Members at work on Okla. high-rise

Hawaii local challenges corporate greed

North of 49°
First District Engages Next Generation of Electrical Workers

Au nord du 49° parallèle
Le Premier District mobilise la prochaine génération des travailleurs en électricité

IBEW auditor’s report

The year 2011 will be remembered for its high-profile public fights over collective bargaining rights.

Sick of the brawling, elected leaders and residents are looking for pragmatic, mutually-beneficial relationships between city governments, taxpayers and the men and women who keep their lights on, teach in their schools and maintain their roads.

Potosi, a city of 3,000 in southeast Missouri, offers a measure of hope — and some homegrown, IBEW-made solutions.

Collective Bargaining =
Collective Savings

Eleven years after voting to be represented by St. Louis Local 1439, 19 workers who maintain Potosi's gas, water, sewer, streets and wastewater facilities are harvesting the rewards of neighbor-to-neighbor politics, steady community involvement and close attention to the IBEW's image on and off the job. Their gains, starting with a job classification system that reverses years of pay inequalities, are broadly shared.

"Collective bargaining has brought collective savings," says Local 1439 Business Manager Mike Walter, who serves on the International Executive Council as Fifth District representative. "IBEW members in Potosi have powerfully refuted the narrative of unions busting municipal budgets and hurting taxpayers."

Workers' compensation and medical insurance costs have been slashed in the former lead and barite mining city, named after a Bolivian mining town. Safety training, nonexistent before the union, is now widely accepted. Once viewed as ragtag and unprofessional, Potosi's workers are today a proud, uniformed and proficient force.

Hill: Calling Their Bluff
on Taxes
Chilia: Going on the Offense in 2012

Mont. Member Wins Western States Electrical Contest; Phoenix Local Raises Money for Children's Cancer Research

Remembering a Union Man; A Right to Protest?

Md. Soldier Powers up Remote Afghan Base

November 2011

N.Y. Member: 9/11 Memorial Not Just a Job