Our Story
Started by the people who powered the valley.
Members of IBEW Local 558 chartered this credit union in 1958. It’s still owned by the union families it serves.
Message from Faye Helton
This credit union belongs to the members.
On June 20, 1958, ten members of IBEW Local 558 signed the application that started this credit union. Howard and Dan Kelley helped get it going, and Dan became its treasurer. He would open the office in the afternoons after his paying job and on Saturdays, with Joe Mason helping out now and then. A $5 deposit opened a share account, and every entry in the journal was made with a pen.
I came to work there in March of 1981, when certificates were catching on and more help was needed. Dan passed away after many years as treasurer, and the board hired Donnie Rhodes to run the credit union. With Donnie’s guidance, I took over when he went back to work in the trade.
The credit union still belongs to the members, the same way it did in 1958. Vicki Morris has led it since I retired, with a board of very capable volunteers and a staff as efficient as they come. While the credit union doesn’t have multiple branches or checking accounts, they all work hard to help members borrow money and save for their future.
Helping others was one of my favorite things to do in all my years at the credit union, and it was a pleasure to work there as long as I did. I made so many great friends, and I cherish those relationships. Thank you for saving and borrowing with the credit union all these years.
Sincerely,
Faye Helton
Former CEO
Our history
Financial cooperation among the workers who built this valley.
The credit union’s story starts 40 years before its charter, when the Tennessee Valley was still farmland, with the treacherous Muscle Shoals rapids along the river. Over the next four decades, war plants, dams, factories and rockets kept Local 558’s electricians in demand.
1918
IBEW Local 558 is established
World War I brought two government nitrate plants to the Shoals to make explosives for the war. On February 28, 1918, days after the first plant broke ground, the electricians building it chartered IBEW Local 558. To power the plants, construction also began on the Wilson Dam in Muscle Shoals, then the largest hydroelectric installation in the world.
1930s–50s
Powering the valley
After Congress created TVA in 1933, it built hydroelectric dams throughout the valley, and Local 558 wired each turbine. Their hydroelectric power brought jobs and industry to a valley of small farms, and Local 558 electricians strung the power lines and wired the aluminum smelters and chemical plants that came with it.
1957–58
Helping America into space
When the Soviet Sputnik went up in 1957, the country’s answer came from Redstone Arsenal, where Local 558 electricians pulled miles of control cable and built the test stands that shook the valley. On January 31, 1958, their work launched Explorer 1, America’s first satellite. That same infrastructure went on to build Saturn V, the rocket that carried Americans to the Moon.
Photo: NASA / Marshall Space Flight Center
1958
Our start
Electrical Workers No 558 Federal Credit Union is chartered
Later that same momentous year, ten Local 558 members also took their financial survival into their own hands. Jobs like these came with heavy overtime and unpaid gaps in between, which made traditional loans nearly impossible to get. They pooled their wages and chartered the Electrical Workers No 558 Federal Credit Union. Their application was approved on July 11, 1958, and the credit union started in the basement of the union hall.
1981
Growing with its members
By this time, the credit union was in a modular building across the street from the union hall. As more members joined and saved, the credit union made more loans and paid dividends on savings. By 1981, certificates had caught on, and the office needed more help, so the credit union hired Faye Helton, who went on to lead it for many years.
2007
The move to East 17th Street
When the Local moved to East 17th Street in 2007, the credit union moved into its current building next door to better serve IBEW Local 558 members.
Today
Still member-owned
Vicki Morris leads the credit union today with a volunteer board and a small staff, carrying on a line of leaders that runs back to founding treasurer Dan Kelley. It still serves the electrical workers of the Tennessee Valley who keep the lights on, rain or shine.
Join us
Your local. Your credit union.
We were made to provide service and value to you, our members. Join us, and let us help you build a financial future to last.
