IBEW 226

Imagine spending your days advocating for working people and advocating to business owners, developers, and contractors about why union labor makes projects successful. Talking about skilled workers. Quality craftsmanship, safety, training, accountability and the value of having a workforce that is invested in doing the job right.

Then turning around and walking onto job sites, meeting people you’ve never met, starting conversations, listening to their stories, hearing about their struggles, their families, their hopes, and the things they wish they could change about their lives. Also the ones that tell us to get F****d. That’s the life of a union organizer.

It isn’t about filling a call. It isn’t about getting a name on a list. And it sure as hell isn’t about how many people you can “bring in.” It’s about people.
It’s about having the passion to believe that a working man or woman deserves a fair wage, better working conditions, good benefits, and a retirement they can actually look forward to.

It’s about talking to someone who may have spent their entire career believing they had no other options and showing them that maybe there is a better path. Sometimes after spending your day fighting for working people, you hear people who know nothing about organized labor call us every name under the sun because they have been taught we are no good. Guess what we are right back talking to those individuals and most of the time it ends up in a one on one conversation after work with them telling us how bad they are getting screwed where they are at. What a world.

Not everyone sees the conversations. They don’t see the time away from your family. They don’t see the hours spent building relationships, educating people, answering questions, defending the value of organized labor, or fighting to create opportunities for working families. They don’t see the moments when someone tells you that joining the union changed their life.

That’s the part they don’t understand. A union organizer doesn’t wake up every morning thinking about how many people they can recruit.
They wake up thinking about how they can make the labor movement stronger, how they can help create good jobs, how they can help businesses succeed with skilled union labor, and how many working families they might be able to help along the way. Organized labor was never supposed to be about just one person,It’s about all of us.

In solidarity,

Your local neighborhood organizer
Cooper Melvin
Lane Clark

October 17th @ 7:05 P.M.

This is more than just a picture of solar panels being installed. This is literally a slap in the face to the IBEW and every brother and sister who has fought to build, protect, and advance this work.

They’re posting it for everyone to see, rubbing it right in our faces as if the work we’ve fought for doesn’t matter. This is exactly why jurisdiction matters. This is exactly why solidarity matters. And this is exactly why we have to be willing to stand up and defend our work.

Stand your F****** ground brothers and sisters.

As most know Gordon Ramsey is in town. He said that..

“I had to stop by the union halls in town, and when it comes to electricians, there is only one place to go….the IBEW.”

Real Training, Real Wages, Real Craftsmanship

IBEW Local 226

Don’t forget what organized labor is truly about. It’s not about “me” it’s about “WE.”

It’s about standing together, fighting for each other, and understanding that the strength of the labor movement has never come from one person it comes from all of us standing shoulder to shoulder.

There are a lot of good brothers and sisters in this movement who are willing to educate you, share their experiences, and remind us where we came from. Always be willing to listen. Always be willing to learn. And never forget the people who stood together before us so we could stand where we are today.

A huge thank you to everyone who came out and supported the IBEW Local 226 4th Annual Car Show for Homeless Vets!

This year was our biggest and most successful car show yet. We had more incredible cars, more people come out to support the cause, and most importantly, we raised more money to help homeless veterans in our community.

Just got back from the 41st IBEW Convention,
where Our Business Manager, Brother Tony Cahill, stood up and spoke and addressed all IBEW delegates in attendance on Resolution 41 to defend IBEW work and our jurisdiction against the Carpenters.

That’s what leadership looks like. You don’t sit back and watch our work get chipped away, you stand up and fight for the members who built this organization and the work we have negotiated. It’s our livelihoods, our wages, our benefits, and our future.

Proud to have a Business Manager who is willing to stand up and fight for the IBEW.

We protect our work. We protect our future.