Brothers and Sisters,
This July, the United States will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. This historic milestone marks the adoption of the fundamental principles our founders set forth to ensure that people in this country have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. For IUOE Local 150, the occasion is also an opportunity to reflect on the values that continue to define the union today: service, sacrifice, hard work, and a commitment to protecting the freedoms and opportunities of working people across the country.
Local 150 is especially proud to count veteran members among its ranks—men and women who served this country and, in many cases, fought in defense of the same freedoms this local works every day to protect on the job. As a token of appreciation, Local 150 is giving away a special 250th Anniversary edition Veteran T-shirt. Shirts will first be available for pickup at the General Membership Meeting on July 31st at the District 1 Hall. Those unable to attend can still receive their shirt; the remaining will be mailed in August. Veteran members will need to complete a survey. A QR code linking to the survey appears on page three of this edition of the Engineer. Local 150 Veteran members, please fill this out today.
While this tribute is aimed at recognizing military service, it also reflects something broader about Local 150 itself: the union’s strength has always come from members who understand duty, sacrifice, and the responsibility to leave something better behind for the next generation. Thank you for your service and sacrifice. We are forever grateful.
That responsibility is shaping the union’s approach to the moment it is in right now. Local 150 realizes we cannot afford to take our foot off the accelerator and cannot afford to ease pressure on the nonunion sector. The work must always be done with the good of the organization in mind, identifying and developing the best operators from the job site up and making sure the union remains positioned to protect its market share. That effort is not new. It is part of a long-term plan, one that has started with our great and former President-Business Manager Bill Dugan and one that many longtime members helped put in motion.
The work season for 2026 itself is both incredible and, at times, has already been a bit challenging in its intensity. During key stretches of last year’s season, especially in the heart of summer, demand for skilled workers outpaced supply. We are seeing this again this year. This is why every available retiree becomes even more important. We know we cannot flood jobs with apprentices before they are ready or allow members to spend entire careers on one narrow type of work without building the broad experience they need. The challenge is not only to fill work orders, but to do it in a way that develops real operating engineers and protects the standards of the trade.
That is why mentoring has become such an important part of Local 150’s workforce strategy. We have been pairing experienced members and retirees with apprentices so that learning happens on real jobs, under the guidance of people who know the craft. Right now, we are digging basements in Indiana; we’ve got a retiree teaching two apprentices and bringing them along while he watches, teaches, and builds proficiency. These kinds of arrangements help get the next generation up to speed faster while maintaining quality on the job. They also reflect a larger effort to keep talented people engaged, whether that means retaining older members for a few more years, creating pathways for knowledge transfer, or making sure work calls can be filled within hours so that other trades do not step in and take the work.
The scale of the work this season itself is enormous. Local 150 expects to surpass major man-hour benchmarks like in 2009 this year, and nowhere is that more evident than in pipeline work, where Local 150’s market share is unlike anything seen nationally. In this region alone, pipeline work accounts for millions of manhours, a footprint that reflects not only the size of the projects, but the value this local brings to the industry. Contractors know Local 150 can deliver the trained workforce, the skill, and the reliability needed to execute this work at a high level. I mentioned this last month, but we need operators trained on excavators, so be sure to get to the training center and get your proficiency.
That same reputation extends well beyond pipelines. From data centers and steel mills to large public infrastructure jobs, Local 150 continues to prove that it can deliver the workforce industry needs across Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa. Owners and contractors see that when a major project comes to this region, the workers will be there. That reliability matters, especially as other parts of the country struggle to maintain the same depth of workforce and are forced to look far outside their own jurisdictions to staff projects.
At the same time, Local 150 has worked deliberately to keep its workforce from aging out all at once. Real progress has been made in lowering the average age across classifications over the last 15 years, bringing the average age of mechanics down from 50 and older into the high 40s, and keeping operators closer to age 40. That matters not just as a statistic, but as a sign that the union is successfully bringing in younger members who can support the generations before them and help sustain the benefit structure that earlier members built.
