IBEW Local 46 History: 2000

The new Century started with a bang. On March 26, 2000, the Kingdome was demolished to make way for the new football stadium. The Kingdome, not quite 24 years old, was demolished in less than 17 seconds (above). A total concrete dome, which was said would last a hundred years, was left as a pile of dust and concrete rubble. The new football and soccer stadium (below is the new Seahawks Stadium [QWEST Field now CenturyLink "CLink" field] and Safeco Field, the Mariners’ baseball stadium, in the background) is world class and of course home to our own Super Bowl Champions, the Seahawks! Local 46 members wired and constructed the new stadium that has been enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of fans.

By the beginning of the new Century, the population of Seattle had grown to 563,374, a sign of a growing and healthy economy. New startup companies were beginning to take off, and Seattle was encouraging Bio-Tech companies to locate here.
At the beginning of the decade, work was extremely good and the Local was trying to find Marine Wiremen because everyone was working.
The construction units were also fully employed. In January, the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPPEA) struck the Boeing Company. This was the largest private sector white collar strike in U.S. history. About 15,000 engineers and technicians struck the company and essentially halted airplane deliveries. The Union went on to gain historic concessions from Boeing and strengthened their Union for the coming years.
At the December 13th, 2000 meeting, it was motioned and carried that Local 46 donated $200 to the Newspaper Guild members striking against the Seattle Times and the Seattle Post Intelligencer (no longer in business). Both papers went on to settle, but it was a hard fought affair.
In 2000, two Organizers of Local 46 developed an instrumental tool called Residential Electrical Services (RES) to get more market share in the residential scope of work. The idea for RES came during a tremendous economic downturn in Commercial Construction. There was very little commercial / industrial work going on thus there were a lot of our inside wiremen on the out of work list. At the same time, everywhere you looked, residential housing projects were being built. The Organizers had attempted to convince Union contractors to shift some of their attention to residential without success.

During a planning/brainstorming session for Local 46 organizing, the two Organizers came upon the idea of focusing attention on increasing the Union presence in residential since that market appeared to be exploding. There were two problems that were identified that held the Local back from gaining any traction in residential market share.
First, very few Union contractors would pursue residential work. Second, on the rare occasion that a contractor did land a residential job, the Union did not have residential people to fill the calls as they came in.
The Organizers decided to focus on solving those two problems. As a result, RES was born. With respect to the first problem of getting contractors to go after work, the Organizers realized that there were a whole lot of electricians sitting on the out-of-work list who may be willing to start companies and chase residential if the Union could find ways of assisting them. RES is mix of solutions designed to encourage and train our Local members to become residential contractors.

Examples of those solutions are:

1. Business Classes for our members.

2. Shared advertising to bring in residential service business (This idea was inspired by something UA Local 32 was doing at the time.)

3. Free membership in the Master Builders Association.

4. Monthly RES Dinner meetings with our residential contractors where they could brainstorm with the Local and other contractors to improve their businesses.

5. AccuBid estimating classes.

6. A Local 46 staff member who fields calls from our advertising in yellow pages, Radio and newspaper/flyers and who distributes those calls to our contractors evenly. The list above is just a few of the things that, combined with each other, sought to provide incentive to our members/contractors to chase residential work.

With respect to the second problem of almost no union residential labor supply, the Organizers created a survey that they took out on non-union jobsites for residential electricians to fill out that asked questions about their work experience.

The last question on the survey was whether they would like to receive job offers from the Union as opportunities became available.

The surveys were kept on file, and as job calls came in that were not filled the Organizers went through the surveys and ‘robbed’ employees from the non-union sector.
There is an announcement at the March 2001 meeting of a rally at the Peace Arch in Blaine where a joint rally was being held with the Canadian Trade Unionists to protest the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), another political sell-out to the corporations. Over 5,000 Union members and supporters showed up at this event to protest corporate control over trade policy.
At the April 11th meeting, there was discussion about the 6.8 Nisqually quake that shook the city on February 28th and left quite a bit of damage; also at the meeting it is announced that the Carpenters had left the AFL-CIO.

There was discussion about a concern in the Marine Unit that work, normally done in the Pacific Northwest, was now being done in the South for cheaper wages and benefits.
It was reported at the July meeting that the Puget Sound Electrical JATC was moving to a new building in Renton. All JATC classes and training would be conducted from this new facility.
The 36th IBEW International Convention was held in San Francisco, California from September 10-14, 2001.

The membership had grown considerably over the last five years to 4,054.

