IBEW Local 309 turns job around using social media

Fairview Heights – Using social media, IBEW Local 309 identified then turned around a non-union job at the Gordmans store here.

IBEW Local 309 Organizer Chris Hankins said one of his members, Journeyman Wireman Joshua Wiegers, saw the job posted on Craigslist by National Retrofitting Group out of Chicago, which was looking for an apprentice electrician to work nights on the project. Hankins contacted National as well as the store manager and posted a message on Local 309’s Facebook page encouraging their friends to call and visit the store to tell the manager they would no longer shop there. He also presented the store manager with a handbill encouraging customers to shop at Gordmans’s competition.

The next day, with IBEW Journeyman Wireman Tom Coats (pictured) prepared to handbill outside the store, Gordmans ordered National to hire an IBEW Local 309 signatory contractor to perform the work. The job went to St. Louis-based Guarantee Electric, which has an office in Granite City.

“We were enough of a thorn to get it turned around,” Hankins said. “The social media was great for getting people calling and walking in. It just made a huge difference and was the ideal vehicle to rally the troops.”

– IBEW Local 309 photo