Card carrying IBEW member here since 1996.
The word “union” is like the word “dog”. Not all of them are the same. A teacher’s union or government union is a VERY different animal than a manufacture’s union or airline union which is also very different from a trade union.
Here’s MY experience with MY union, IBEW Local 26. I got a job as an electrical helper with a small motor control contractor and was told that this is a union shop so I had to go down to this place called “the Hall” and swear in and pay some money. When I asked why, I was told that it keeps the rif raff out and pay’s for the apprenticeship. “Well, what’s the apprenticeship?”, I asked.
“The apprenticeship is a five year program where you learn how to be a JOURNEYMAN INSIDE WIREMAN, which makes you competent to work on commercial and industrial equipment from 0v to 600v AC. The school is free and you get paid benefits, an annuity and a pension, and best of all, once you are a JOURNEYMAN INSIDE WIREMAN you can work anywhere in the US and Canada and have your certification recognized and you can make the “scale” of that jurisdiction.” That sounded cool to me, so I said, “I’d like to be an apprentice and learn how to be an Inside Wireman”. I was told, “get in line, son - LOTS of people want to be an inside wireman. If you ain’t got family in the trade already, it takes a few years to get in”. So I waited two and half years and got in on my third application.
Now I’m a white guy. When I asked some of my Minority brothers (and a few sisters) how long it took THEM to get in, they got in ON THEIR FIRST TRY. That kinda rubbed me the wrong way, but I brushed it off because HEY, IT’S FREE and I’ve been doing this for almost three years now and I’m pretty good at it.
During my apprenticeship, I was indentured. That meant that I had to OBEY the instructions of pretty much any Journeyman Inside Wireman that I was working with. Most of them were very competent tradesman, but then you always had a few that just liked to fuck with apprentices. My “class” started off with almost 200 apprentices. Only about 60 graduated. The school was no joke. If you got less than a 70% on any two tests, you failed. If you missed more than once class a year, you failed. If you slept during class, you failed. If you pissed positive for anything, you failed.
If you didn’t show up to work, you had to go in front of the board and beg to keep your job. It definitely served to weed out the rif raff. If you quit the apprenticeship at any time during the five years, you are required to pay for the cost of your education to that point. They seriously don’t fuck around - it was hard and a lot of people didn’t make it. Most people failed out during the second year when we had to master AC theory - which is some serious math (beyond vector trigonometry). In fact the apprenticeship gives you 60 - 90 college credits depending upon which university you apply to.
It is a VERY high standard that it above and beyond ANYTHING that the non-union schools can provide. The school is amazing. It has computer labs, motor control labs, VFD labs, a training manhole to learn confined space safety, pipe bending labs, high voltage cable splicing, welding, fire alarm, etc… And the emphasis on safety is second to none - each apprentice graduates with an OSHA 40 hr certification.
Once you are a journeyman inside wireman, you are held to a standard. If you install something that is in violation of the current National Electric Code (and it is your job as a PROFESSIONAL electrician to keep current on all of the changes over the years) then you are required to come back ON YOUR OWN TIME and fix your mistakes. We do NOT tolerate incompetence or stupidity. If you fuck up too many times, you will go before the board and they will kick you out. Contractor and customers recognize this…
My union has about 7500 members and serves over 250 local contractors in the DC metropolitan area. Some of them are big shops, some of them are small shops. Some shops specialize, some shops are general. But I can work for ANY of them and know that my benefits will not be interrupted and that I will make at least the prevailing wage. Local 26 has a NO STRIKE CLAUSE in our contract and we negotiate our compensation every three years. We are reasonable and play Win:Win with our contractors, because most of our contractors have owners and stake holders that were once INSIDE WIREMEN!
The level of craftsmanship and quality that we deliver can not be compared to our non-union counterparts. When a job is complete, the workers are laid off and go down to the hall and get sent out with the next company who is hiring. OR, if the company you are with has a lot of work, you are transferred to the next job or kept busy with service work. It’s common to work for twenty or thirty different contractors during the course of a 30 year career (sometimes the same contractor every few years). OR, some guys stay with the same shop for decades. As long as your dues are paid, you are entitled to work with that contractor.
The down side is that if none of the contractors have any work, you “sit on the bench” for sometimes months at a time. You are still expected to pay your dues during that time (there are hardship exceptions that are sometimes made, but you have to go before the board to ask). If you are caught working for a non-union electrical contractor WHILE YOUR NAME IS ACTIVE ON THE BOOK, you are kicked out of the union. Many people travel the country working for various contractors. When I was laid off, I went down south (I detailed this in a thread several years ago). When work picked back up, I came back.
The only non-union shop in our area that competes is MC Dean which is made up of primarily ex-union guys who left for various reasons. Most non union electrical companies in this area do residential or light commercial construction/maintenance. But all of the gov’t work, hospitals, data centers, heavy commercial construction is ALL union around here.
What’s the difference between a Journeyman Inside Wireman and an electrician? Any asshole with a swinging dick and a pair of Kleins can call himself an electrician. Only a person who has graduated from a JATC accredited union apprenticeship can call himself an Inside Wireman.
Can anyone here argue that MY union, Local 26 does not provide value?
My union is VERY different from those assholes shutting down the ports in California. My union is VERY different than the greedy, lazy assholes that drove the car manufacturing industry into the ground in Detroit. My union is VERY different than the government and teachers unions who serve only to protect incompetent idiots and promote them.
Not all unions are the same, yet we are all painted with the same brush and it pisses me off. Many of the members of Local 26 that I know are Conservatives. We recognize that the “good times” were under a free market and business friendly environment. Right now over 90% of the new construction work is in Norther Virginia and DC - MD has simply “regulated themselves out of the market” as far as attracting new business. We see that and we don’t follow the “party line” and just vote democrat.
Our dues pay for our pension, our annuity, the apprenticeship, the salaries of our reps and the lease of our union hall and various buildings. There is VOLUNTARY form you can fill out to have MORE dues taken out of your check for political purposes. No one fills out that form… My dues do NOT support the democratic party. We voted on that decades ago. But we still fight for the RIGHT to organize.
Cliff notes:
Trade unions = good
big company, gov’t, teacher, etc… unions = bad
Non - union trade companies = less competent, less safe, less money, less benefits
Bottom line is you get what you pay for.