Our delegates were:

S. E. Anderson, M. C. Hendrix, J. M. Bailey 111, G. A.Lee, E. O. Evans, L. E. Liebertz, J. F. Fraine, G. A. Price and J. Tosh
At the September 12, 2001 General Meeting, the first order of business was a moment of silence for the victims of the terrorist attacks on a day before.

At the time of the attacks, the IBEW International Convention was being held in San Francisco. Delegates could not return home because air travel was down. Twenty-one IBEW members were killed in the attacks in the twin towers; IBEW Local 3 lost 17 members and IBEW Local 1212 lost 4 members.

On that day of the convention these words were spoken to fellow delegates by IBEW President Ed Hill. “We had a long discussion this morning, [then] Secretary-Treasurer O’ Connor and I, and a few of the vice presidents, trying to decide what we wanted to do and thought the best thing we could possibly do is pray; pray for those who have lost their lives and pray for the families and for their loved ones and pray for guidance.”

At that September 12th General Meeting, it was motioned and carried that Local 46 donate $10,000 to provide aide for IBEW victims of the attack. Members also discussed going to New York and volunteering to help.

The work picture was slowing with the DotCom Bubble bursting earlier in the decade; the attacks of 9/11 only added to the already depleted work picture.
December 12, 2001, Local 46 settled a long running lawsuit with NECA. There was also a running battle with the Port of Seattle over crane maintenance and jurisdiction. The issue eventually went to arbitration with Local 46 losing and another union ending up doing the maintenance on the Port’s cranes.
At the May 8, 2002 meeting, there was a report of a Right to Work Initiative being promoted by the Young Republicans from the University of Washington; nothing more is heard of the issue.
October 9, 2002 General Meeting, a motion was passed supporting the International Longshore Workers Union (ILWU) in their struggle with the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA). The PMA locked out the Longshoremen up and down the coast for 10 days. This was another hard fought struggle, but the ILWU prevailed. There was a fear at the time that the federal government would step in and man the docks, but this never happened.
In 2003, the Local began discussions about moving from the building on 2700 First Avenue.

Over the years there had been discussions about either developing the First Avenue building, or selling and moving. Many reasons were discussed; there was too little parking, no room for expansion, the building is old and needs lots of repair work.

There was passion on both sides of the moving issue, but as always, democracy prevailed, although narrowly, and members voted to look at all the options and decided eventually to move.
At this time in 2003, the Seattle Times, working under a Joint Operating Agreement with the Seattle Post Intelligencer, its rival, announced that it wished to end the Joint Operating Agreement.

The community quickly cobbled together an organization called the “Committee for a Two Newspaper Town” and for the next few years both papers continue to operate. Local 46 goes on record supporting the Committee for a Two Newspaper Town.

Eventually, the Supreme Court of Washington ruled in the Seattle Times favor and the operating agreement came to an end.

By 2009, the Seattle P.I., which had been printing newspapers in Seattle since 1863, was no more.

The Seattle P.I. now has an online presence.

Local 46 members continue to maintain the Seattle Times facilities.
At the February 2004 meeting, there is a report that Local members have been volunteering to do informational picketing at local Safeway stores; this was in support of the 70,000 grocery workers striking in Southern California. That strike lasted 20 weeks and was not a win-win situation; both sides ended up declaring victory, but it took its toll on the workers and the grocery chains.

The work picture at this time was not good, with many wiremen and other construction unit members out of work. During this time members were also looking at the different options for relocating our Union Hall.

The Local eventually sold the 2700 1st Ave building and prepared to move to the new building in Kent.

There was a Grand Opening ceremony at the new building in December 2004, with tours for members and guests.
August 10, 2005, it is reported that some large Union affiliates are withdrawing from the AFL CIO; the Teamsters, Service Employees and the Grocery Workers and, of course, the Carpenters had already departed.

In October 2005, the Greater Puget Sound Electrical Workers Apprenticeship Committee began as Local 46’s Marine and Residential HVAC Electrician Apprenticeship Program.

Previously, the Marine program was known as the Seattle Marine Electrical Workers Apprenticeship Committee; the name was changed when the Residential HVAC program was added to our Marine program.

The Marine program is a 6,000 hour, three-year apprenticeship, while the Residential HVAC program is an 8,000 hour, four-year apprenticeship.
At the January 2006 meeting, the Local donated $2,500 to the Hurricane Katrina Relief and Reconstruction Committee in New Orleans. In 2009, the Local 46 Minority Caucus, Seattle Chapter attended the National Minority Caucus meeting in New Orleans and our Local 46 delegates volunteered in the continuing clean up and reconstruction from Katrina.

By 2006, work was again plentiful with Book 2’s being dispatched. The Local was recognized by the Washington State Labor Council as the Local Union turning out the most volunteers in the Labor-Neighbor program.

