11 For 11: Local 11 Sets District Record for Contractor Signings

IBEW 11 added a record 11 new signed contractors to its rapidly expanding employer roster in 2024 – the most new signatories of any Local in IBEW’s 9th District.

With IBEW 11 Contractor Organizer Ben Frank leading the charge and Business Manager Robert Corona setting the course, Local 11’s organizer, business agent, and compliance teams have spread out across Los Angeles County in force employing a combination of persistence and dedication to open new doors and break down old stereotypes.

Frank attributes Local 11’s recent record-setting gains to the simplicity of the message and the math: for contractors, greater access to union-trained workers yields higher-quality projects; for union members, more union contractors mean more union jobs.

“We don’t need to sell anything, because our membership speaks for itself,” Frank said. “We have career electricians who are well trained and highly skilled and go to one of the best institutions – our ETI – to get that training.”

Frank said Local 11’s success has been a balance of educating non-union contractors on the value of union membership, building their trust and confidence, and then setting them up for success once they join the union family.

“Our organizers show up on contractors’ job sites, and I’ll show up and then make phone calls, send emails and LinkedIn messages, and go to their offices and knock on their doors and talk to the owners, and educate them,” Frank said. “When I see that job call come across the board from one of our new contractors that in turn gives one of our members an opportunity to go out to work and provide and feed their families and get their hours in to get closer to their pension – that fulfills me more than anything.”

Patience and Persistence Pay Off

The results speak for themselves: more job calls, more members working, and stronger industry presence. Three newly signed contractors have already begun placing job calls across multiple classifications, including requests for foremen and supervisor roles. The momentum has continued, with Local 11 signing another two new contractors in August alone.

Frank credits 11’s success to an unwavering organizing commitment at every level inside the Local plus an understanding that the painstaking research, training, and relationship building it takes to move a non-union contractor from their first union conversation to their first dispatch can range from days to years.

“Our strategy is we are going to find ways to say yes, and if there is something a contractor needs or requests, we are going to find innovative and progressive ways to partner up and find that middle ground,” Frank said. “I’m out there grinding, sitting down face to face with these contractors and working with them to give them every avenue possible to be successful, but without the support from our entire team – the organizers, business agents, compliance, clerical, plus the support from Business Manager Robert Corona and President Alton Wilkerson – none of our success would have been possible.”

A final ingredient in Local 11’s signatory success, Frank said, is letting employers know that once they sign that contract, their relationship is just beginning.

“When I sit down face to face with these contractors I work with them to give them every avenue possible to be successful, and I let them know that once they become signatory it doesn’t end there,” Frank said. 

“I let them know I’m a liaison between them and our members to help grow and guide and serve them so, in turn, our members get to go out and work with competent, eager contractors.

“These contractors are entrusting us with their company and to build their projects in a timely manner so they can make their budgets and their timelines, and they need guidance and direction. 

They always have questions, so you need to let them know you’re always there for them. They’re running a business, and that business depends on our membership, so I hold that close and dear and understand, so that’s why I’m always here to serve.”