Posts tagged IBEW
Massachusetts House Democrats Kill Bill That Would’ve Let Legislative Staffers Unionize
April 6, 2026 // BARRING A SUDDEN REVERSAL by their ostensibly pro-labor bosses, the Massachusetts legislative staffers who have long fought to form a union will once again need to wait ‘til next year. House Democrats have quietly smothered legislation that would have given aides in both chambers a clear legal right to organize and collectively bargain. A similar bill is technically still alive in the Senate, but given that top lawmakers there have already voiced concerns about the legal framework for a staff union, the prospects appear dim.
IBEW Union Bigwig James Burke Pleads Guilty to Embezzling Union Funds
March 23, 2026 // James Burke, Financial Secretary of IBEW Local 549, has pleaded guilty to embezzling over $40k from union funds.
‘Right to work’ unlikely to change much in Va. this year, union and business leaders agree
January 20, 2026 // Speaking at a Jan. 14 forum sponsored by Advance Arlington, Slaiman said a contentious fight over Virginia’s unionization framework would get in the way of more pressing priorities in a year when Democrats have control of the governorship and both houses of the General Assembly. “We’re not going to disrupt this [legislative] session. We’ve got too much of an agenda,” said Slaiman, whose union local represents 15,000 workers. Addressing right-to-work’s future “will come later,” he said.
IBEW Ally James Scotti Pleads Guilty to Wire Fraud
January 7, 2026 // James Scotti, who did work with IBEW Local 26, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, totalling over $160k that would have been stolen.
IBEW: Trump’s anti-union EOs target unions expressly protected by law
November 9, 2025 // The collective bargaining rights of prevailing rate employees at the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Southwestern Power Agency and the Western Area Power Administration are set by a different law than the one that covers most other federal employees, a new lawsuit argues.
Memphis city unions hold protest at city hall, demand city leaders honor MOUs
October 22, 2025 // In Memphis, Tennessee, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. lost his life in 1968 fighting for the rights of unionized sanitation workers, trouble brews. All 13 of the city’s unions protested together Tuesday, criticizing Mayor Paul Young and the city council for trying to invalidate their collective bargaining agreements.
IBEW Local 16 Folds in Case Concerning Illegal $1.29 Million Retaliatory ‘Fine’ Threat Against Local Electrician
October 1, 2025 // The settlement requires union officials to rescind all fines against Head, expunge all records of them, and refrain from interfering with workers who exercise their right to resign their union membership in the future. The union is also required to notify other workers of their legal right to resign their union membership without restriction, and be free of any attempt to impose internal union fines post-resignation.
Electric Utility Worker Asks Trump NLRB to Prosecute IBEW’s Restrictive Policies That Compel Workers to Fund Union Politics
September 24, 2025 // Electric utility worker asks NLRB General Counsel to seek Board ruling against union policies that force nonmembers to fund union political spending
Evansville Electrician Files Federal Charges Against IBEW Local 16 for Union Bosses’ $1.29 Million Retaliatory ‘Fine’
July 1, 2025 // Putting such restrictions on workers’ right to resign their union memberships has no basis in law. Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and U.S. Supreme Court decisions like Pattern Makers v. NLRB spell out that workers have a right to end union membership and union officials cannot require such membership as a condition of getting or keeping a job (though states that lack Right to Work laws like Indiana’s let union officials force workers to pay dues or be fired). Union officials also may not impose union discipline, like fines, on workers who aren’t members. In the interim between the two letters, IBEW Local 16 pursued union discipline against Head for “purchas[ing] a non-union electrical contractor and…decid[ing] not to sign a Letter of Assent” that would have likely handed the business over to union control without any kind of worker vote. Notably, the union’s discipline took place after Head’s March 27 union resignation – meaning Head was legally beyond the union’s powers to impose any sort of internal punishment.
Commentary: The 2025 Battle of Trenton; Video
June 25, 2025 // The opposition to independent contractors was frustratingly predictable. Most of it, as usual, came from unions—including the AFL-CIO, Teamsters and IBEW. Others who testified against us were a representative of the union-affiliated National Employment Law Project (you may recall us crushing them in Congress last month), a couple of union-side lawyers, and a guy from the Workplace Justice Lab at Rutgers University, whose stated mission includes building unions.