I still don't see the problem. Assuming you're keeping the wire sizes the same, an American electrician working in the U.S.A. will continue to call it #14 and that's all he needs to know.
If he has to compare sizes with some imported equipment, then he can look at the cable reel and see that it's 2.08 sq. mm.
At the present time, no American wire is dual marked, not even the reel. The first step in conversion would be to require that all wire products carry a square millimetre designation, either as the primay or secondary unit as an aid in getting use to the new numbers.
During this time, the standards bodies can test true metric wire to see if it can safely replace the US standard and if it can, the US sizes can be eliminated. When the International sizes are accepted, then the need to include AWG numbers can be dropped. If an electrician wants to call it by its old name, fine, but by the same token he would be required to know exactly what he was using if the wire contained no old names. We can't hold back because some luddites don't want to move forward.
I don't think dropping the AWG designations would be very popular. We've experienced a similar situation in Britain where items were first dual-marked -- e.g. 1 lb (454g) --and then the English units were dropped altogether leaving just metric. Then the metric pack sizes were adjusted to make the figures more round, e.g. 450g, or 425g.
No change is ever popular. So, worrying about what people think during a transition period is useless. Your sister countries learned that the shorter the transition period, the quicker people will adapt to the new ways. Of course you have to put up with a few weeks of grumbling. So what. Let the people grumble. They eventually get used to it and move on to something else to grumble about.
Britain's problem with metrication is really a problem of arrogance. We were a mighty kingdom. The sun never set on our empire. We pushed our ways on every culture world-wide. Blah. Blah. Blah. And now someone else is telling us what to do. We can't accept this. Metrication is just another nail in the dead empire's coffin.
The truth is the British will learn to buy in grams and kilograms and I'm sure many already have. In the same notion, the US electrician will adapt to international wire sizes. It is just a matter of making sure the transition period is as short as possible.
