Union volunteers welcome America’s labor movement to Minnesota

June 8, 2026 by

Volunteers staffing the welcome booth on Day 1 of the convention include (L to R) Megan Lockhart (Painters Local 61), Mary Sansom, Hana Yoshida (SEIU Healthcare) and Miriam Wynn.

Local union volunteers are welcoming the nation’s labor movement to Minneapolis this week and helping the AFL-CIO ensure its biggest event runs smoothly.

About 40 retired and active union members answered the call for volunteers during the AFL-CIO’s 30th Constitutional Convention, which began yesterday and runs through June 10 at the Minneapolis Convention Center.

Volunteers are stationed throughout a bustling exhibition space, located just off the meeting floor. The space features vendor booths, informational displays, interactive training spaces, a live stage and more.

Barbara Andrew, a member of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa, traveled from Rochester yesterday to volunteer with her SEIU sister Leslie Kaup of Albert Lea. As delegates entered the convention space, Andrew and Kaup encouraged them to write their personal definitions of “solidarity” on a poster-filled wall.

Leslie Kaup and Barbara Andrew

For Andrew, talking solidarity with strangers was a welcome opportunity. She works in food service for a Mayo Clinic contractor, where workers organized a union nine years ago – after Mayo outsourced their department.

“I fell in love with unions,” she said. “I’ve seen how it helped me and my fellow co-workers.”

It’s a feeling Mary Sansom, a retired member of Machinists (IAM) Local 1833, has known for five decades.

Greeting delegates and answering questions at the welcome booth yesterday, Sansom said it was exciting to see the faces that make up the labor movement – from IAM’s elected leaders to members of the AFL-CIO’s 64 other affiliated unions – as they entered the convention space.

“I’m a 53-year union member, and this is our legacy coming in,” she said. “I’m feeling really proud right now.”

Staffing the swag table (L to R): Sara Miele, Larry Nelson (former CWA) and Bernadine Engeldorf (retired MNA).

Some local volunteers had already made new connections on Day 1 of the convention.

A United Steelworkers delegate asked Miriam Wynn, financial secretary of Minnesota-based Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1005, to record a message of support for workers in Mississippi who will vote soon in a union election.

“Just to know that they are organizing in Mississippi while our union is organizing here in Rochester, it was actually encouraging for me, and hopefully I was encouraging them,” Wynn said. “Labor everywhere, we need to come together, and that’s what’s happening here.”

For other union members, volunteering at the convention was an opportunity to put Minnesota’s best foot forward after Operation Metro Surge.

Volunteers at the entrance to the convention floor (L to R): Rachel Andersen, Richard Rosivach (Mounds View Education Association), Tess Darmer (Painters Local 61) and MN AFL-CIO organizing director Todd Dahlstrom.

Posted at the entrance to the convention floor, Southdale Hospital nurse Rachel Andersen, a member of the Minnesota Nurses Association, said the convention buzzed with much-needed “good energy.”

“It fills my cup, after everything Minnesota’s been through, to see that we still care about each other,” Andersen said. “We’ve been saying ‘solidarity’ for years, but this winter really put the rubber to the road, and it was there when we needed it.”

Some delegates were eager to recognize the resilience Minnesota showed over the winter, retired Minneapolis educator Sara Miele said. And Miele, who lives downtown, said she is eager in turn to show them everything else that her city and state have to offer.

“I’m so excited about making sure people have a wonderful experience here – and come back and back and back,” she laughed.

 – Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor

Filed Under: Community, Politics Tagged With: , , ,

Pipefitters turn out for union’s annual Heat’s On service day

October 20, 2025 by

Elected officials and labor leaders join union members for a group photo after the Heat’s On 2025 welcome breakfast.

Local Pipefitters unions kick off their Heat’s On service day each year with a breakfast buffet in the conference room of a hotel in Roseville. So many union volunteers showed up this year that some had to eat in the lobby.

It was as big a turnout as anyone in St. Paul Pipefitters Local 455 or Minneapolis Local 539 could remember seeing since Project Heat’s On got started in 1986, and that’s good news for the low-income, senior and disabled homeowners who received furnace maintenance and repairs at no cost Oct. 4.

Union volunteers provided service to homeowners identified by two Community Action Partnership agencies. Union contractors, members of the Minnesota Mechanical Contractors Association, covered the cost of materials needed for the repairs.

In addition to inspecting homeowners’ furnaces, union members checked for dangerous heat-related health conditions and replaced smoke and carbon-monoxide detectors.