The reserves in Health and Welfare were at their highest level ever reported, so you know work is good.

The 37th IBEW International Convention of 2006 was held in Cleveland, Ohio. The membership had dipped slightly to 3,905. The elected delegates were: G. L. Boyd, H. R. McGuire, E. O. Evans, G. A. Price, G. L. Galusha, M. E. Schab, S. L. Hagen, J. W. Tosh, V. R. Hamilton, R. G. Wheeler
There was discussion at the July 2007 meeting about a petition to the Building Managers to allow alcohol at functions at the new Union Hall. Curiously, there is not much discussion about moving to the new building.

The same was the true in 1949 when the Local moved to the new building on 2700 1st Ave; very little recognition of the new building in the minutes.

Alcohol is allowed now at events in the Union Hall in Kent, providing certain criteria is met. In 2007, the global financial collapse started to occur, which began the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
In 2007, Local 46 became one of the founding members of the Sound Alliance of Puget Sound.

The Sound Alliance was founded to create opportunities for people to grow, connect and act powerfully and creatively to bring about practical solutions to the challenges facing our families and communities.

This organization brings educators, people of faith, community activists and trade unionists together for the common good. Local 46 and these other organizations go through a process to identify issues that are important to our communities.

An example would be when the mortgage crisis erupted; Sound Alliance immediately took up the mantle contacting banks and lenders, running workshops at Local 46 for the Union members and anyone else who was facing foreclosure.

Another example would be Sustainable Works an organization that upgrades homes to be more energy efficient, this was a creation of Sound Alliance and is manned with union members.

Sound Alliance itself is an affiliate of the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), which has a presence in most major cities in the United States, and in some cases, across the globe in places like England and Australia.
At the October 8th 2008 meeting, it was motioned and carried that Local 46 contribute $3,000 to the Colorado State Conference of Electrical Workers Education Fund to assist in the fight to defeat a Right to Work initiative that was being voted on the following month.

The initiative was defeated and the workers in Colorado are still in a free bargaining state.

In November of 2008, the Nation elected the first African American President, Barack Obama.

With a Democratic President and with the Democrats having majorities in the House and Senate, there was much discussion at our meetings about the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA).

EFCA allows workers to form Unions without fear and intimidation, and was the top priority of all organized labor.

Of course, as it turns out, after the election it was not the priority of our so-called friends in office.
In 2009, workers in Washington tried to pass their own version of the EFCA called the ‘Worker Privacy Act’ in the Washington State Legislature; the results were the same with no action to help workers form organizations.

August 12, 2009, members passed a By-laws change to increase basic dues $5.00 per month to go into a Benevolence Fund to assist members in their time of need.

This Fund has been a virtual life saver for many members trying to cope with long term unemployment over the last few years.
At the beginning of the Great Recession, Local 46 did not feel much of an affect like in other parts of the country, but as the decade wore on unemployment began to rise and reached, at one point, 900 plus wiremen out of work, with other units experiencing high unemployment also.

Our apprentices were not exempt either; over 200 apprentices were unemployed by 2009. Although that number has decreased, the lasting effects of that downturn are still haunting many of our members who are out of work.

For those members, this has not been a recession, it has been a depression!

In September, members voted to purchase property in Silverdale with the long term purpose to build an office with training facilities for Local 46 members in the Bremerton area.
There is discussion at the October meeting about the potential threat of our building being flooded by problems at the Howard Hanson Dam. The Local was a day or two away from building a flood wall when the Army Corp of Engineers announced that the worst of the potential problems had been solved.
In 2009, the Local began a program to expedite the entry of veterans, many returning from conflict, into the apprenticeship program. The VICE (Veterans in Construction Electrical) program was a great example of Local 46 stepping up to assist returning veterans find an occupation that would support the veterans and their families for the long haul.

The effort actually started the year before with Local 46 lobbying and convincing the Department of Labor and Industries in Olympia to give credit to veterans for electrical work and certifications gained while in the armed forces.

Local 46 staff worked tirelessly with the different branches of the service to make sure the returning veterans got what they needed. Both the employer side and the Local 46 side of the Puget Sound Electrical Apprenticeship worked to implement the VICE program and have brought in, to date, 190 service members.

Some of the veterans have moved on to other jobs, perhaps in their home area, and some transferred to other IBEW Local Unions, but to date we have 106 veterans in our apprenticeship who would not otherwise have been in our program. When returning vets needed assistance, Local 46 stepped in and made a difference, and the veterans have been a great addition to our Union and the industry!
The Sound Alliance in Puget Sound connects Local 46 with the greater community as well as connecting us with organizations and people we would not normally talk with as trade unionists.

