This year, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 103 swore in the largest, most diverse — and perhaps, the most electrifying — apprenticeship class in the union’s history.
More than half of the 2022 students are women or people of color, including Erica Antonellis, daughter of Lou Antonellis, the business manager and financial secretary at Local 103. She joins her father and her brother, second-year apprentice, Louis Jr., in a skilled trade that is welcoming a diverse workforce.
“It’s not by accident were getting those applicants, it’s intentional,” Lou Antonellis said. “We’re working hard to recruit women and people of color. This year, we had almost 3,000 applicants, and we swore in 375 — 51% were women (or) people of color. The word is out that this is a good career, a great trade.”
Hard work comes easy to Lou Antonellis, who was born and raised in Billerica, attending Dutile Elementary school and Marshall Middle School, before finishing his secondary education at Arlington Catholic High School.
Antonellis is a graduate of Local 103’s apprenticeship program, and has been a union member for 32 years. After his five-year apprenticeship, he became a journeyman electrician. He graduated from Harvard University’s Trade Union Program in 2009. By 2014, he was elected its president, before being named to his current position as business manager. He sees lots of growth potential for the union in its open-arms recruiting.
“The industry’s not just construction sites, it’s office work and estimating and project management,” Antonellis said. “My daughter wants to try her hand on that side of the electrical construction industry. She graduated from University of New Hampshire with a business degree. She’s seeing through her brother and me, the opportunities that are available for women in the trades that weren’t available when I started almost 30 years ago.”
That opportunity is what attracted Lowell resident Crystal Marston to apply to one of the coveted positions in the 2022 class.
“I was a bartender, and that business got hammered by the pandemic. One of my friends is already working for 103, and she encouraged me to apply,” Marston said. “I applied in November, took an aptitude test in January, and interviewed in April. By June, I was swearing in. I wasn’t intimidated by the process. I know I’m smart, and I’m a hard worker. I knew that if I got in, I’d be able to do it.”
Having a background in electrical work isn’t a prerequisite, said Antonellis, but being a hard worker is.
“This a demanding five-year apprenticeship program,” Antonellis said. “By the time they graduate with their journeyperson license, they will have completed 10,000 hours on the job, and 1,000 hours in the classroom.”
The 10,000 workplace hours are on job sites with one of 300 signatory IBEW Local 103 contractors, which range in size from one employee to 1,000 employees throughout the Greater Boston area. Students spend four days in the field and one day at the union’s Dorchester campus, adjacent to its main headquarters
“Our training is earn while you learn,” Antonellis said. “The training cost is provided by the union, and our students graduate debt free while making a livable wage with benefits.”
Former service-industry employees like Marston — whose tips are considered against the minimum wage set by the state — generally also don’t receive strong benefits packages like health care and retirement. In Massachusetts, the tipping-wage offset is $8.10 to the minimum-wage standard of $14.25.
“Union benefits are second to none,” Antonellis said. “You have good pay, the best health care and a true pension plan. It really is priceless.”
Nationwide, construction demand is booming, and the 10,000-member union is ready. Pent-up demand from COVID-19-related disruptions, combined with the once-in-a-lifetime monies from the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act, have spurred development and projects across the state that need a trained workforce.
ARPA allocated $350 billion in emergency funding to state and local governments. The city of Lowell received nearly $76 million in funding.
“Coming out of COVID was like a slingshot to the economy because demand was so high for skilled tradespeople, and the industry is short electricians,” Antonellis noted. “Demand for construction is high, and the contractors that we talk to and we deal with say that the backlog of work over the next couple years is the biggest that they’ve ever had.”
The 2022 class will start being assigned job sites over the next three months, said Antonellis, and classroom learning starts in September.
“We’re excited,” Antonellis said. “It’s the biggest and the most diverse group we’ve ever had. We can’t wait to get to work.”
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