For Local 150, capturing this boom is essential. Our local needs the workforce to meet demand now, but it also needs to make sure the members coming in today are prepared to carry the organization tomorrow. Today’s apprentices and young members help fund and support the generations that came before them, just as future generations will one day rely on the foundation being built right now. That is why workforce growth, training, and retention are not separate issues—they are all part of the same long-term responsibility.
And the amount of work on the horizon is staggering. There are billions of dollars in play across the region, from massive data center construction like the $15 billion project in Hobart, Indiana, as well as the $20 billion project in Joliet, Illinois, to steel mill work and other large-scale industrial development like nuclear plants. Public infrastructure remains a major driver as well, with tollway and road projects continuing to shape the market and create long-term opportunities for members.
What once might have sounded like impossible numbers now has to be discussed in terms of billions, not millions. That is especially true in public work. Years ago, putting a major tollway capital program in motion created a pipeline of projects that continue to support members today. The $15 billion capital project along I-294, I-490, and I-390, includes corridors and reconstruction efforts that reshaped the region, and the work on the 16-year project still has two years remaining. The lesson from that experience is clear: when public leaders make the right investments, they do more than improve roads and bridges—they create stable careers, strengthen pension funds, and help shield working families from the kind of economic devastation seen during the housing collapse and Great Recession in 2008.
That is why Local 150 continues to pay such close attention to capital planning, public hearings, and the political decisions that determine future work. Thank you to all members attending those public meetings. We have many more on the way, but our presence is important for our work and our future.
New roads, tollway expansion, utility work, IDOT projects, and other infrastructure investments are not abstract policy questions to this union—they are the projects that will support members for the next five to 10 years. Local 150 is in a strong position, with a solid pension strategy that avoids unnecessary risk whenever possible and prioritizes stability for members and retirees. The state of the union, by that measure, is strong. But preserving that strength will depend on continuing to prepare the next generation, continuing to organize, and making sure this great union built by the members who came before us remains just as strong for the members still to come.
That message came through clearly at the May District 5 meeting, where 300 members gathered after a family event that brought generations of operating engineers together. It was a reminder that Local 150’s strength has always been built from one generation to the next, with older members passing down not only skills and trade knowledge but also the history of the fights that made this union what it is today. Among those memories was one of the toughest battles Local 150 ever faced: the Lone Star Cement strike. Initially, the company hired anti-union developer Brown and Root from Louisiana, which in turn brought in another scab outside contractor, Willis and Paul, to renovate the plant non-union. In the spring of 1990, Local 150 led the fight to ensure that the large cement plant renovation at Lone Star’s Oglesby, Illinois, facility was completed by union workers who lived in District 5. In April 1990, a parade and rally for Lone Star workers helped push the company forward and brought it to the table ready to talk. By May 1990, 13 members working at the site were on the job under a new collective bargaining agreement. The courage of those workers, and the determination Local 150 showed in organizing and standing with them, helped build the strength members benefit from today.
And that history is not just something to remember—it is something members are still living today. We see it in a fight that has now reached the one-year mark: the strike against QSL America.
A year on strike can cost workers and their families dearly. It can test resolve, create uncertainty, and demand sacrifices that few people outside a labor fight ever fully see. But it also reminds workers exactly what they are worth and why solidarity matters. QSL workers remain united and strong, and Local 150 will support them as long as it takes to get the job done.
As Local 150 honors its veteran members and reflects on the generations of operating engineers who built this union, one truth comes into even sharper focus: nothing Local 150 has today was handed to it. It was built through grit and sacrifice, protected through solidarity, and strengthened by members who understood their responsibility to fight not only for themselves but for the members who would come after them. That is the legacy remembered in District 5, the responsibility felt in every effort to train the next generation, and the spirit still alive in the ongoing strike against QSL America. The state of this union is strong because its members have always stood together—and that same unity will carry Local 150 forward for generations to come.
United We Stand. Divided We Fall.