(SHREVEPORT, LOUISIANA) - A Louisiana International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local’s successful strategy to organize more Residential Wiremen into the IBEW could serve as an effective model for helping other Locals gain Members.

Just over a year ago, Shreveport IBEW Local 194 Business Manager Brent Moreland signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOA) with the North Louisiana Chapter of the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA), aimed at helping to ensure that all single-family home construction within the Local’s jurisdiction will go to Workers represented by the IBEW.

When Moreland came on as Business Manager in 2018, he said: “Things were extremely slow then” - but ever since, even during the widespread lockdowns early in the COVID-19 Pandemic, remarkable booming business interest in Shreveport has been keeping Local 194’s nearly 600 Members busy.

For example, Forever Energy recently announced a $100 million investment in the old General Motors Truck Plant there, and two new Steel Mill Projects totaling $550 million are on the way.

Then there’s a $200 million Casino Hotel Renovation Project, plus schools work - including maintenance and new equipment installations - and significant health care-related work.

“Our market share here now is near sixty-percent,” Moreland said.

This includes all of the Journeyman Wiremen in Local 194’s jurisdiction, which covers the seven parishes in Louisiana’s northwest corner.

“We’ve consistently had one of the highest market shares in the Fifth District,” he said.

Local 194’s Joint Apprenticeship and Training Center is positively humming, educating as many new Journeyman Wiremen as possible to meet a seemingly never-ending need for Workers.

“At the JATC, we’re teaching (147) people,” he said. “Typically, it’s anywhere from (80 to 100).”

Those Men and Women will obviously be instrumental in meeting contractors’ needs for qualified, highly trained Wiremen.

The Local recently broke ground on a 5,000-square-foot addition to its Training Center, Moreland noted, to help meet the expected future demands for Journeyman training.

Not bad for a Union Local in a State that’s been Right-To-Work (for less) since 1976, when laws pushed by Anti-Union business and organizations gutted Unions’ bargaining power by granting Workers access to all of the benefits of a collectively-bargained agreement without having to pay the dues that make bargaining for and protecting such contracts possible.

Large market share, though, can sometimes make further organizing growth challenging, Moreland said.

Even so, the IBEW Local’s Leaders refused to give up on capturing the remaining 40%.

To Continue Reading This Organizing Labor News Story, Go To: www.ibew.org/media-center/Articles/22Daily/2212/221206_HelpsLouisiana