Respect Our Craft — Pay the Standard

Campaign packet for the coordinated effort of IBEW Locals 1, 2, 309, 453, 649, and 124 to defend the established electrical area standard in the St. Louis region against the substandard arrangement maintained by the United Brotherhood of Carpenters through its Local 57 affiliate since 2007.

Start with the strategy 90-day launch schedule

Confidential — for review only

This site contains working strategy documents prepared for review by Business Managers, counsel, NECA partners, funders, allies, and other authorized reviewers. Do not share, forward, or distribute these materials outside that scope without explicit permission.

Several documents in this packet contain sensitive operational detail — the crisis playbook, the carpenter dissent toolkit, the grievance and legal-aid protocol, the worker organizing playbook. Treat them accordingly.

How to read the packet

The packet is 27 working documents organized into seven sections. You do not need to read it linearly. Most reviewers should read 3–5 documents based on their role:

If you are a Business Manager or coordinating committee member

Original Campaign Thread — the strategic frame
90-Day Launch Schedule — the integrated rollout calendar
Bridge Fund — the worker-facing financial infrastructure
Year 2 & Beyond — the long horizon

If you are counsel

Federal Prevailing-Wage Complaint — the legal pressure template
Bridge Fund — the trust and benefits structure
Crisis Playbook — rapid-response framework
Grievance & Legal-Aid Protocol — worker representation track

If you are a NECA contractor partner

Owner & Contractor Risk Brief — the union-neutral procurement case
Bridge Fund Capitalization — funding model and NECA role
Original Campaign Thread — the strategic frame

If you are a prospective funder or foundation

Bridge Fund — the program being funded
Bridge Fund Capitalization — case for support
5-Year Movement Impact Vision — the larger stakes

If you are a journalist or investigative editor

Press Kit — the full investigative briefing
Journalism Pitch Emails — outlet-specific framings
Original Campaign Thread — strategic context

If you are an allied union officer or labor council leader

Labor Council Resolution & Briefing Deck — drop-in model resolution
Political Engagement Playbook — coalition strategy
5-Year Movement Impact Vision — the movement-wide picture

If you are considering running this campaign in your jurisdiction

Replication Toolkit — the “how to run it elsewhere” guide
All other documents as adaptation reference

What’s here

Strategy & Operations (4 documents) — original strategic frame, 90-day launch calendar, Year 2+ sustained campaign plan, and the honest ending plan covering four end-state scenarios.

Worker Infrastructure (4 documents) — the Area Standards Transition Fund (Bridge Fund), its capitalization plan, the worker-facing intake landing page with full privacy notice, and the grievance + legal-aid protocol for workers facing wage theft, harassment, or retaliation.

Pressure Workstreams (5 documents) — federal prevailing-wage and IRA-credit complaint package, labor council model resolution + briefing deck, full political engagement playbook (federal / state / municipal), the union-neutral owner & contractor risk brief, and the confidential carpenter dissent toolkit.

Communications (6 documents) — investigative press kit, outlet-by-outlet journalism pitches, broadcast spot scripts (TV + radio), kitchen-table direct mail piece, geofence digital ad brief with creative concepts, and a feature-length documentary treatment.

Organizing (4 documents) — segment-by-segment worker organizing playbook, retired member engagement plan, family + community outreach plan, and the Spanish-language adaptation framework.

Resilience & Reporting (2 documents) — the rapid-response crisis playbook covering eleven scenarios with pre-drafted statements, and the annual report template designed for credible long-term accountability.

Movement-Wide (2 documents) — the replication toolkit for other regions and trades to adopt the model, and the 5-year movement-wide impact vision.

A note on these documents

Every document in this packet is a working draft. Dollar figures, specific names, project lists, and other particulars are placeholders pending the campaign committee’s adoption decisions, counsel’s review, and operational refinement. Adopting committees should treat them as starting points calibrated to their judgment, not as finished products.

What is finished is the architecture — the way the work fits together, the sequencing across workstreams, the operational discipline, and the discipline around workers, allies, and the campaign’s own honesty. That architecture is what’s being presented for review.

— Prepared for review by IBEW Local 1 staff. Last updated: see “Last updated” on each page.