A Message from Business Manager Chris Erikson
Electrical Workers Without Borders North America is the organization that was founded by former IBEW International President Edwin D. Hill. I currently serve proudly as President of this special organization. Check out the website for more information. For nearly a decade, IBEW members have volunteered for projects across the globe, from Haiti to Angola, and currently in Peru, bringing electricity where there was none.
We are anticipating a project this fall here in the United States in the Southwest. The poverty and lack of electricity on Native American reservations is overwhelming. EWWBNA will be sending volunteers to the Navajo Nation in New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah to wire residences that have no electricity. We will do the work under the direction of the NTUA — the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority — and will be coordinating with volunteers from utility companies that are running the power lines. There is no better satisfaction than providing light and power to families who have never had it, as it is something that truly changes their lives. The lives of the volunteers who make it happen are changed forever as well, through service for our fellow man and woman.
We, the IBEW, are going to make it happen and make a difference. If interested, please contact Organizer Archie Alcantara at Local 3, and we will provide the details. Over 100 Local 3 volunteers went to Puerto Rico after the island was devastated by a hurricane and they experienced the joy of helping those less fortunate — something that Harry Van Arsdale Jr. urged us to do a long time ago. We’ll keep doing it, as we are a proud organization. We are the IBEW, and we will leave our mark.
Happy 4th of July, our Independence Day. Celebrate and teach the children that we have so much to be grateful for: our freedoms, our democracy, and our country. Despite the divisions and polarization, we are all Americans. United we stand, divided we fall. God bless America, and God bless Local 3!