The same goes for those partner organizations; not too often would we discuss the merits of retrofitting a school with new energy efficient equipment with a Catholic Sister, but we do in Sound Alliance.

As a result of this collaboration, SustainableWorks was born in 2010. SustainableWorks is a nonprofit market recovery program bringing together many of the union trades across five counties of Washington State.

To date, SustainableWorks has saved residents $1.7 million in energy bills, and deferred 9.3mil lbs of carbon pollution, the equivalent of removing nearly 800 cars from the road each year or burning nearly 500,000 gallons of gas.

These savings will continue to accumulate each year for the next 20-40 years. We have created roughly 200 quality jobs and trained hundreds of workers in energy efficiency careers.

We have improved over 3000 homes in five counties of Washington State, and our territory is growing. We estimate to date that our market share is roughly 30% in the energy efficiency arena.

Quite an accomplishment in just a few short years.
At the July 14, 2010 meeting, it was motioned and carried that Local 46 contribute $25,000 to the ‘No on Initiative 1082’.

This initiative would have privatized the Workman Compensation system in Washington State.

This was a large contribution in a time when hundreds of members were out of work, but the results from a privatized compensation system would have been devastating for injured workers; it could have impacted everyone in our Local.

Fortunately, the voters of Washington State knew what we knew; if you think the State is hard to deal with, try dealing with ‘for profit’ insurance companies!
The International Convention in 2011 was held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada for the first time.

The delegates to it were: N. E. Allbery, G. Hawkins, S. L. Bagsby, R. A. Lehman, W. J. Baker, M. A. Samuelsen, T. L. Doll, J. W. Tosh, V. R. Hamilton, A. R. Van Valkenburg.

As the Local 46 delegates went to the convention, our membership was at an all-time high in 2011 at 4,376. This was despite the Marine unit being a sliver of its former self, with the down turn in the yards and many of the smaller units shrinking also.

The Wire unit and the Sound and Communications unit had seen growth through organizing.

In 2011, the Local meetings started being simulcast to three other locations; with the main meeting held at the Kent Hall, other locations are beamed in so members can attend the General Meetings in Silverdale, Puyallup, and Everett. This technology allows members to attend meetings close to where they live or work. The latest construction contracts were also voted in a number of locations, again making it easier to participate in the Union.
While most Unions shrank in the last thirty years, Local 46 has had steady growth and continues to innovate and not stand still. Residential Electrical Services (RES) is a perfect example, assisting small contractors to get on their feet in the residential market, offering a referral service for contractors, and having a booth at the Home Shows highlighting our contractors. These, and many more new ideas, have been implemented by the Local over the years.
The latest innovation is having an Associate Membership open to all electrical workers. One of the benefits is being able to attend classes provided by the Local. This introduces electrical workers, who may have heard only one thing about the Union, to experience a completely different story when they come to the Hall and take a class. And of course all of these classes are free to IBEW members.
In January 2012, IBEW Local 46 started our Associate Member program as part of our organizing efforts. This program offers unrepresented electricians the opportunity to take all of the CEU classes they want for a $25 annual Associate Member fee. Since the start of this outreach to unrepresented electrical workers, the Associate Member program has grown to over 700 unrepresented electrical workers, including 40 who have become full members of Local 46. The Associate Member program has also made it easier for Local 46 organizers to communicate with non-signatory electrical contractors. As we move toward full employment, and a possible labor shortage, the Associate Member program will provide us with an opportunity to recruit and sign more electrical contractors and a potential pool of future members of IBEW Local 46!
At the July 11, 2012 General Meeting it was motioned and carried that Local 46 donate $4,600 to the striking Davis Wire workers.

The Davis Wire workers are Teamsters and are located within sight of the Hall in Kent. The workers were out for three months and eventually returned to work. This donation is just another example of the compassion displayed time and time again by Local 46 members.

For over 100 years, together with our beginning as Local 217, Local 46 has been supporting those in need. Local 46 has received awards from the International almost yearly for signing the most new contractors and new members. Local 46 is usually in the top ten in the nation. This is a history that goes back to mid-1980’s when the Wiremen made the decision that the Local had to do things differently and the fruits of that decision are still evident today.
We are a Union of electrical workers that, for over one hundred years, has not stood still. We need to use every new tool and innovative idea to continue to grow into this Twenty First Century and of course into our next one hundred years.

All those
who Dared to Dream

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All those who Dared to Dream

2000 - 2014 : Welcome to the New Millennium!

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All those
who Dared to Dream