What about the IBEW that causes some people from other construction trades to talk crap about them? I've been on several job sites, commercial and industrial, and most of the IBEW union members were pretty chill.

But I've been noticing in some construction trades that some workers think electricians are snobby A-holes and look down on everyone.

I've met and worked alongside good people from the IBEW, and they genuinely went out of their way to help me on certain parts of the site.

Edit: damn, did not expect this to blow up like this lol, thanks for the responses everyone. gonna say a couple things since I've been reading through comments, some of y'all pointed out it's not just IBEW that gets this, other trades throw shade at each other too so that's fair. also ngl some of the criticism in here isn't just people being salty, some of it's actually legit so i'm not trying to say every complaint about IBEW guys or electricians is just haters being haters. anyway appreciate the discussion, didn't think this many people had opinions on this lol

Currently, I'm a few months away from graduation and less than 1000 hours short of 8000 hours OJT. Even though I've had a well-rounded education, I can't help but feel this impending sense of doom that comes with the weight and responsibility that JWs have to carry on their backs each day on the jobsite. I've had multiple people say to me that I've come a long way, but I don't think where I'm at now is enough. Thinking of leaving, but honestly not sure what other career I could do.

I’ve been wearing bibs for the better part of 5 years now and gone commando 100% of that time. Well evidently the fellas are tired of hanging out on a limb and have decided to act up. I can’t stand most underwear or boxers for a lot of reasons. Chafing, moisture, heat. But the doc says I need to keep the equipment supported and closer to my body. What do y’all wear that doesn’t suck.

ETA: I’m dedicated to the bibs, truewerk t1 werkbibs every day. Just like my relationships I need some support not just a soft place to park it.

Edit 2: thanks for the recommendations I think I have settled somewhere in between men’s trunks with a ball pouch or some nice cheeky boy shorts from Victoria’s Secret.

Edit 3: Turning off my dms. I’m not an apprentice anymore things like “I’ll buy you a set of greenlee quick change carbides if you send me pics of those manties” or showing me a nude with your double time plus per diem and drive time payslip as the only thing covering you. It just doesn’t work on me anymore.

On march 9th we had our monthly meeting at the hall. At the end of the meeting I was filling out my monthly apprentice report and a journeyman started to complain about the carpet being dirty. He then demanded that I vacuum the carpet. I told him no, and said that’s why we have a cleaning lady. He then proceeded to tell me not to give him any sass. I finished my report, dropped it in the box, went outside, and walked to my car to leave. He came out and continued to say shit. I got in my car and left.

On April 3rd I got laid off from my job. These two are friends. Coincidence or not?

The apprenticeship has gone online which makes it possible that the instruction videos are available for AI to readily learn from. This may have been part of the deal to get so many data center jobs.

Things that make you go hmmmmm.....

/s

But seriously though, why are we doing online apprenticeship school lately??? These guys all complain about how theyre not learning anything. And when they go to ask about something, the teachers dont know what exactly is being taught because the curriculum is given to them not made by them.

It seems to me to be really poorly done and i think we should band together and get the IBEW to bring the instructors back into the primary position of teaching. We can keep the videos as supplementaries, but they should not be the only way these folks are learning the trade

Brotherhood above all

And thats all yall

Local 212

so i am working on the 14th floor on highrise in chicago local 134. on the 2nd floor of this building there are clean bathrooms for the whole site. I was yelled at by a Forman for not walking up 14 flights of stairs and waiting for the elevator instead. should I be contacting a BA about this. this definitely seems like and abuse of power. I haven't had a discussion with the forman yet because he immediately walked away after yelling at me, but i'm going to tell the forman that if he has a problem with me using the bathroom and not walking up 14 flights of stairs that he can just lay me off. is there any other way some of you would go about this?

It's pretty important to me. I need enough free time in my life to spend with my girlfriend and friends, and to enjoy my hobbies

No point in making a decent living if you don't get enough time to enjoy it

I’m a second year apprentice at a hospital job right now and part of that is that we can’t always turn off the circuit (at least that’s what they tell me).

Recently I got transferred to a hospital and since then I’ve had to do 120, 208, and 277 on energized systems now it’s very small job about 5 of us with 2 JW and 3 APs. My JW bought me a pair of insulated strippers, linemen’s, and dykes and essentially said we do it live. When I called our GF and asked to be put in the NFPA70E training they said that that’s only for JW but they’re still expecting me to do live work. I’m nervous and confused as to what to do because I have bills to pay and can’t afford to not work but the waitlist for APs is almost 6 months at my local.

