About Us

In 1890, a small group of electrical workers meeting in St. Louis sought help from the American Federation of Labor (AFL) to form a union. A charter was granted and they became the Wiremen and Linemen's Union #5221 of the AFL. Henry Miller was elected President. The newly organized members split into groups and started out through all major cities in the US to organize, into their union, everyone that was employed as an electrician.

One year later, November 21, 1891, a group of ten delegates representing 286 electricians met for the first convention. By November 28, 1891, the previous name was dropped and they adopted the name-National Brotherhood of Electrical Workers of America (NBEW). They adopted a logo and the constitution we still work under today was written.

One week after the NBEW was founded, Henry Miller delivered the new union’s request for a charter to the AFL convention in Birmingham, AL. On December 7, 1891, the charter was granted and awarded the NBEW jurisdiction over all electrical workers.

Approximately 5 weeks later, January 14, 1892, Nashville, TN was chartered as Local Union #5. Local #5 existed until April 28, 1894.

Approximately 8 years later, April 10, 1902, the second local was charted in Nashville, TN. This was Local Union #129. Local #129 existed until December 1907.

Approximately 9 years later, August 31, 1916, Nashville was given their third charter that was Local Union #429. Fortunately we have been serving the middle Tennessee area for over 100 years.

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) is the largest electrical union in the world. The IBEW represents workers' rights in all areas of the electrical and telecommunications industry.

The National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) represents union electrical contractors, who guarantee their installations, who perform quality work on time and on budget, and who take a special interest in their employees.

To provide the highly skilled workforce necessary to meet customer needs and ensure job satisfaction for electrical workers, the IBEW and NECA have teamed up to sponsor the most rigorous and respected apprenticeship training programs.

In 1941, the IBEW and NECA established the National Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee (NJATC) which has developed uniform standards that are used nationwide to train thousands of qualified men and women for demanding and rewarding careers in the electrical industry. The NJATC is responsible for setting the guidelines for the various apprentice occupations, developing standardized course curriculum, along with texts, workbooks, testing methods and demonstration equipment for these apprenticeships and a wide variety of journey-level courses and training for the instructors who deliver the course material. The course training is delivered locally by local area JATCs, sponsored by the local units of the two national organizations.