International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
Encyclopedia
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) is a labor union
which represents workers in the electrical
industry in the United States
, Canada
, Panama
and several Caribbean
island nations; particularly electrician
s, or Inside Wiremen, in the construction industry and linemen and other employees of public utilities. The union also represents some workers in the computer
, telecommunications, broadcasting
, and other fields related to electrical work. It was founded in 1891 shortly after homes and businesses in the United States began receiving electricity. Its international president is Ed Hill. The IBEW is affiliated with the AFL-CIO
.
The beginnings of the IBEW were in the Electrical Wiremen and Linemen's Union No. 5221, founded in St. Louis
, Missouri
in 1890. By 1891, after sufficient interest was shown in a national union, a convention was held on November 21, 1891 in St. Louis. At the convention, the IBEW, then known as the National Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (NBEW), was officially formed. The American Federation of Labor
gave the NBEW a charter as an AFL affiliate on December 7, 1891. The union's official journal, The Electrical Worker, was first published on January 15, 1893, and has been published ever since. At the 1899 convention in Pittsburgh
, Pennsylvania
, the union's name was officially changed to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
The union went through lean times in its early years, then struggled through six years of schism during the 1910s, when two rival groups each claimed to be the duly elected leaders of the union. In 1919, as many employers were trying to drive unions out of the workplace through a national open shop
campaign, the union agreed to form the Council on Industrial Relations, a bipartite body made up of equal numbers of management and union representatives with the power to resolve any collective bargaining disputes. That body still functions today and has largely eliminated strikes in the IBEW's jurisdiction in the construction industry.
In September 1941, the National Apprenticeship Standards for the Electrical Construction Industry, a joint effort among the IBEW, the National Electrical Contractors Association
, and the Federal Committee on Apprenticeship, were established. The IBEW added additional training programs and courses as needed to keep up with new technologies, including an industrial electronics
course in 1959 and an industrial nuclear power
course in 1966.
Today, the IBEW conducts apprenticeship
programs for electricians, linemen, and VDV installers (who install low-voltage wiring such as computer networks), in conjunction with the National Electrical Contractors Association
, under the auspices of the National Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee
(NJATC), which allows apprentices to "earn while you learn." In Canadian jurisdictions the IBEW does not deliver apprenticeship training, but does conduct supplemental training for government trained apprentices and journeypersons, often at no or little cost to its members. The IBEW local 353 Toronto requires all apprentices to be registered with the JAC (Joint Apprenticeship Council) for a number of safety courses, pre-apprenticeship training, pre trade school coures, supplementary training, as well as pre exam courses.
The IBEW's membership peaked in 1972 at approximately 1 million members. The membership numbers were in a slow decline throughout the rest of the 1970s and the 1980s, but have since stabilized. One major loss of membership for the IBEW came about because of the court-ordered breakup at the end of 1982 of AT&T
, where the IBEW was heavily organized among both telephone workers and in AT&T's manufacturing facilities. Membership stands at about 725,000 according to their own official website.
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
which represents workers in the electrical
Electricity
Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...
industry in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
and several Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
island nations; particularly electrician
Electrician
An electrician is a tradesman specializing in electrical wiring of buildings, stationary machines and related equipment. Electricians may be employed in the installation of new electrical components or the maintenance and repair of existing electrical infrastructure. Electricians may also...
s, or Inside Wiremen, in the construction industry and linemen and other employees of public utilities. The union also represents some workers in the computer
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
, telecommunications, broadcasting
Broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...
, and other fields related to electrical work. It was founded in 1891 shortly after homes and businesses in the United States began receiving electricity. Its international president is Ed Hill. The IBEW is affiliated with the AFL-CIO
AFL-CIO
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, commonly AFL–CIO, is a national trade union center, the largest federation of unions in the United States, made up of 56 national and international unions, together representing more than 11 million workers...
.
