Answer extracted from the Forum Focus podcast — listen to the full episode below.
How do you open construction trades to historically excluded communities?
It means deliberately connecting elected officials, business owners, and contractors with opportunities where they typically do not work together—and ensuring IBEW and NECA are present during those critical decision-making conversations. Historically, organized labor shut out African-American participation, which caused those communities to close their doors in return. Taylor's work reverses that dynamic by rebuilding trust through direct access to economic opportunity.
The challenge runs deep. For decades, minority communities were systematically excluded from organized labor's rooms—from apprenticeship pipelines to job site decisions to union participation itself. This wasn't an accident; it was policy. When doors slammed shut, the communities on the outside responded by not trusting the very institutions that had rejected them.
Breaking that cycle requires more than apologies. As Sylvester Taylor explains in the Forum Focus episode, it demands structural change: placing minority-owned businesses, city leaders, and union representatives in the same room, at the same table, making decisions together from the start. When contractors and community members see IBEW and NECA showing up as genuine partners—not outsiders arriving after decisions are already made—the conversation shifts.
From Exclusion to Intentional Inclusion
Taylor's appointment in March to lead the first-ever joint diversity, equity, and inclusion director role between IBEW Local One and NECA reflects this new commitment. This is the first position of its kind in the country—a signal that organized labor is serious about inclusion, not just performative.
The work is concrete: connecting elected officials with contractors; introducing community business owners to union opportunities; ensuring that when decisions get made about major projects or apprenticeship classes, minority voices are in the room. Taylor's 32 years as an IBEW electrician and his co-founding role with the Electrical Workers Minority Caucus give him credibility with both sides—he knows the history of exclusion and the machinery of change from the inside.
What makes this different from past token gestures is the deliberate placement of decision-making power. Not consultation after the fact. Not interviews about "diversity initiatives." Actual seats at the table where contracts are awarded, apprentices are selected, and career pathways are determined. A point Taylor reinforces through his earlier years serving as a representative for the 80th District in the Missouri House of Representatives—he understands that political power and economic access are inseparable.
"I had to bite my tongue until it was my turn to swing. And then when it was my turn to swing, I swung as hard as I could."
Sylvester Taylor — Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Initiatives at The Electrical Connection (IBEW Local One and NECA St. Louis Chapter). With 32 years as an IBEW electrician, co-founder of the Electrical Workers Minority Caucus, and former Missouri state representative, Taylor brings both lived experience and institutional authority to building pathways into organized labor for communities historically locked out of the construction trades.
If you want to understand how deeply this mentorship runs in Taylor's approach, the full episode details his work with the St. Louis Division of Youth Services—where he has mentored young people into careers in the electrical industry, including one apprentice who purchased his first house at just 21 years old, a milestone few young people from excluded communities can reach through traditional education alone.
Key takeaways
- Organized labor historically excluded African-American participation, causing communities to distrust the entire system in return.
- Inclusion requires placing minority-owned businesses, elected officials, and contractors in decision-making rooms from the start, not after the fact.
- IBEW and NECA created the first-ever joint diversity director role in the country to formalize this commitment to structural change.
- Economic opportunity must be paired with political presence—communities need actual power in the room, not just representation.
See also
What community impact did joint labor-management electrical work achieve in St. Louis?
The collaborative effort between NECA contractors and IBEW union electricians produced tangible civic contributions, including electrical and communication infrastructure improvements that benefited the broader community.
What role did PRIDE play in reducing work stoppages and relocating labor-management conflict from job sites to the negotiation room?
PRIDE emerged in the 1960s and 1970s to end work stoppages plaguing the electrical contracting industry. The initiative created a structured way to channel disputes toward collaborative resolution rather than job site disruption.
How did management and labor collaborate to preserve prevailing wage standards in Missouri?
Doug Martin was part of a significant coalition of both management and labor leadership that successfully preserved the core of the Missouri prevailing wage protections for construction workers.