President’s Message – July 2025

We Become Better When We Reflect the Communities We Serve

IBEW 11 has long recognized the need recruit and retain more female apprentices and journey-level workers and add a new infusion of talent, strength, and innovation to our leadership ranks. Diversity has always been one of our greatest strengths.

Last year, IBEW 11 announced a goal to increase the number of female members to 10 percent. Our construction female membership in 2024 was around 3 percent and 4.5 percent among apprentices. We’re bending the arc toward realizing that goal.

We have been proactively coordinating with national organizations like the National Association of Women in Construction, non-profits like Women in Non-Traditional Employment Roles (WINTER), organizing apprenticeship readiness programs with the Los Angeles and Orange County building and construction trades, partnering with employers, and awarding agencies to make sure women are better represented on the job.

Our EMPOWER (ETI Mentorship Program Offering Women Extra Resources) program continues to lead the way recruiting, retaining, and supporting female apprentices and journey-level workers. 

We’ve come a long way but have a long way to go. Women will feel like they’re more a part of this organization when they see people that look like them in leadership roles and at the apprentice levels. That includes having more women in instructor and management roles and out on the job sites as foremen, superintendents, project managers, and owners.

From October 6 – December 5, Local 11 will be conducting an All-Women’s Veteran Electrical Entry Program (VEEP) Pre-Apprenticeship class, led by Mike Kufchak, Director of Veterans Affairs. VEEP provides veterans with direct entry into the apprenticeship program, as long as they successfully complete the VEEP Program. Please help us spread the word.

Union Brotherhood and Sisterhood are not casual platitudes we use as placeholders; they have a deeper meaning that is rooted in history and a shared bond of solidarity and fraternity. We become a better union when our membership fully reflects the communities we serve. Let’s keep moving forward together.

In solidarity, 

Alton Wilkerson