The organization now known as the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers was founded in 1891, two years before George Westinghouse won the electric current wars by lighting the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition with alternating current, and before homes and businesses in the United States had begun receiving electricity. It is an international organization, based on the principle of collective bargaining. Its international president is Kenneth W. Cooper and is affiliated with the AFL–CIO.[citation needed]
The beginnings of the IBEW were in the Electrical Wiremen and Linemen's Union No. 5221, founded in St. Louis, Missouri in 1890.[8][9] 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.[citation needed]
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 resolved strikes in the IBEW's jurisdiction in the construction industry.[citation needed]
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.[citation needed]
Today, the IBEW conducts apprenticeship programs for electricians, linemen, and VDV (voice, data, and video) 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 little or no 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 courses, supplementary training, and pre-exam courses.[citation needed]
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.[citation needed] In 1988, 30 percent of American construction work was unionized while the IBEW had 40 percent of electrical-related construction.[10] Membership as of 2020 stands at about 775,000, according to their official website.[citation needed]
The IBEW supports new construction of nuclear power plants in the United States.[11]
An electrician is a tradesperson specializing in electrical wiring of buildings, transmission lines, 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 specialize in wiring ships, airplanes, and other mobile platforms, as well as data and cable lines.
A lineworker constructs and maintains the electric transmission and distribution facilities that deliver electrical energy to industrial, commercial, and residential establishments. A lineworker installs, services, and emergency repairs electrical lines in the case of lightning, wind, ice storm, or ground disruptions. Whereas those who install and maintain electrical wiring inside buildings are electricians, lineworkers generally work at outdoor installations.
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The National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) is a trade association in the United States representing the electrical contracting industry through advocacy, education, research, and standards development.
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The International Brotherhood of Stationary Firemen (IBSF) was an American trade union established in 1898 and affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. The union was established as a mechanism for advancing the collective interests of workers engaged in the operation of steam boilers. Originally limited to stationary firemen, in 1919 the AF of L expanded the organization's jurisdictional mandate to oilers and boiler room helpers, and the name was changed to International Brotherhood of Stationary Firemen and Oilers (IBSFO).
The Cleveland Convention Center labor dispute of 1963 was a dispute between the United Freedom Movement (UFM) and four local unions belonging to the AFL–CIO over the unions' institutional racism against African Americans. The dispute occurred during the construction of the Cleveland Convention Center in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. The dispute erupted on June 25, 1963, when the UFM threatened to begin picketing the convention center construction site. After a series of preliminary stop-gap agreements, a final agreement was reached on July 20 in which the unions agreed to admit blacks as members. This agreement collapsed within four days, and a new, more extensive agreement was reached on August 4 after intervention by the United States Department of Labor. Difficulties ensued implementing this agreement, but the threat of picketing ended on September 15. The August 4 agreement was hailed by civil rights groups and the government as a breakthrough in race relations in the American labor movement.
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Kenneth W. Cooper is an American labor union leader.
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References
1 2 "Who We Are". International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Retrieved November 3, 2023.
↑ Riley, William Bill (2013). "Why the IBEW supports expanding nuclear power generation in the USA". Atoms for Peace. 3 (4): 308. doi:10.1504/AFP.2013.058575.
↑ National Joint Apprenticeship and Training committee for the Electrical Industry. Student Orientation Workbook. Upper Marlboro, MD: NJATC, 2005. Book. Page 193
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