Advocating for Our Work

Local 11 pushes priorities in Sacramento

Each Spring, IBEW members from across the state descend on Sacramento to lobby their elected officials about upcoming legislation at the beginning of the legislative season. With a new, more combative and anti-union administration in place in Washington, DC, our challenges are heightened this year. The Los Angeles firestorms in January also put a spotlight on wildfire protections. In 2025, there will also be additional attacks on our jurisdiction from other trades trying to encroach on our work, as well as the usual issues we face on safety and permitting.

March 24-26, IBEW 11 leaders and staff joined over 150 of their IBEW union brothers and sisters from across the state to talk to their elected representatives about the most urgent workforce issues facing our membership: EV charging, streamlining permitting, opposition to offshore wind projects, battery storage and Net Energy Metering (NEM) reform efforts that impact our work.

Key issues we’re focusing on:

Permit Streamlining — labor needs to have a voice in how projects are built in the communities where we live. There is an effort afoot to block labor’s input in some permitting processes.

Battery Storage — we need to increase our production in order to hit our 2035 renewable energy goals that the Governor wants. We’re sponsoring legislation in conjunction with the Fire Departments on establishing safety standards.

NEM reform — we are supporting common-sense revisions to the current law that would lower the payout from 20 years to 10 years to benefit renters and other residents who don’t have the funds to invest in solar panels.

We are also supporting legislation to ensure that our members working on PLA projects get paid when they are stiffed by the subcontractors by making the general contractors responsible.