Good Day Everyone:

As we all prepare to celebrate the New Year, reflect upon 2012 and welcome in 2013, we wonder what the New Year will bring for the IBEW and the labor movement. To recap the past year I personally am discouraged and concerned with the attitude of the public toward “Unionization of the Workforce”. My concern is that working men and women are forgetting that people suffered to gain the conditions that we work under today. These are the same conditions that are on the chopping block presently and I am afraid that this attitude will escalate into 2013 and beyond. We all should look at what is at stake in 2013: attack on Pensions, attack of working conditions, attack on a living wage and a union wage, and an attack on what some believe to be “entitlements”. Entitlements like Social Security and Medicare, things that our taxes paid for, money that was paid into protecting these “entitlements” as part of our fair wages while giving a fair days work.

Brothers and Sisters, we are the last defense against the abuses that working men and women endured in the past and those that will eventually come our way in the future. We have to be vigilant in protecting the very lifestyle that we enjoy because of our membership in this “Union” the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. I want to thank you for all of the work that you have done in the past and now join me in this continued quest for a better future for working men and women into the coming New Year.

“Every person working in each of the branches that we represent deserves to be a member of the IBEW. Let’s all work toward that Goal in 2013, a goal that will strengthen our resolve for a better working life for all working men and women.”

I wish for you all a prosperous and Happy New Year.

Ed Hill Sam Chilia
President IBEW Secretary-Treasurer, IBEW