Local 455 apprentices Benjamin Mullin (L) and Adam Stehr inspect the boiler at a home in St. Paul’s Frogtown neighborhood.

Union apprentices helped boost turnout for Heat’s On this year. Adam Stehr and Benjamin Mullin, first-year apprentices with Local 455 who paired up this year, said the service day offered an opportunity to hone their skills while giving back to the community.

“For me, it’s an opportunity to learn a little bit,” said Stehr, whose employer works in building and construction. “Working with someone on the service side, it’s cool to get out and see different things. In piping there are so many routes.”

Mullin does work for a commercial and residential service contractor, and he walked Stehr through the steps of inspecting the boiler of a house in St. Paul’s Frogtown neighborhood, their first of two service calls planned that day.

“Something I was always taught was it costs nothing to be kind, and you should look for ways to help others in the community,” Mullin said. “That’s what this day is all about.”

Heat’s On has given back over $4 million in volunteer work hours and repairs over the last four decades.

– Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor

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Union plumbers provide free repairs on Water’s Off day of service

April 10, 2025 by

Jared Solway (L), Tyler McGhan and Erika Reil.

Erika Reil, Tyler McGhan and Jared Solway spent a Saturday morning last month making plumbing repairs at the home of a Marine veteran in St. Paul’s West Seventh neighborhood.

They put a new seat on a basement toilet and replaced its fill valve and flapper to stop it from running. Upstairs, the crew removed and reinstalled the hot and cold faucets on a new bathroom sink, after a handyman installed them backwards.

And best of all for the homeowner, Reil, McGhan and Solway did the work for free as part of Water’s Off, their union’s annual day of service.

Sponsored by St. Paul Plumbers Local 34 and Minneapolis Local 15, the event provides free service calls to low-income, senior and disabled homeowners in the Twin Cities. Journey workers and apprentices volunteer their skills, and union contractors donate any supplies and parts needed to complete the repairs.

Since its founding in 1994, union volunteers have given more than 14,000 hours of their services to over 4,000 households at a value of over $2 million. And that doesn’t include the savings on their future water bills.

“I think a lot of people don’t realize how much plumbing they use in their daily life,” Reil said. “They don’t think about it – until they need it.”

Reil, a Local 34 member, works as a foreman with Modern Heating and Air. Both McGhan and Solway are in the second year of Local 34’s apprenticeship program and employed by Mike’s Custom Mechanical.

Local Community Action Partner-ship agencies help unions identify homeowners in need of assistance.

Find a list of union residential plumbers in the Twin Cities at members.minnesotamca.org/directory.

– Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor

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Volunteers key to Minnesota unions’ election-year goals

July 19, 2024 by

The Minnesota AFL-CIO made its first round of legislative endorsements in June, bringing into focus the statewide union federation’s objectives in the 2024 election cycle.

The 79 endorsed candidates would preserve a pro-worker majority in the Minnesota House of Representatives, one-third of the political “trifecta” responsible for delivering a historic package of investments and policy changes that, Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bernie Burnham said, have “set Minnesota on its way to becoming the best state for working people.”

“We can’t afford to go backwards,” she said.

But protecting the labor-endorsed majority in the Legislature – only House races are on the ballot this year, aside from special elections – is just one outcome that Burnham and other labor leaders hope to see from the Nov. 5 election.

Other goals include sending endorsed candidates to Congress, including Rep. Angie Craig in the state’s tightly contested 2nd District, and delivering the state’s electoral votes to the Biden-Harris ticket, endorsed by the national AFL-CIO over a year ago – and reaffirmed by the federation’s Executive Council after a meeting with President Biden on July 10.

“No president has been more invested in expanding the labor movement and empowering workers than President Joe Biden,” council members said in a joint statement afterward. “The AFL-CIO welcomed President Biden back to the House of Labor, and national leaders reiterated their strong solidarity with the Biden-Harris ticket.”

While narrowly-contested races like Biden’s and Craig’s are sure to dominate the airwaves and social media, the Minnesota AFL-CIO’s political work happens closer to the ground.

At the heart of the “Labor 2024” campaign, Burnham said, will be conversations between union members – in the break room, on the doorstep or over the phone – about what matters to them.

“It’s an opportunity for union folks to talk to and show their fellow union members that when we win collective power, we win tangible improvements for working people,” Burnham said. “It’s making sure that folks know that their voice counts and the more we stick together the better off we’re going to be.”

