Neutex Advanced Energy Group, a Houston-based maker of LED lights, light bulbs and fixtures, brought its core manufacturing operation from China back to the United States last year and turned to the Electrical Workers (IBEW) to staff its facility.

“It’s like getting punched in the gut. It’s like you’re not even in America.”

The middle-aged man was just an onlooker, on his lunch hour in the Wisconsin Capitol rotunda. He’d been watching a crowd of 100 people singing when two police officers held up a powerful “long-range acoustic device” (also used to ward off pirates off the coast of Somalia) and the recorded voice of Capitol Police Chief David Erwin—Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) former bodyguard—echoed through the dome:

Emergency medical workers, massage therapists, bus mechanics and home health care workers are among the latest workers to choose a voice on the job with AFL-CIO unions. 

In California and Arizona, some 240 emergency medical services professionals voted recently to join United EMS Workers-AFSCME.

The Union Sportsmen's Alliance (USA) Adopt-a-Park initiative is ensuring that outdoor enthusiasts with mobility issues will be able take full advantage of a dedicated trail at Virginia’s York River State Park near Williamsburg.  

The latest video from the Electrical Workers (IBEW) takes a look at the fast-growing solar panel business and how IBEW members are working hand in hand with management at Sharp Electronics to manufacture a quality product. Business is booming at the Memphis, Tenn., plant and that owes a lot to the skill and training of the IBEW members who work there.

A good picture can change the world. Photos like "Lunch Atop a Skyscraper" can quickly and powerfully convey a message that informs and arouses sympathy and empathy. The Electrical Workers (IBEW) union recognizes that truth every year with its annual photo contest, running now through Oct. 31.

Let’s say you want to walk on a tightrope across the Grand Canyon without a tether or a net—in whose hands would you put your life? If you are Nik Wallenda, a Guinness Book of World Records-holder seven times over for acrobatic feats—including walking across Niagara Falls on a similar tightrope—you turn to union members.

When an elderly woman on a fixed income couldn't afford an astronomical utility bill that was caused by leaks, local Electrical Workers (IBEW) members stepped in. 

Check out this story on the AFL-CIO's @ Work site in the community section and watch the video in the post. 

Pittsburgh Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 5 members are being credited with saving dozens of local senior citizens from a fire that tore through a nursing home June 25. Community College of Allegheny County instructor Tammy Miller was teaching a class of 24 IBEW members when some of the students spotted trouble at the senior living facility next door. Miller says:

We were on break and some of students were standing outside when they noticed smoke coming from the neighboring building. I then said, ‘Oh my God, that’s a nursing home,’ and they made off like a swarm of bees for the building.

Earlier this year, Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 1245 in Vacaville, Calif., published First Day, a 20-page comic book detailing the history of Local 1245 and the labor movement, which is distributed to all new members. And so far, it is a big hit.

“It is the first thing people turn to when they get their orientation packets,” says Eric Wolfe, communications director at Local 1245.

Wolfe worked with artist Tom Christopher to put the comic book together, based on a history Wolfe did of the local.