receptionist

administrative assistant

receptionist/administrative assistant

office administrator

IBEW

more than often many ibew employees are faced with an unstable work situation.
Previously stated in another review regarding availability of work, i would like to share the horror story of a man with a family and children not only being out of work for 20 months but having a new born at home having to sell belongings to get by and cash out all savings on a employment insurance pay check. 
As ibew employees are highest paid and are bestowed with health coverage it does not mean you make the most and here is why. 
divide your hourly earnings to how many hours you get in a year and tell me the number you come up with compared to companies which are non union who make less but work more frequently possibly. 

as read in a previous post 40 km beyond your leaving point does not mean your home it means the office and there are more offices than you think. sault ste. marie , sudbury , north bay,  timmins and let's not forget ottawa toronto barrie etc and all the in between. reading your principal agreement it states 40 km past you will get live out and travel paid and how wrong you are live out rarely happens so yes, you do pay for two homes at once just to work away from home after being laid off for who knows how long.
no other union really does this by the way so how do they afford it. 
there are also contributing factors of how they win the bid and what you will lose out on. 

this is no joke and i guess if you are not experienced in these events you wouldn't know any better. 

also the ibew values itself on its members.
if you are out of work and let's say have a family and you are the sole breadwinner which does happen you are not allowed to work non union or your card will be terminated aswell as your membership.
you can however work non union if you work beside the union to salt non union and residential companies in order to get them to sign up. it is feasible if that non union company stays afloat but if not you have more mouths to feed on the out of work list and compition between brothers who are people just like anyone with lives and families. 

now let's say you get a job as you have been out of work for quite some time. Your starving and the  union calls you for a decent call. You now have to let your employer down and tell them you are returning back to work with the ibew, which in no case pleases many people and in a lot of cases it is two weeks notice and with the ibew you are to be at the job call the very next day most of the time. 

a previous post stated "worked 4 months out of a 12 month year," that is basic math. i hope that individual did not have kids even if you didn't i believe that is still pretty hard. 

there are yes a few steady positions within the ibew but very few compared to the amount gathered upon the out of work list, it is just not enough. 

the ibew does gather for jobs in big numbers and they are a force field when something has to get done in a mass production situation. 

there is much disregard in many cases of how the rules are written and how it very much does harbour trouble upon its members even if it does benifit financially for the bid or the bigger picture, it still takes money out of the workers pocket. 

asking a person if they have family where the next job is because they can not afford two home payments ( one at home and one on the road out of pocket ) is unfair due to the fact that there in no loa or travel paid for that job. 

one week of pay for loa and travel on a job, because the job is not 40 km past an ibew location/office is one weeks worth of wages for bills, your kids, emergency, yourself. 

stories of men with families makes me upset because it is something i do not want to sacrifice. working away from home should be the only sacrifice, not your earnings and families stability and finances. 

trump was known to say we make the most 
we do not it's basic math when we subtract what all other unions and all other trades make per hour on top of loa and travel.
ibew does it's best to keep straight time due to appease its customers finances. Ibew does not take advantage that is for sure. 

i was asked once when i would go home by another trade union member. i said plainly i couldn't afford it i haven't been home in two months i'll go home next month.

ibew has good people who try to make a living some are more cut throats than others but that is also due to having families and needing employment. 

the ibew is strong in workers and numbers and very many are qualified and are great at what they do. i have met many who are capable and smart. 

like i said if you are working out of local aswell and that city or area has a office 40 km from your job site no travel or lodging , that's on you and you will never be reembursed.
try starting a family on that wage of 4 / 9 hour shifts a week straight time which usually the larger cities adopt. not all of our members are journeymen either.

i believe ibew would do better in smaller numbers for the sake of its members and their families that need to make a living if their areas list does not revive proper roatation of out of work members.

Definitely the easiest trade of the bunch. You will spend time pulling wire or installing device boxes or piping. Those are basically your three key job duties. You will be spending lots of time looking for connectors like a plumber. You only really will be learning in the short times you spend in school. You don't need to think much because the engineers have it all planned out for you. Basically you just screw in and connect things. 

Having 5 years of experience to be a JMAN is definitely extremely blown out of proportion. You will spend your apprenticeship not learning much and climbing a hierarchy food chain based on favoritism and alot of luck. 

Work is hard to find mostly because anyone can do it. An apprentice does similar to a JMAN but again it is based on a food chain system. You only get the big rewards based on time. For example if there is a task to do it goes down to time in not based on ability. 