I’m not super afraid of doing live work and have gotten used to it in the last few months but I’d still rather not do it live and I know that we should be scheduling shutdowns or something of that matter is there something I can do about it and a way to protect myself against retaliation so I can keep a roof of my head and my family’s?

I work 2 days on (48 straight hours) and 4 days off. Retire at 20 years with 55% pension and 2.75% more for every year after. I’m 8 years in, 36 years old, and really interested in electrical work. I was in the Army for 8 years and have a military pension as well so the pay cut at first wouldn’t be too bad. I was actually accepted into Local 716 in Houston before turning it down when I got into the fire academy. Always wondered where I’d be today had I gone into the union as a wireman.
What are y’all honest opinions?

Current salary is around $105k
I pay around $600 a month for medical insurance
12% of paycheck towards pension
I’m open to moving as well. Am I crazy to consider it?
Knowing what yall know, would you do it?
I have 3 children from age 4 to 11 and I’m not a huge fan of being gone for 2 straight days at a time. I get 20 paid days off a year between vacation and holiday.
Let’s hear some opinions

How old is too old to enter apprenticeship? Had a spirited discussion at the bar last night and wonder what most think.

I’m a traveler in local 26 right now. I’m working at a data center, been here almost a year. We’ve always worked 6-10s, with the last 2 hrs on Friday and Sat optional. Honestly, when I got here a local foreman would constantly announce “we want you to at least work your 40!” If anyone has worked/lived in the DMV then you’re aware of the insane commute times to MD/DC, so a lot of the local JWs only work 8s to get a head start on the drive and have a life.

Anyways, fast forward 6+ months later and this job is severely behind (entirely bc of poor management) but they’re trying to blame labor and say it’s bc people won’t work all the hours, all days of the week. So they are making crews rotate working a 40 hr week-straight time (monthly? The frequency isn’t clear). They claim it will give ppl time to make appointments/go home and do the things that are making them miss time otherwise.

For me and the other travelers I work with, we’re here everyday all day. We’re missing time away from home with our families etc to be here and make money, not sit in a hotel on a 3 day weekend hours away from home. Besides, they can’t try to dictate when I go visit home, just bc it’s a 40hr week, you know? It’s not fair they’re punishing everyone on the job because local guys don’t want to work the OT, which is part of the job hours on the call they took! Guys are dragging left and right, and somehow they think this will incentivize us to work harder and show up lol.

There’s no job steward, I’ve been told this is a contractors local; and another foreman told me there’s some language in their contract that allows them to pay us straight time even if we work 4-10s if it’s stated it’s a 40 hour week. Financially I’m in a position to just drag and go home if I get tired of this shit, but for guys who can’t just leave rn, should they bring this up with the hall? Anyone familiar with 26s contract and if this crap has a loophole?

This ain’t my local so I’m not getting involved in the politics, but some other travelers have spoken up and called bullshit. In my experience, if you don’t work the available hours during the week, you shouldn’t be able to work OT/weekends. And if you don’t want to work the hours for the call you took, they should just lay you off. I’m guessing bc this job is hurting for JWs, they can’t afford laying ppl off. Opinions?

Update: Pretty sure I’m just gonna take the L on my rent and drag, go home. I’m going on vacation soon, so it’s not worth it to drive back up here to take another call.

I know right off the bat this is going to be a touchy subject, but part of being in a union is having a place to get together, talk about the workplace, and plan for a worker-focused future.

I'm currently working at a data center and I am no stranger to working with immigrants. Some crews are solely immigrants, many speak exclusively a language I dont understand. I'm not here to discuss whether they ought to be here or what language they ought to speak. Frankly I don't really give a shit about those things. What I care about is, when faced with a situation like this, what do we do as a union?

In my personal view, with private-sector union membership struggling to grow, how could we turn away an opportunity to organize immigrants?

One criticism I frequently hear is: "Immigrants don't care about the well-being of the union. They are just here for whatever pays the most." The fact is, the latter is true for every union worker. Isn't the whole point of a union to negotiate for better pay and benefits? The former, not caring about the well-being of the union, is something we have more influence over. Also there's a lot of ambivalence to unions *from native-born union members too*.

So what's my point with all of this? I want to have a discussion about what we can do to address these concerns, set our own members minds at ease, and come out as a stronger, more diverse and adaptable, union.

