Business Manager and Financial Secretary of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 683, Pat Hook, joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast to discuss the exceptional growth of projects and the need for new union members and improving solar and EV charging in the Central Ohio area.
IBEW Local 683 has approximately 2,300 active members with over 600 retired members. The local’s jurisdiction covers 8 counties in Central Ohio, including Columbus, and is home to 1.6 million residents.
Hook discussed the growth he’s seen over the past two decades at Local 683. When he joined 20 years ago, Local 683 was home to approximately 1,200 members. Their average apprenticeship classes were considered reasonable if there were 50 new students. Now with nearly 2,300 members, nearly doubling the number of active members, Local 683 sees around 200 new first-year students in their apprenticeship program. Hook hopes they can continue to grow over the next 10 years. However, with new projects coming to the area daily, he’s not sure they’ll be able to keep up with the demand for highly skilled electricians.
Central Ohio is home to many new energy opportunities, from new solar plants to the soon-to-be-started EV battery plant from Honda. Hook discussed the brand new training technologies added to the apprenticeship program. He hopes these new technologies will help ease the transition for new members to begin working on solar equipment in the field. As for the growing need for charging stations as EVs become the norm, Hook believes there are improvements to be made to the infrastructure for charging station production to keep up with EV production.
Listen to the entire episode to learn more.