The Minnesota AFL-CIO’s member-to-member approach has a track record of success.

Labor’s unified political effort every two years represents the largest campaign in the state not affiliated with a party or candidate. In 2022, more than 450 union volunteers knocked on 62,000 doors statewide and had more than 30,000 conversations with union voters.

Unions focused their work on 34 “targeted races,” and their endorsed candidates won 25 of them.

Volunteers will need to bring the same energy to Labor 2024, Burnham said. The campaign’s phone banks, rallies and door knocks are likely to begin later this month, after the Aug. 13 primary election.

“Pretty quick here, we’re going to be on the pavement pounding it pretty hard up until Election Day,” she said. “This program is only going to do well if we have members out on the doors, have members making phone calls.

“There are really any number of ways to make a difference. Just get out and be a part of the program.”

The Minnesota AFL-CIO is expected to make additional endorsements this summer as candidates continue to screen with their area labor councils.

To learn more about volunteering, or to receive invites to Labor 2024 campaign events, go to mnaflcio.org and click “Get Updates.”

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St. Paul educators give away 40,000 books

January 30, 2024 by

Labor and community leaders joined a press event at the St. Paul book giveaway. Speakers (L to R) included St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Kera Peterson, Education Minnesota Secretary-Treasurer Rodney Rowe and Vice President Monica Byron, AFT President Randi Weingarten, SPFE President Leah VanDassor and St. Paul Deputy Mayor Jaime Tincher.

The St. Paul Federation of Educators gave away 40,000 books to children, families and teachers Dec. 16 as part of their international union’s “Reading Opens the World” initiative, which aims to give out 10 million free books.

“As others ban books, we’re giving them out,” American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said during a brief program during the book giveaway. “As others try to stop kids from reading, we want to nurture minds and open the world to our kids and our families.”

Educators staged the event at Neighborhood House on St. Paul’s West Side, with volunteers unpacking boxes of books and arranging them by reading level. Organizers selected titles “that are diverse, that are interesting, that have lived experiences (relevant) to our kids and our families and our communities,” Weingarten said.

AFT launched “Reading Opens the World” in December 2021 as part of the union’s “Real Solutions”campaign to strengthen public schools and address learning loss, loneliness and literacy. So far, the international union has distributed 2 million books as part of the initiative.

In St. Paul, families could take home up to 30 books, and educators could take up to 50 free books for their classroom libraries.

Education Minnesota Vice President Monica Byron credited SPFE with “sparking so much joy in our community” with the book giveaway.

“To the educators that I see being able to grab books to share with their students across their classrooms, have fun and take those moments to see the joy,” Byron said. “And to the students, I hope you read these books over and over and over again because that’s where the magic happens –in the words, in the pages and in your minds.”

Co-sponsors of the book giveaway included the Saint Paul Regional Labor Federation, Teamsters Local 120, Saint Paul Parks and Recreation, Neighbor-hood House, Education Minnesota and the West Side Community Organization.

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Kera Peterson: Labor-endorsed candidates have earned our support

October 20, 2022 by

St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Kera Peterson is shown speaking at the 2022 Minnesota AFL-CIO convention.

It’s autumn in Minnesota, and trade unionists across our great state are taking action together every day though the Labor 2022 program. We started earlier this spring with a rigorous screening process that helped determine which candidates had done the work to earn the Minnesota AFL-CIO’s endorsement. In August, we kicked-off our grassroots member education efforts across the state. Since then, volunteers have been talking with union voters on the phones and at the doors about the ways our endorsed candidates, including Gov. Tim Walz and U.S. Rep. Angie Craig, have fought for our jobs and our freedoms – and about what it will take for them to continue that work on behalf of Minnesotans for years to come.

Union members in other states have seen their freedoms come under attack in recent years. Politicians backed by corporate special interests and billionaire CEOs have assailed workers’ fundamental freedom to earn a livable wage and have a voice on the job. Here in Minnesota, Gov. Walz’s veto pen and the pro-working family majority in the state House have kept anti-union legislation, like right to work and repeal of prevailing wage, from becoming law.

Instead, legislators in Minnesota have taken a high-road approach to economic growth and invested in middle class workers. Gov. Walz signed the largest infrastructure bill in state history and the nation’s toughest wage theft law. He acted quickly after the pandemic hit to prioritize frontline workers’ health, safety and voice on the job. And frontline workers have started to receive long-overdue payments in recognition of their service to the state. We can see Gov. Walz’s leadership working in other ways, too. Minnesota’s unemployment rate is at a historic low, wages are rising and the state has a $9 billion budget surplus.