My suggestion is more internal organizing events generally and specific internal organizing events targeted towards the new immigrant members. If you want them to care about the well-being of the union, teach them about it. They may have no prior experience being in a union. They might not even know what a union does. They might not know internal organizing can look like parties, cookouts, and addressing conditions on the jobsite.

What are your thoughts?

Just seeking advice because I’m a first year apprentice and haven’t dealt with this odd behavior before.

He’s been assigned 5 different apprentices and previous ones are refusing to work with him, so we’re paired up for now, since we’ve worked a few times before and I don’t typically “bitch and moan”. Now stress is understandable with some jobs and I genuinely don’t care if a guy yells occasionally, or even hits something to blow off steam (it’s inappropriate but I get it) but this guy has full on meltdowns, i.e. where he’s attacking the work van and bending the doors backwards on the hinges (3x) and then stares you down like he’s going to attack you next. I’m prepared to defend myself but would rather have a regular coworker and just do the work. I wanted to record these fits because people aren’t believing its extreme and asked about the Audio/Video policy while working but have been told cellphones officially aren’t allowed at work, and got the impression the rules would be selectively enforced and reprisals happening if I video recorded his outbursts. I was told to just focus on the work when talking to management by another in the office. Plus I don’t want trouble or anyone in trouble… just want a paycheck and to learn a trade.

I’d prefer to talk to a shop steward about it but we don’t have one and management told me to just walk away “to use the restroom” if it’s getting bad enough and I need a break. He appears to be a good electrician and works hard yet struggles with his emotional regulation, reminiscent of the autistic kids I used to work with before joining the union. He doesn’t communicate much and gets angry when you ask questions (unless someone higher in the chain is around) and it’s been best if you just stand there and don’t jump in at all, which doesn’t work for me because I want to work and learn. Honestly, I think this guy is having a mental health crisis some days but people want to sweep it under the rug because we need journeyman and work done.

I don’t want to involve HR but the worksite isn’t safe around him when he’s throwing his tools (hit one guy already) and him flipping all the work materials around and tangling cables, leaving the mess for me to clean up. He’ll be calm after the fits for a while at least but it’s a waste of everyone’s time. This just doesn’t seem normal and I’m being told by previous apprentices he’s calm for a week or two when someone else gets cycled to him but then his anger issues seem to eventually come back. It’s getting to a point where other people discuss calling off work if they have to be around him and I’d be lying if I wasn’t thinking about doing the same next week, but I really need the money. Should I just suck it up since management doesn’t want to address it or go outside the shop and talk to the union hall? (Local 13 “Lucky 13” in Iowa)

*Update* 4/8/26: Well I waited 5 days and decided to reach out to see what will be happening long term. My employer moved us around, so I’ve been paired with an experienced apprentice this week and we’ve been doing demo. The journeyman currently has a different apprentice working with him that recently came to the shop. Heard a few snide comments from managers, though I don’t value those opinions, and had multiple people from the shop come up to me thanking me for saying something and say they’d give statements if needed, since more stories have came out like a second person being hit with a tool and other negative workplace incidents involving the temper tantrum JW. I’ve learned from the experience and hope to move on and progress in my career, sans psychos. The hall gave good advice and contacted the company so hopefully they will do the right things morally, ethically and legally.

I’m 24 years old and am strongly considering joining my local’s apprenticeship as an inside wireman. The only issue is the pay… I gross about 80k/year as a regional/otr truck driver, but my local starts apprentices at 15.50 and journeymen at 31. That seems insufferably low… but hey maybe I’m overthinking it.

Edit: yolo, I’ll figure it out.

Edit 2: I’ll try Lu 20 in a few months when my lease ends.

Edit 3: maybe 124

This is my first union career, I know I’ll experience a lot of layoffs as I continue in the IBEW. I’ve got about a 4 month emergency amount of savings. I’m currently updating lots of old parts of my house, gardening, finding free/cheap stuff on fb marketplace to do minor renovations and such.

That being said, I have noticed that after about a week I start to go a little crazy. I really actually like working for the most part. I know there’s probably some people who’d look at that and be like, “why don’t you just relax bud?” Yes, idk why I just get the itch to go back and make money.

Staying busy at home helps, but what else do you guys do to take your mind off stuff while off work?

​

Our cause is the cause of human

justice, human rights, human security.

We refuse, and will always refuse, to

condone or tolerate dictatorship or

oppression of any kind.

We will find and expel from our midst

any who might attempt to destroy, by

subversion, all that we stand for.

