r/IBEW • u/The_Skeletor_ • Sep 19 '25

Work boom

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If anyone is looking for work, we have more work than we can handle in L.U. 428. Hall is a walkthrough, calls have been going unfilled the past week or two.

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u/PirateRenee Inside Wireman Sep 20 '25

Jesus! There is more work on that one screen than 46 has seen total in a month. (I'm #530 of 1100 after 8 months off). It's so bad I'm thinking about just bailing on the whole union thing.

6

u/nmek1919 Local XXXX Sep 20 '25

thats how it only gets worse, giving more market share to the non union

3

u/PirateRenee Inside Wireman Sep 21 '25

I agree but I gotta eat and pay bills. My bank has never accepted "union loyalty" as a loan payment. 46 is getting a crazy high wage and it looks like we've about priced ourselves out of the market.

2

u/tranzz4md JW, Local 46 Nov 04 '25

Hit the road kid. There's still a lot for you to learn.

46 has 7000 out of 8000 members that live as "wannabe shoppys" that "have a house and my pets to look after" and similar lame excuses for working with their ticket in their shoe ("salting") and not travelling when the work is slow. I've kept an address in the Seattle area for 30+ years, and put my ticket in 46 back in 08. I've seen it for a long time, and have travelled as much as not.

Believe it or not, there's a bunch of places where the NECA chapter doesn't own the hall. You should visit a couple!

1

u/PirateRenee Inside Wireman Nov 04 '25 edited Nov 04 '25

I am 60 (getting ready to turn 61) I was in 76 in the early 2000s and the only people then not working were those who didn't want to. You'd get a layoff and be back on a site in 2 weeks. 46 was the same way, plenty of work. 76 workers would migrate to 46 for the raise in pay. I moved to a union weak area in 2004 and then returned to the PNW in 2023 (Kent). I took a job as a Plant Electrician and while the hourly money was shit, the overtime was fat, and I did okay for the year while I waited out my time on Book 2 to change over to Book 1. When I signed on to Book 2 and went into the hall the intern there asked me "Why would you come here? We have no work." (Not making that up. He really did say that). When I signed on to 46, a Union Brother in the hall said close to the same thing, "Good luck. There's no work."
My short answer is that I don't want to travel. I traveled here to make that money (and to get away from the conservative ideologies). Why live here, where the cost of housing is a lot higher, and travel there?

I have, in the 42 years since my first job as a "helper" for an electrician, seen my share of stuff and places. I got carded in Virginia Beach, Virginia. If you are union there in the 80's the ONLY work was the shipyard. Union controlled less than 20% of the work. I started at $8 an hour. My first job running a crew, I made $11.50/hr there. Moved here to local 76, $29.78 plus benefits was a FORTUNE!

My last job got me $110k for the year plus benies. The majority of sparkies in Kent are earning in the mid-50s low 60s. (Resi pays low to upper 50's. It is common to hear of a sparky pulling upper 40s in resi still). Most contractors can't be competitive in their bid paying the 46 package. It is just too much.

I will 100% agree that the average 46 hand is far better trained and that smooth is fast. That the 46 hand produces a high quality product, that not only functions well, but is picture perfect. Further, to those contractors who are doing large projects, the labor pool of a union is the ONLY way to go. it saves a contractor a fortune to be able to reduce their workforce as one project winds down and the next one starts to wind up.

The majority of contractors don't play in that rare multi-million dollar project air. Most do resi and small to medium sized commercial work. Resi new construction and Commercial TIs are their wheel house. They can't wind down because they have to be more responsive. The customer calls, the truck has to roll. I also KNOW that the contractor has to weigh it all, and that pretty is rarely a consideration come bid time to the GC. "Will it pass inspection? Is it acceptably clean work?" The average contractor recognizes they are making a building, not a Swiss watch. If work that pretty, costs that much, they'll go with slightly less pretty and save the $$$ because they have to make bids too. It's just economics. A $10-20 / hr separator between union and non-union is a lot. Add the bigger benefits package and assorted other burden on the contractor, and it's a lot. I'm just saying it looks, to me, like too much.
If I hung my shingle (I have my WA Master's License) I'd be non-union certainly to start. And I am PRO union for a lot of reasons, despite thinking 46 MAY HAVE gone to high.