Other incumbents, including members of the state Legislature who never gave up the fight for frontline worker payments, have earned union members’ support. And so have members of the House majority in Congress, including two of our local representatives, Betty McCollum and Angie Craig.

Rep. Craig’s race in the 2nd Congressional District is among the most tightly contested in the country this year. That means every vote counts, and with a 100% pro-union voting record, according to the AFL-CIO, union members can’t afford to lose Rep. Craig’s voice in Washington, D.C. Since winning re-election two years ago, she’s helped break the gridlock and deliver on issues that matter to working people, fighting to deliver pension relief and pass the $1 trillion infrastructure bill. She also partnered with our unions in the effort to include buy-American and prevailing-wage standards in the Inflation Reduction Act, ensuring investments to combat climate change won’t come at the expense of union jobs. And if we send Rep. Craig back to Congress, she’ll continue working to lower prescription drug prices and pass the PRO Act, which would strengthen the nation’s labor laws and stiffen penalties against union-busting employers.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has earned union members’ support for re-election, too. Few elected officials bring more energy to the fight for justice than Keith does, and since starting his service in the state Attorney General’s Office in 2019, he has been a fierce advocate for workers and consumers.  He has capitalized on the state’s new wage theft law, which gives the office more power to go after employers who misclassify workers or short them on wages they’re owed, returning hundreds of thousands of dollars to working Minnesotans. He sued two dozen drug companies over a price-fixing scheme that drove up prescription drug costs. And he took fast-food restaurants to court for colluding to hold wages down for some of the lowest-paid workers in our community.

So much of the progress we’ve made in recent years hangs in the balance this election cycle, and so much work remains to be done to make Minnesota a state where all of us, no matter what we look like or where we come from, have an opportunity to thrive. Safe and family-sustaining jobs, high-quality schools, and health care that is affordable and accessible are things that we care about. But too often over the last four years, legislation that would make our workplaces safer, or would invest in our public schools and infrastructure, has died in the Minnesota Senate. Just this summer, members of the Republican majority walked away from a bipartisan agreement to deliver funding for schools, public safety and roads and bridges – sacrificing good public policy to score political points.

Between now and Election Day, we need to do everything we can to help elect candidates who share our values, including talking with family members, friends and co-workers about what’s at stake in this election and why their vote matters. By supporting our labor-endorsed candidates, including those for the state House and Senate, we can help ensure that Gov. Walz will be able to work with a Legislature that will put working families first.

– Kera Peterson is president of the Saint Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO. Learn more about the federation and its work at stpaulunions.org.

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Union pipefitters help homeowners in need prep for cold weather

October 4, 2022 by

Avery Peterson (L) and Jim Westphall take a service call on St. Paul’s east side.

Union pipefitters fanned out across the Twin Cities metro area Saturday to provide free furnace repairs and inspections to 100 low-income, senior and disabled homeowners.

It marked another successful year for Project Heat’s On, the community service initiative sponsored by local pipe trades unions and their signatory contractors.

“I’ve got my talent, and I might as well give my talent back to the community,” said Jim Westphall, a newly retired member of St. Paul Steamfitters Pipefitters Local 455. “I might as well pay it forward.”

Westphall partnered Saturday with his former co-worker at Cities 1 Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning, Avery Peterson. For Westphall, it was his 23rd Heat’s On experience. For Peterson, it was the first.

“With our training, this is something we can give back to help people save a little bit of money,” the first-year apprentice said. “It’s nice to give back, and I’ll be back for many years to come in my career.”

Inside a home on St. Paul’s east side, Peterson and Westphall performed a routine maintenance check on the furnace, pulling and cleaning the burners, cleaning the flame rod and replacing the filter.

“You want to make sure the flame rods are clean because if they’re not, the furnace will fail in the middle of winter,” Westphall said.

They also changed the batteries in the home’s thermostat, smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors.

Before providing free furnace inspection and repairs to Twin Cities homeowners, union pipefitters gather with elected officials and community leaders at a Roseville hotel for the Project Heat’s On volunteer breakfast.

Since its inception in 1986, Project Heat’s On has provided service calls to more than 8,200 households. Union pipefitters have donated more than 37,000 hours of volunteer labor, and with contractors covering the cost of parts and other improvements.

Organizers estimate the value of repairs and service provided through the program is nearly $4 million.