The beginnings of the IBEW were in the Electrical Wiremen and Linemen's Union No. 5221, founded in St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
in 1890. By 1891, after sufficient interest was shown in a national union, a convention was held on November 21, 1891 in St. Louis. At the convention, the IBEW, then known as the National Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (NBEW), was officially formed. The American Federation of Labor
American Federation of Labor
The American Federation of Labor was one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States. It was founded in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor association. Samuel Gompers was elected president of the Federation at its...
gave the NBEW a charter as an AFL affiliate on December 7, 1891. The union's official journal, The Electrical Worker, was first published on January 15, 1893, and has been published ever since. At the 1899 convention in Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, the union's name was officially changed to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
The union went through lean times in its early years, then struggled through six years of schism during the 1910s, when two rival groups each claimed to be the duly elected leaders of the union. In 1919, as many employers were trying to drive unions out of the workplace through a national open shop
Open shop
An open shop is a place of employment at which one is not required to join or financially support a union as a condition of hiring or continued employment...
campaign, the union agreed to form the Council on Industrial Relations, a bipartite body made up of equal numbers of management and union representatives with the power to resolve any collective bargaining disputes. That body still functions today and has largely eliminated strikes in the IBEW's jurisdiction in the construction industry.
In September 1941, the National Apprenticeship Standards for the Electrical Construction Industry, a joint effort among the IBEW, the National Electrical Contractors Association
National Electrical Contractors Association
The National Electrical Contractors Association, or NECA, is a trade association in the United States that represents the $130 billion/year electrical contracting industry. NECA supports the businesses that bring power, light, and communication technology to buildings and communities...
, and the Federal Committee on Apprenticeship, were established. The IBEW added additional training programs and courses as needed to keep up with new technologies, including an industrial electronics
Electronics
Electronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...
course in 1959 and an industrial nuclear power
Nuclear power
Nuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and electricity. Nuclear power plants provide about 6% of the world's energy and 13–14% of the world's electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for about 50% of nuclear generated electricity...
course in 1966.
Today, the IBEW conducts apprenticeship
Apprenticeship
Apprenticeship is a system of training a new generation of practitioners of a skill. Apprentices or protégés build their careers from apprenticeships...
programs for electricians, linemen, and VDV installers (who install low-voltage wiring such as computer networks), in conjunction with the National Electrical Contractors Association
National Electrical Contractors Association
The National Electrical Contractors Association, or NECA, is a trade association in the United States that represents the $130 billion/year electrical contracting industry. NECA supports the businesses that bring power, light, and communication technology to buildings and communities...
, under the auspices of the National Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee
National Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee
The National Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee is a non-profit organization created in 1941 by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the National Electrical Contractors Association...
(NJATC), which allows apprentices to "earn while you learn." In Canadian jurisdictions the IBEW does not deliver apprenticeship training, but does conduct supplemental training for government trained apprentices and journeypersons, often at no or little cost to its members. The IBEW local 353 Toronto requires all apprentices to be registered with the JAC (Joint Apprenticeship Council) for a number of safety courses, pre-apprenticeship training, pre trade school coures, supplementary training, as well as pre exam courses.
The IBEW's membership peaked in 1972 at approximately 1 million members. The membership numbers were in a slow decline throughout the rest of the 1970s and the 1980s, but have since stabilized. One major loss of membership for the IBEW came about because of the court-ordered breakup at the end of 1982 of AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
, where the IBEW was heavily organized among both telephone workers and in AT&T's manufacturing facilities. Membership stands at about 725,000 according to their own official website.
List of International Presidents
- Henry Miller (1891-1893)
- Queren Jansen (1893-1894)
- H. W. Sherman (1894-1897)
- J. H. Maloney (1897-1899)
- Thomas Wheeler (1899-1901)
- W. A. Jackson (1901-1903)
- Frank Joseph McNultyFrank Joseph McNultyFrank Joseph McNulty was a one-term Democratic U.S. Representative from New Jersey.McNulty was born in County Londonderry, Ireland, but immigrated to the United States with his parents in 1876. The family settled in New York City.From 1903 to 1918, McNulty served as President of the International...
(1903-1919) - first full-time, paid president of the union; elected at Salt Lake City Conference in 1903, retired at New Orleans Conference in 1919 - James Patrick Noonan (acting president, 1917, president 1919-1929) - died in office
- Henry H. Broach (1929-1933)
- Daniel (Dan) W. Tracy (1933-1940)
- Edward J. Brown (1940-1947)
- Daniel (Dan) W. Tracy (1947-1954)
- J. Scott Milne (1954-1955)
- Gordon M. Freeman (1955-1968)
- Charles H. Pillard (1968-1986)
- John Joseph (Jack) Barry (1986-2001)
- Edwin D. (Ed) HillEdwin D. HillEdwin D. Hill is an electrical worker, labor union activist and labor leader in the United States. Since January 2001, he has been president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers , AFL-CIO....
(2001-present)