In the field, at the bargaining table, and now at the Financial Secretary's desk. Thirty-nine years of commitment to the members of Local 1.
Eighteen steward appointments. Fifteen years as Business Representative. Four Inside Agreement negotiations, the most recent delivering the highest wage increases in Local 1 history. Every custodial job at Hazelwood School District saved on his watch. A thirty-nine-year record of showing up for the membership, now brought to the Financial Secretary's desk.
"Being a part of IBEW Local One and its membership is not a 'Right' but an 'Honor.' Part of that honor is helping others succeed where others helped you succeed. We should all strive to leave Local One in a better position than when we got here."Steven J. Muehling
Thirty-nine years in the trade. Hands-on craft work on landmark jobs across the region, then nearly a decade and a half representing the membership full-time.
When the Hazelwood School District faced a budget crunch in early 2016, the custodial staff, members of IBEW Local 1, were on the line. Layoffs were the easy answer, the conventional answer, and the one the membership was determined to avoid.
As the unit's Business Representative, Steve sat down with district leadership and the membership and built a different plan. The custodians would trim the workday from eight hours to seven. The shorter day would absorb the cuts the district needed. Every position would be preserved. Every benefit would stay intact.
The membership voted on March 9, 2016. The result was nearly unanimous. Not a single custodial position was eliminated.
It is the kind of representation that doesn't make the front page very often: a Business Rep finding a path the district hadn't seen, then walking the members through why it works. The kind of representation that defines Steve's record.
Two pieces of work that define the last decade of his service.
Steve served on the IBEW Local 1 Labor Management Committee for four consecutive Inside Agreement negotiations. Each cycle restored wages and benefits that had been lost in prior rounds. The most recent contract delivered the highest wage increases in Local 1 history.
Invited by the Missouri Works Initiative Program to participate in new class orientations, answering questions and guiding potential apprentices toward a career in the IBEW. The same pipeline he came up through, now flowing the other way.
For fifteen years, Steve has served as a Trustee on the IBEW Local 1 Trust Funds. The boards that decide what apprentices learn, what time off members have earned, what protects a family when a member gets hurt or sick, and what waits for the membership in retirement. The work isn't visible from the job site. It is, in the most direct sense, what the membership pays into the union to make sure someone is watching.
Steve took his seat on the Apprenticeship & Training Trust Fund in 2011 and held it for thirteen years. He served on the Holiday & Vacation Trust Fund from 2011 to 2025. Today he sits as Trustee on both the Health & Welfare Trust Fund (since January 2025) and the Pension Trust Fund, the two trusts that protect a member's family in the present and their own retirement down the road.
Trusteeship is fiduciary work, with personal legal weight under federal law and the kind of continuing education most members never see. Steve sat for the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans Conference in 2012, 2015, 2018, and 2025, plus the IBEW International Benefits Conference in 2026, returning each time with a sharper view of how to keep the trusts strong for the members who depend on them.
Fifteen distinct roles across Local 1, the Building Trades, the funds, and the labor council. Not a list of titles, a legacy of service.
Steve is one of fourteen candidates and twelve delegates standing together. Through unity comes strength. Through strength comes progress.
