said Antonellis, who expects that work to continue to grow.

Rod Zink, director of business development for White Electrical, an Atlanta-based signatory, said the company's work on charging stations has increased steadily since it signed up as a partner at EVITP.org in 2021. Recently, White has begun taking on larger installation projects instead of ones that required just one or two charging stations.

Zink, whose company has operations in six southern states, said the demand will only continue. Being part of the EVITP program has made White more visible in the industry, he said.

"It's the source of many opportunities," said Zink, who said he signed up for the program at the suggestion of Terry Reynolds, a Fifth District international representative for business development. "I've had many people call me and say, 'We found your contact information off this site.'"

Those new partners also have helped White make inroads into other forms of clean energy, particularly solar.

"The EV business is obviously going to continue growing," he said. "The great thing we've found is that the consultants or contractors we've met who are involved in this are pretty loyal. If they have that work, we win the work."

Members can sign up for the training at their local's Joint Apprentice Training Center or Electrical Training Alliance centers. Training also is available online. Members, contractors and other industry partners also can go to EVITP.org.

There are about 165,000 EV chargers in the U.S., Zaidi told reporters in January. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act calls for 500,000 to be built by 2030.

EV sales in the U.S. have quadrupled to 1 million per year since Biden took office in 2021, the administration said.

"We're at a moment now where the electric vehicle revolution isn't coming," Buttigieg said. "It's very much here."

While progress has been made, it's a revolution that IBEW leadership encourages members to play a huge part in, especially as new work rolls in.

"We want to do that work, and we should be doing that work," Paules said. "As the industry grows and our signatory contractors continue to bid on it, we have to have a trained workforce ready to do so."

The numbers tell the story: Nearly 200,000 new union members in 2023. Contract victories with double-digit raises for nearly 1 million workers. Soaring support for unions, with favorable feedback from 70% of poll respondents overall and a whopping 88% of young people.

America's unions have more momentum than they've had in decades, spurred by a booming economy; millions of new jobs; and a pro-union, pro-growth White House whose policies are making it all possible.

"In my IBEW career, there has never been so much progress on so many fronts so swiftly," International President Kenneth W. Cooper said.

"The Biden administration's strategies are paying off beyond our wildest dreams — and our dreams were already pretty big," he said. "Infrastructure, technology, manufacturing, growing the economy, creating good union jobs, expanding workers' rights — President Joe Biden is succeeding at all of that and more."

Data released in late January affirm those achievements. The economy grew by 3.1% in 2023, shocking many economists who'd predicted a downturn after 1.9% growth was recorded in 2022.

The chief economist at Moody's Analytics, which advises businesses and investors, had nothing but praise for the 2023 numbers in an interview with The Washington Post.

"It's just a perfect report: strong growth and low inflation," Mark Zandi said. "Everything contributed to growth: consumers, businesses, government, housing, trade, inventories. All of the economic wheels were moving in the same direction."

Meanwhile, the U.S. Labor Department reported that 191,000 people joined unions in 2023, for a net gain after attrition of 139,000 members. Growth was especially strong among young workers and people of color, with representation for Black workers up 13.1%

Most media coverage, however, struck a negative tone, leaving out vital context and spinning the fresh data to suggest that unionization is on the decline.

"Unions are growing, full stop," Cooper said.

The fallacy involves union density. As a percentage of the total workforce, unionized workers are down by a tiny fraction — a result of the exploding job market, not a sign of decline.

"We're talking about 7.5 million new jobs in the past two years, a pace faster than the labor movement's been able to keep up with," Cooper said, stressing that the IBEW and fellow unions are working as fast as they can to close the gap.

AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, an IBEW sister out of Portland, Ore., Local 125, echoed that commitment.

"Organizing is happening at a rate not seen in generations, and new federal investments by the Biden administration in emerging sectors of the economy are creating more opportunities for workers to attain good union jobs," Shuler said.

She also applauded the historic 2023 strikes by health care workers, autoworkers, screenwriters and actors, and scores of smaller walkouts that also led to substantial gains. "Some 900,000 union members secured double-digit wage increases in their new contracts," she said. "That's the power of solidarity."

Even without contract battles, unionized workers are pocketing more money than those without representation, as wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics confirmed again in 2023. On the union side, wages were 15.9% higher than at nonunion workplaces. That translated to median weekly earnings of $1,263 versus $1,090 for nonunion workers.

Americans are paying attention, with polls showing that 60 million workers would join a union if given the opportunity. Roughly seven out of 10 people polled say they support unions, with approval among young people flirting with 90%.

Positive data and polls aren't the only measurement of labor's new clout. From Day One of the Biden administration, policies, executive orders, legislation and pro-worker appointments to key positions have made a night-and-day difference.

"The administration is consulting us and listening to us — particularly the IBEW, but also labor at large — more than any past White House, even the friendliest ones," said Austin Keyser, assistant to the international president for government affairs.

"In less than two years, we met every original goal we set in our policy playbook when President Biden took office," he said. "It's not just that he pushed through the $1 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and other record funding packages. He and our allies in Congress insisted that unprecedented labor standards were attached to those bills — project labor agreements, prevailing wage, apprentice ratios and other language directly affecting IBEW members' rights, wages and safety."

Whether those victories and the rest survive into 2025 and beyond lies with the 2024 elections, results that Keyser and Cooper said will either accelerate progress for workers or slam on the brakes.

"With our voice and our votes for President Biden and a pro-worker Congress, our gains will multiply and become part of the fabric of America, empowering working people for decades to come," Cooper said. "We can't let this moment slip away. To put it mildly, the alternative is grim."