The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 725 has its fingers on the pulse of the local workforce, recruiting and training technicians who, rather than accruing college debt, are making money as soon as they begin their apprenticeships.
Apprentices are working while training to become journeymen with a bona fide union card, at which point they can work on their own, be a foreman or become a superintendent.
“The apprenticeship program began in 1941, the electrician union began in 1891,” said Todd Thacker, a retired union member after 40 years who is now “enjoying pension benefits.” He added, “So we were doing this for 50 years before we had a true apprenticeship.
“But I think the apprenticeship is the best-selling feature we have about being union,” he continued. “We train people, we have the best-trained and educated electricians. And we demand the most money.”
Before the apprenticeship program began, Thacker said, “Hands-on training fell to the employer. We try to make sure they get exposure to every aspect of the job of the electrical industry, which has a wide range of skill sets — motor control, rigid pipe, or a solar farm.”
Apprenticeship training initially was done at Terre Haute South High School, before IBEW 725 opened the training center downtown in 2003 and expanded what could be taught.
“We didn’t have these hands-on [activities] at Terre Haute South,” said Ryan Hughes, Training Director for the Terre Haute Electrical Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee. “There wasn’t an area to allow us to do these things that we have for them now.”
The training center has a classroom area, with the bulk of the training equipment for hands-on instruction in the back room.
“Every year, there are different levels of craft certification, and you’ve got to complete that in conjunction with your classes,” Thacker said. “That way, you can be assured that you’re not just getting the technical training, but also hands-on training.”
Apprentices receive a thorough education and get paid to learn their trade.
“Apprentices work 8,000 on-the-job training hours over a period of five years,” Thacker said. “They go to school the first two years, two nights a week, then they start going to day school.
“When they come in as an apprentice, they’re paid a percentage of what the journeymen make,” Thacker continued. That would be $21/hour, about half of a journeyman’s pay $41.50/hour.
“Then every year, after the completion of school and hours work, they get a pay increase,” Thacker said. In one’s sixth and final increment, an apprentice is paid 85% of a journeyman’s wage, about $36.68/hour. After those 8,000 hours, an apprentice becomes a journeyman.
“You’re earning while you’re learning,” Thacker said. “That’s so big — where people go in and get a four-year degree and have a student loan, apprentices don’t have any student loan and they’ve made over $200,000 while they’re in the apprenticeship program. My son married a gal who has a master’s degree in social work, and he makes double what she can make.”
“I graduated from Indiana State University before I got into this — no one offered me 30-something dollars an hour right out of college,” Hughes said. Benefits, including an additional 30% in pensions and insurance, are pretty generous, he added.
IBEW 725 generally graduates around 30 apprentices per year, but Hughes said that over the next few years it could be as many as 60 annually.
Apprentices can focus on the part of the job they want to specialize in, like welding or motor controls, pipe running or working on the solar farm and being outside.
Evolving technology has drastically changed the way apprentices are trained, the men agreed.
“The tools that we use — we used to drag around cords for everything,” Thacker said. “The cordless tools have made such a huge impact. And there are so many more cordless tools to do the crimping and do everything that we did mechanically.”
“When I was out in the field, we used to use a hacksaw to saw conduit,” Hughes recalled. “I was told, ‘You need to go watch these new guys trying to use a hacksaw.’ They didn’t know how to use a hacksaw — they have battery-operated bandsaws now and they’re more efficient.”
Hughes mimed a novice struggling with a recalcitrant tool, adding, “It was fairly comical.”
He continued, “Obviously, it’s a lot easier — we’ve got four bandsaws here for them to cut conduit. It’s more of a real-world application, because that’s what they use on the job. There’s no sense in us spending time teaching them how to use a hacksaw when they’re not going to use it anymore.”
Jim Fellows, IBEW Local 725’s business manager, said some manufacturers have “been here and watched us do this craft certification to figure out how to develop new tools.”
Thacker pointed out than unlike some unions, IBEW has a no-strike clause.
“If we can’t settle our contract, we go to binding arbitration in Washington, D.C., and present evidence like a legal brief,” he said. “They settle our contract for us, and it’s binding. That’s what we decided years ago, because we don’t want to destroy the industry, we want to work together. That’s kind of challenging.”
The entire apprenticeship program can be pretty challenging, Fellows said.
“When getting craft certification, each challenge comes down to what the apprentice’s experience is, their mechanical ability, what they’ve learned outside the trade, and what they can bring into the apprenticeship,” he said. “That’s going to present the challenges themselves.”
Those interested can apply online at thejatc.org. There’s a $30 application fee, and additional documentation will be requested when the application is submitted. Veterans should be able to verify their experience. Call 812-235-3794 for more information.
