President’s Message – August/September 2024

Looking Forward to Serving

First, let me begin by thanking all of you for the vote of confidence in voting me in as your President of our great Local 11. It is an honor for me to hold this position, and I look forward to serving the membership to my fullest capacity.

In my career with IBEW Local 11 I have served in several leadership positions leading up to this important role: I began as an apprentice, JW, Foreman, Organizer, Apprenticeship Coordinator, then Director of Organizing, and now your President. I will work with the leadership you elected in June to serve our members and make life better for all our members and their families.

As President, I will still continue in my role as your Director of Organizing, helping secure more work for our members, pushing for more projects in our region, increasing our membership numbers and our political power. Increasing market share is the key to being successful in our industry. The more members we organize into our union, the more power we wield when negotiating rates and good contracts for all our members.

I’m writing you this from our 9th District Progress Meeting, where IBEW members have gathered from many regions in the West: California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Hawaii, the northern portion of Idaho, as well as Guam and Saipan. With the exciting turn of events this past week with a change at the top of the Democratic ticket, our International Office officially endorsed Kamala Harris. We will do all we can to get this good friend of labor elected to the highest office in the land.

And it’s not just us at the Progress Meeting that feel this way. So many others are enthused. In just her first week, she has already raised a record-breaking $250 million. She’s an experienced politician, young, competent, energetic, and hitting the campaign trail where she is greeted by enthusiastic crowds. Now, with less than 100 days until the election, we must turn up the heat, and do all we can to elect Harris into office. We’ve spent time this last week at the conference, with other locals, drawing up battle plans on how we can turn out our members across the country for this game-changing election. Stay tuned for marching orders and how you can help.

As your new President, I will work tirelessly for you to organize the unorganized, to gain more work for our members, and gain political strength for Local 11, the greatest union in the U.S. I hope to see you at our next general membership meeting. Come up and talk to me, say hello, let me know if you have any questions or concerns I can help you with.

We’re in this together.

In Solidarity,

Alton Wilderson
IBEW Local 11
President