Local 455 and Minneapolis-based Pipefitters Local 539 and their contractors work with Community Action Partnership agencies in the metro to identify homeowners in need of assistance.

“Local 455 has so many proud members that are willing to give back to the community,” Local 455 Business Manager Tony Poole said. “I’m thankful to be a part of such a great organization.”

Filed Under: Community, Union Events Tagged With: , , , ,

Kera Peterson: Organizing surge shows what’s possible at the polls

August 30, 2022 by

Kera Peterson, shown speaking at a union rally in the Chisago Lakes School District, is president of the Saint Paul Regional Labor Federation.

We’ve all seen the headlines: From Amazon warehouses to hospitals and clinics, from bookstores to coffee shops, we are in the midst of a historic upswing of labor organizing. Working people in Minnesota and across the country are coming together to fight for better wages, safer workspaces, and dignity and respect on the job. And they are looking to our unions for solidarity and support in that fight.

Unions are more popular this Labor Day than they have been in the past 50 years. We have seen a surge in U.S. workers looking to exercise their freedom to stand together in unions, driving up the number of petitions filed at the National Labor Relations Board by 69% compared to last year.

And more often than not, those NLRB elections are going workers’ way here in Minnesota. Our state’s union density – the share of union members in the total workforce – has increased in each of the last two years, bucking a national trend. More than 16% of Minnesota workers are union members. We are 416,000 members strong and growing!

This momentum is exciting and inspiring. It is also the product of decades of worker frustration, driven by low wages, unsafe workplaces, unaffordable health care, and a lack of respect and dignity on the job. When we join together in union as workers, we have the opportunity to make better lives for ourselves and our families. Our unions help ensure safer workplaces, and our union contracts help build a stronger and more fair economy by raising standards for all workers, whether they are union members or not.

But working people are also looking to the labor movement to restore balance to our economy, which for too long has been stacked in favor of corporations and the wealthy.

Corporate special interests have lobbied successfully for massive tax breaks and deregulation, while financing legal attacks on workers’ rights and protections. Companies like Amazon pit states and municipalities against each other for public subsidies and incentives, while avoiding billions in federal taxes. Meanwhile, working families paying their fair share in taxes have seen the cost of health care, child care and energy cut deeper into their paychecks. Sometimes it feels like the deck has been stacked against us, and in many ways it has.

As a labor movement, it’s imperative that we take the same momentum driving this surge in workplace organizing and use it to mobilize union members to get to the polls and vote in our General Election on or before Nov. 8. The progress that we’ve fought for and our future and freedom as workers are on the ballot this fall. Only the power of organized labor can combat the power of organized money, corporate special interests and the billionaire CEOs who aggressively attack our fundamental freedom to have a voice on the job.

We’re excited to take on that work here at the Saint Paul Regional Labor Federation. Between now and Election Day, union volunteers will be reaching out to fellow union members on the phone and at the doorstep to connect about what’s at stake in this election and which candidates share our values. Our federation will coordinate dozens of phone banks and door knocks – opportunities for union members and retirees to make a real difference this election cycle.

We’ll never outspend the corporations and billionaires, but we can always outwork them. Organizing gives us a chance to have our voices heard and to call out the powerful, both at work and at the ballot box. Together, we can help elect pro-worker candidates who support our freedoms to join a union, to earn a good living, to access affordable health care and to vote for our representatives in free and fair elections. I hope you’ll join me in this work.

– Kera Peterson is president of the Saint Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO. The SPRLF unites over 50,000 union members who live and work in Chisago, Dakota, Ramsey and Washington counties. Learn more about the federation, its endorsed candidates and how to volunteer with the Labor 2022 campaign at stpaulunions.org.

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After pandemic hiatus, Plumbers union brings back Water’s Off service day

April 25, 2022 by

Brett Bernhjelm and Julia Kunze pause for a photo with Dave Hallis, a disabled Navy veteran whose Maplewood home needed plumbing repairs. Bernhjelm is a military veteran, too, having served six years in the Minnesota National Guard.

Dave Hallis’ kitchen drain needed more than a quick fix, and caulking in the disabled Navy veteran’s roll-in shower had begun to separate.

So when Community Action Partnership of Ramsey and Washington Counties called Hallis in March to see if he could use some free plumbing repairs, the timing couldn’t have been better.

Hallis was one of 25 Twin Cities homeowners who received free service through local union plumbers’ annual Water’s Off service initiative March 26.