I would recommend this position if you want a simple physical job in the trades wthout outdoor dirty work and don't mind sitting down when they tell you to. But if you want a harder challenge dont go trades try software or business. Just rememeber there is a lot of favoritism here and work is hard to find. 

in all honesty they pay great and they also have benefits.
what seems to be the issue is the amount of weeks or months you work out of a 12 month calandar year. 
i have worked 4 months this year and it is not the first time, the year before i had worked less.  at one point i did not work enough to even have the ability to claim ei.
the amount of work your receive is equal to the amount of education you receive aswell if you are an apprentice. 
 they have rules and regulations which make you believe you are financially sound when you are not.
you travel to where the work is when it's your turn. That being said there is no loa in a lot of situations no matter where you live or are coming from and a lot of the time you pay out of pocket for room and board and yes your gas. it's like paying for two homes at once that being said that's not easy especially if you have been on a lay off for months and have bills. 
40 km does not mean from your home it is from the office which means if that town had a office no loa and no travel even if you come from far away. 
i have also been advised of men other than myself cashing out retirement savings plans in order to get by until work starts again being that most have families. 
changes should be made but a lot gets ignored.

When accepting a call for a union, understand it will not last. Most job opportunities are government bids and they require workers for a set period of time. The best job security you can have is marrying into the bosses family. The WATT program is a great way for employers to get cheap, short term workers ( (that are not apprentices),instead of paying union members the high wages they worked so hard to acquire. Private sector employers will pay equal wages if you are productive and safe. If you want to have a good union job long term with a big company then you MUST start right out of high-school and do ALL your training through said company, otherwise you're just a number on a list. My experiences have all been on the west coast of Canada so I can't speak for other locals. 

Joining the IBEW was probably one of the healthiest decisions in terms of career I ever made.  The union promotes representation for everyone working in the trade.  The wage is second to none and the training provided by their training centres is worldwide industry standard.

One of the mildly frustrating things is that there is frequently long periods between jobs due in part to Alberta being hostile towards unions.  This isn't the only reason of course but it is definitely a contributing factor.  As a result you need to save up during the boom so you can weather the bust.

Can be difficult to progress in an apprenticeship for the above reason.

Nevertheless, I would recommend any and all tradepersons to consider joining a union for their trade.

We were all too over paid to just sit in a truck most of the day.
we would all show up at the office before seven. If we ever were to work it would be after the hours of ten or eleven. Only when the weather was preferable. When ever there was a rush on a job,
Management would send more and more guys to just stand around, and all the while we were all waiting for the necessary equipment and / or paper work. 
The company would always cater to those who complained the most.
I gained a lot of weight while working with this company.
The hardest part was knowing how the company over bills their clients. The best part was seeing the clients yell profanity, wave obscene gestures and even throw stuff while passing by. I guess they know they're victims of extortion.

Union work is excellent. This is a group of tradespeople that believe in doing correct work on-schedule, safely, and for a wage commensurate with the labour that they do. The larger body of their employment has dwindled in the last five years due to oil and gas woes in Alberta, but they fight for fair working conditions and it shows.

Individual job sites and contractors vary as much as one could expect; quality of life is frequently at the mercy of who your superiors are, even within specific signatory companies, but my experience has been that hard, correct work and good people skills are rewarded.  Loyalty begets loyalty here as much as as it can in any contractor-driven environment, and safety is absolutely a primary concern.

My favourite part of my job is the ability to travel and work in every type of environment.  I work on many different projects throughout a a day and I've become really good at multitasking.   I have learned lots about the whole construction process with multiple trades involved, and seeing a project finally come together is a satisfying feeling.  I work by myself, as well as in groups depending on the job at hand.  My co-workers share similar lifestyles, and it's much more pleasant having someone to talk to throughout the day.  What I don't like about my job is the unrealistic deadlines that are given.  They create a lot of pressure and stress on the work day and workers tend to get upset with other.

Great company to work for. High safety standards. Lots of different industrial components installed. It was fun to work with instrumentation and fiber optics.
People make company succes or failure and i was lucky to work with a such great choice of proffesionals.
The hardest part of the job is to find coworkers strenghts and not react negativly on their weak side. Most of the people are easy going and i have learned that negative attitude will not get you far at work.
The most enjoyable part of the work is when i complete my task and find pleasure that task is done not only electricaly or mechanicaly right but the work done looks aesthetically pleasing.

This local covers all of san bernardino county. If you are an apprentice it will eat your entire life in those 5 years. Sometimes money was good, other times it was bad... and instead of them working with you they let you suffer... The guys have typical interest... women, guns, hunting, etc... very few female coworkers. The hardest part of the job is probably when you work outside in the summer. The enjoyable part was when you get to build things inside the building. Management varies as you rotate contractors; Sometimes its great other times not so much.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Receptionist 1 salary reported	$30.00 per hour
Administrative assistant 1 salary reported	$42.97 per hour
Receptionist/administrative assistant 1 salary reported	$26.53 per hour
Office administrator 1 salary reported	$30.00 per hour

Working at IBEW: company overview and reviews

IBEW

IBEW ratings

Popular jobs at IBEW

Salary satisfaction

Job seeker tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected