Livelihoods Lost
IBEW, Milwaukee Retool P.R. Lineworkers

Killer Addiction
B.C. Local Provides Life-Saving Overdose Training

Taking Care
Union-Run Clinics Offer Solidarity in Health Care

North of 49°
Trudeau's Pipeline Rescue a Boon for IBEW Jobs

Au nord du 49° parallèle
Le plan de Trudeau pour sauver le pipeline est avantageux pour les emplois de la FIOE

IEC Minutes
January 2018

IMBALANCE OF POWER
One-Party Government Tips
the Scales Against Workers

With crucial midterm elections drawing near, America's working families are being squeezed tighter every day by anti-worker policy decisions from every branch of government.

From the aftershocks of tax cuts to a perilous new era for union members, choices being made by the White House, Congress, the Supreme Court and many state legislatures are threatening family budgets, affordable health care, retirement security, rights at work and other ways working people measure their quality of life.

Voters will decide in November whether the pain recedes or deepens.

"This is the most consequential election of our lifetime," International President Lonnie R. Stephenson said. "We know you've heard that before, but today the party that controls the federal government and most statehouses is doing unprecedented harm to working families, and I guarantee we haven't seen the end of it."

What kind of harm? Average non-management wages are down, not rising as politicians promised when they sold last year's GOP tax cuts. Companies are using the lion's share of tax savings to buy back stock, with little, if any, trickling down to workers. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are targeted to lose a shattering $1.5 trillion, putting their long-term viability at risk if lawmakers fail to act. And Obamacare's most popular provision — the protection of more than 100 million Americans with pre-existing medical conditions — is hanging by a thread after the Justice Department refused to defend it in court.

New laws, executive orders, agency-level rulings and court decisions are steamrolling worker protections. States are repealing prevailing wage laws and pushing right-to-work laws. Federal agencies, led by political appointees openly hostile to workers and unions, are revoking rules that keep workers safe on the job and ensure they're paid what they're owed. The Labor Department late last year killed an Obama-era rule that made 4.2 million deliberately underpaid workers eligible for overtime.

The most brutal blow to unions was delivered by the Supreme Court in late June in Janus v. AFSCME. On top of a rash of rule changes making it harder for workers to organize and bargain collectively, Janus is a crushing decision for public sector union members — including tens of thousands in the IBEW — that is reverberating throughout the labor movement.

There's nothing abstract about the ramifications, Stephenson said.

Stephenson:
Diversity is Our Strength
Cooper: After Janus

William Daniels;
Thomas Reid;
Will Paul;
Jim Ross;
Ed Mings;
Bennie Sandoval

'I Come From Labor': Tenacious Nevada Sister Brings Working Family
Values to Statehouse Race;
50-Year Member, Louisiana Political Heavyweight Calls it a Career

Final Steps in Place for 'True-up' Arbitration After Railroad Members Ratify Agreement;
Sportsmen's Alliance Salutes Local 26 Leader for Conservation Work

The Right-To-Work Scam;
Trump Should Step in to
Save IBEW Jobs;
Grateful for the Brotherhood;
Janus Was the
Tip of the Iceberg

June 2018

Boston Member's Book Shines Light on Women
in the Trades