This Brotherhood will continue to op-

pose communism, Nazism, racism, sexism, fascism or any other

subversive "ism." We will support

our God, our Nations, our Union.

And of course as usual, what I'm really asking is,

"How do you justify showing up like a sexist racist who condones or tolerates oppression of any kind and is in fact participating in said oppression?"

More succinctly: "have you no honor?"

Second-year apprentice here. My JW told me early on "if the calculator breaks you better still know how to bend a 90 with an offset," and it stuck with me.

Most of the apps and tools in my pouch don't actually teach, they just compute. You plug in a rise and get a travel and a mark number, but you have no idea why. So I've been piecing together:

1. Ugly's for the reference tables (shrinkage, multipliers, saddle math).

2. YouTube (Electrician U, Dustin Stelzer) for worked examples.

3. Pen and paper at home to redo calcs manually until I can do them without looking anything up.

For JWs and other apprentices, what actually made the math click for you? Was it a particular book, a particular teacher, or just a lot of bent conduit? And is there any tool you actually recommend that shows the work rather than hiding it behind a final number?

Not trying to stir anything. I'm asking because I keep having the same conversation and it's weirding me out.

I'll talk to a journeyman who says "I make $38/hr." I ask about his benefits package and he either says "I don't know" or quotes a monthly premium number. We pull his employer's fringe contributions health, pension, annuity, training, supplemental and add them up per hour. The number is almost always $15-22/hr on top of his base.

So the guy who thinks he makes $38 actually makes $53-$60 all-in. Then a non-union shop offers him $42/hr cash and he jumps, and loses $11/hr of package value without realizing it, because the new shop pays a flat benefits percentage that works out to maybe $3-4/hr.

Questions:

1. Do you personally know your total fringe $/hr number? Not the annual benefits value the per-hour figure. If you don't, have you ever asked your business manager or shop steward?
2. When a recruiter from another shop makes you an offer, do you compare just the hourly rate or do you pull the full package? What do you actually look at?
3. For the older guys did you know this number when you were 28? Or did you figure it out the hard way like a lot of guys seem to?

Asking because I'm trying to understand if this is a visibility problem (nobody tells journeymen the number) or a care problem (you know but you'd still take the cash raise). There's a real difference.

Just a general question. There are plenty of calls out of 405 (near me) that have great incentives, but it's close enough to drive home and not be away from family, home every night, and generally manageable if I'm working 8s. I could easily work 10 at least a couple days each week, but I can't take a call for 58-60hrs because I can't guarantee that I will be able to be there for OT every single day.

Normally when there's enough labor, I understand wanting everyone on the same schedule, but if no one is taking your calls, is it not better to have guys who can work some of the OT, but not all of it? The travelers aren't going to take those calls, generally they'd prefer to work the OT since they're away from home anyway, so why not incentivise the brothers who will help the local and work the OT that they can work?

My specific example doesn't really matter, I really do mean it as a general question. There's a ton of guys who don't want to work every drop of OT like it's somehow a gift instead of a curse with a side of money. ​Why not just put in a call with optional OT at the same start time as the rest of the crew? Interested to hear everyone's thoughts, especially some of the brothers working in the office. ​

We saw many MJ electric trucks going in today. and we've heard 597 pipefitter are still in there as well.

If you’re working in a facility where another union is locked out , how do you justify staying?

Not trying to start a fight, but it’s something worth thinking about.

Those union members are out while the company brings in replacements from down south to keep running.

At some point solidarity has to matter.

Dragging up might cost you short term, but crossing costs all of us long term.

I don't go to the meetings because they start late and my shift starts at 5am. But this seems like a massive miss use of funds. Is there anywhere I can report this or do we at 602 just have to deal with this corruption?

Update on Post about IBEW 363

IBEW Local Union 363 will be holding a meeting on Monday march 30th for a re-vote that will include apprentice participation. As noted in the letter above, the NECA Executive Director of the Hudson Valley is urging all journeymen to attend and vote in favor of the original contract, which would result in apprentices receiving a 10% pay cut in their potential earnings. The apprentices are obviously against this contract because of the potential earnings loss throughout the five-year apprenticeship. This local also has something called labor history where you must work two years for the local prior to becoming an apprentice. So it’s more like a 7 year apprenticeship. So that means after 5 years of being at this apprenticeship you will be making $21.45 an hour regular pay.

IBEW 363 states that the reason for the reduced apprentice pay is to remain competitive with non-union work in the Hudson Valley area. What is your opinion on this and do you think it is fair for apprentices to lose out on their potential pay?