“I’ve had a couple plumbers come in, but it would just continue leaking,” said Hallis, who lives in a Maplewood mobile home. “Without this help, these repairs wouldn’t be getting done because financially I am strapped. I was worried it would create more damage because hardwood floors and water don’t mix.”

Making the repairs in Hallis’ home were two volunteer members of St. Paul Plumbers Local 34, Brett Bernhjelm and Julia Kunze. They replaced the leaking pipes beneath Hallis’ kitchen sink, recaulked his shower and did a walk-through inspection of the rest of his home’s plumbing.

“It’s a good thing it’s getting fixed today,” said Bernhjelm, a 19-year member of Local 34. “The band-aids that had been put on were not going to work.”

Since Water’s Off started in 1991, union plumbers have donated more than 13,000 hours of skilled labor, at a value of over $2 million. Their contractors, members of the Minnesota Mechanical Contractors Association and the Metro Plumbing Heating and Cooling Contractors, pick up the cost of parts and other supplies.

“Giving back to our communities is one of our core union principles, so once we identified the problem, we knew we needed to help,” said David Ybarra, president of the Minnesota Pipe Trades Association.

“By providing free plumbing repairs and inspections, this program not only saves these homeowners money, it lifts a weight off their shoulders and brings the community together,” said Marcia Paulson of Community Action Partnership.

For Kunze, a third-year apprentice, it was her first time volunteering with Water’s Off, which had been canceled in each of the previous two years because of the pandemic. She said it won’t be her last.

“I just like to give back to the community, especially for a veteran who has fought for our country,” Kunze said. “It’s an amazing honor.”

Bernhjelm is a veteran too, having served six years in the Minnesota National Guard. He and Hallis shared a laugh when Hallis successfully guessed which branch of the military Bernhjelm had served.

“I got the feeling you were an Army man,” Hallis said.

Those are the connections, for Bernhjelm, that make volunteering with Water’s Off worthwhile.

“Other people don’t have the training to fix things that we, as union plumbers, can easily fix,” Bernhjelm said. “And it’s great to run into people like David. He served us, and it’s an honor to be able to serve him.”

Filed Under: Community, Union Events Tagged With: , , , , ,

IBEW 110, Rice County Habitat enter third decade of partnership

January 25, 2022 by

(photo courtesy Logan Beere)

It’s said that many hands make light work. But to make the lights work at a new fourplex under construction in Northfield, Habitat for Humanity tapped the expertise of local union electricians.

About 40 members of St. Paul-based International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 110 joined a volunteer project at the fourplex Jan. 15, installing light fixtures, hooking up electrical receptacles and switches, and turning on power.

It’s the latest example of a partnership between Local 110’s Faribault chapter and Rice County Habitat for Humanity that has spanned more than 20 years. The union also has supported Habitat builds in Cannon Falls and the Cambridge area.

Union members at People’s Electric began volunteering with Rice County Habitat in 1999, according to retired member Steven White. The union later took over the initiative “wholeheartedly,” White said, and currently partners with contractor Muska Electric to pull permits necessary for the electrical work.

IBEW Local 110 retirees Bob Delesha (L) and Steven White are mainstays of the union’s Habitat volunteer projects in Rice County.
IBEW Local 110 apprentice Helen Spindler and Local 110 President Doug Suchanek work together to install a light fixture.
With single-digit temperatures, Local 110 journeyman Dave Slattery (front) and apprentice Jeremy Dohrmann install wiring outside the fourplex.

White and Bob Delesha, chair of the Faribault chapter, estimated the union has volunteered on 40 Habitat projects. Local 110 donates the wire, panels, outlets, switches and other materials installed in each home.

“I’ve been fortunate to come back to finish some of the work, and I’ve gotten to meet some of the homeowners,” White said. “They are beyond thrilled. This is a meaningful way to give back to the community.”

Delesha said his wife used to joke that he spends more time volunteering in other people’s homes than his own. “But it’s a skilled trade we were fortunate to learn, and we are fortunate to be able to give back,” Delesha said.

Another benefit of the Habitat partnership, he added, is that it gives Electrical Workers experience with residential work. It also gives apprentices, journey-level workers and retirees an opportunity to learn from each other.

“For most locals out of major cities, a lot of people don’t get much experience with residential wiring anymore,” Delesha said. “We update our education, but it isn’t the same as putting in time on a job. And the younger people get an opportunity to work with some of the gray-hairs, too.”

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