It was January 1, 1900, when organized electrical workers in Worcester, Massachusetts were granted the IBEW Local Union 96 charter; on March 10, 2006, they extended that charter to Cyberspace - with the assistance of Union Web Services.

UWS took a design contributed by a talented IBEW Local 96 member, and turned a dream into internet reality. IBEW 96 now has a full-fledged labor community portal, with a content management system (CMS) that provides the ability to instantly alert members to news, provide a members-only communications platform, and streamline routine office tasks.

The fully scalable solution was built on a customized version of the Civicspace content management system, which provides a base for extending union power to the internet.

IBEW 96 members and officers had thought about a web site for some time, but needed assistance  developing the content and navigation for their new site. The goal for the site was to more actively reach out to the diverse constituents IBEW 96 works with, such as union contractors, by providing resources that enable basic member questions to be answered on the site and be more responsive to members' needs. According to business manager Leo Miller, this would allow IBEW 96 to maximize its limited internal resources and free up more time for dealing with greater organizational issues.

A key phase in the implementation process was making certain documents available to members only. With the easy to use cotent management system, IBEW 96 can instantly decide which content is available to members and post it immediately.

The benefit, according to Leo Miller, is that members have access to iinformation without having to go through the trouble of drviing to the union hall, and have a better understanding of the resources available to them.

Miller also wanted members to be able to update their address information online. Once this happens an automatic notification is triggered to the administrator, ensuring the local always a fresh list of members and does not waste extra time and postage communicating with members listed at incorrect addresses.

A last piece was a contractor's directory, giving the Local the ability to help grow its signatory contractors' businesses through a continuously updated online directory that is searchable and indexed through major search engines such as google.

According to Miller, this will give non-union contrators a sound business reason to "go union," in addition to the various services that his union provides. As each contractor in IBEW 96' vicinity goes union, the local has the ability to add that contractor's information to its web site where it can be accessed by potential customers.