IBEW Local 551 (Santa Rosa CA) and Assembleywoman Noreen Evans Sponsor "Green Jobs Zone"

Solar Sonoma County - Everything Under the Sun

Community solar fair serves up everything
under the sun on solar and efficiency

From the West County Gazette On-Line

Sunday, June 7, 2009

JOIN US ON SATURDAY, JUNE 20, 2009 -- THE SOLSTICE!
SOLAR SONOMA COUNTY SOLAR FAIR: Solar and Efficiency for Clean Energy
11 am-6 pm
Finley Community Center, Santa Rosa
FREE ADMISSION!
*** www.solarsonomacounty.org ***

Solar Sonoma County, in partnership with Pacific Gas & Electric, presents a free community Solar Fair on the Solstice – Saturday, June 20, 2009 – 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. at the Finley Center and Park. With the theme “Solar & Efficiency for Clean Energy,” this event will bring together in one convenient venue everything Sonoma County homeowners and businesses need to know to reduce their energy costs and go solar. How do people know whether solar is right for their home or business? … How much does a solar system cost? … What kinds of financing options are available? … Where can property owners get reliable information and resources? … What else can be done to reduce energy use and save money?

The June 20 Solar Fair has something for everyone – regardless of whether they are candidates for solar – including an array of opportunities to learn about energy efficiency, green jobs, and local renewable energy initiatives and programs. The day will include keynote speakers, panel discussions, workshops, solar energy displays, energy efficiency information, solar vendor booths, nonprofit/public agency educational booths, and resources for green jobs.

“One of Solar Sonoma County’s main objectives is to give the public the tools they need to be informed and take action – whether it’s to go solar, reduce their energy use, or find other ways to participate in the shift to renewable energy. We are launching the solar fair as our first major public event to do this in a practical yet fun way,” says Marty Roberts, Solar Sonoma County Program Director and solar fair event producer. “We are very excited to let people know everything Solar Sonoma County is working on to ensure solar energy becomes an easy logical choice.”

Panelists will cover such topics as …
· Sonoma County’s new public financing program for solar – the Sonoma County Energy Independence Program – offering local property owners no-money-down financing for efficiency and solar projects.
· What are federal, state, county, and local representatives doing to make solar easier and more affordable.
· What kinds of green jobs training resources and opportunities are available right now in Sonoma County to build the green workforce that is already starting to drive Sonoma County’s next wave of economic growth.

Workshops will enable fair goers to learn more and dig down into the details about …
· Making homes more energy efficient
· How to go solar – for both PV & Hot Water
· Financing options for solar and energy efficiency
· Solar and energy efficiency for business

Speakers throughout the day will include …

· Kevin Danaher, Global Exchange
· Panama Bartholomy, California Energy Commission
· Randy DeCaminada, PG&E
· Rod Dole, Sonoma County Auditor
· Cordel Stillman, Sonoma County Water Agency
· Debora Fudge, Windsor Town Council
· Susan Gorin, Santa Rosa Mayor
· Shirlee Zane, Sonoma County Supervisor
· Assemblywoman Noreen Evans
· State Senator Mark Leno
· State Senator Pat Wiggins
· U.S. Representative Lynn Woolsey
· Oscar Chavez, CAP Solar Training Program
· Dave Shufro, Agilent Technologies

Plus other speakers to be announced soon!

Because the solar fair will offer so many different elements, the Finley Center and Finley Park will be arranged into zones, or special areas designated by category, such as:

The Solar Vendor Zone, sponsored by Sunpower, featuring more than 20 local, regional, and national solar companies staffed by solar professionals ready to speak directly with fair goers and answer their specific questions about solar.

The Energy Efficiency Zone with local energy efficiency businesses and service providers, retrofit contractors, and The Pathway to Clean Energy, a step-by-step interactive learning experience covering specific measures to maximize energy efficiency and cut costs before going solar – also known as the principle of “First Reduce, then Produce.” Pathway visitors will receive “passports” that get marked at each successive step/display along the way to clean energy. Holders of completed passports will be entered to win a free whole house performance analysis (valued at $600).

The Green Jobs Zone, sponsored by Assemblywoman Noreen Evans and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 551, with booths and displays of local businesses, nonprofit organizations, public agencies, and schools focused on green jobs training programs and opportunities.

The Family Fun Zone with solar and energy efficiency fun and activities for all ages including solar-powered toys, solar oven cookie baking, hands-on demonstrations showing how solar works, face painting, storytelling, and more.

And of course the solar fair will feature solar-powered live local music, local food vendors, and local wines and organic beers.

This free community event is made possible through the support of the U.S. Department of Energy and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District as well as the following sponsors and partners: Sonoma County Water Agency, City of Santa Rosa, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 551, SunPower Corporation/SolarWorks/SolarCraft, Solar Depot, groSolar, Assemblymember Noreen Evans, KRCB, North Bay Bohemian, Sprint Copy Center of Sebastopol, and many, many more solar companies and local businesses.

About Solar Sonoma County
The solar fair on Saturday, June 20, 2009 marks the launch of Solar Sonoma County’s public outreach and education campaign to raise awareness and educate the public about our countywide solar goal of 25 new Megawatts of solar energy by 2011 while providing resources and inspiring people to reduce their energy usage and go solar.

Solar Sonoma County is a consortium of local governments, businesses, agencies, nonprofit groups, and individuals working together to bring solar energy and energy efficiency into the mainstream in Sonoma County. The shift to clean energy will reduce long-term energy costs and carbon emissions while stimulating the local and regional economy by creating new jobs. Local partners include all 10 local governments, the Sonoma County Water Agency, Pacific Gas & Electric, Agilent Technologies, the IBEW Local 551, 30+ solar companies, and many local businesses and individuals. Solar Sonoma County is one of 25 premier U.S. Department of Energy Solar America Cities programs – with the distinction of being the only countywide one. Learn more about Solar Sonoma County and our Solar Fair on June 20, 2009 – the Solstice! – at www.solarsonomacounty.org/events.html.

--
Lori Houston, Associate Director
SOLAR SONOMA COUNTY
Promoting solar countywide
707.284.9799 | 707.569.6029 cell

Florida Power & Light Workers Post Informational Picket

Fort Myers
FPL workers picket their plant

Posted: June 6, 2009 05:01 PM

Updated: June 8, 2009 10:33 AM

From http://www.fox4now.com Florida

Cars honk in support as dozens of Florida Power and Light employees fight for their jobs and benefits. Their messages are clearly displayed on handmade signs, "Negotiate, don't dictate," "CEOs millions, workers zero," "Save our medical."

These picketers, all electrical union (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, or IBEW) members, tell me they won't accept the power company's current contract offers.

Union President Rocky Bennett can't legally show me the offers, but tells me he won't approve them, because they have lower wages, less medical coverage, and fewer day shifts than the last contracts.

"When you have a hurricane, it's our guys who are out there in the weather trying to get your lights back on," he told me. "It's a dangerous job and it's hard work and we feel like we deserve to have a good contract and be treated fairly."

Brian Packard has worked at FPL for 30 years, but says he'll consider leaving if forced to give up his current wages and shift.

"I have three girls. I brought them up through Little League and band," he explained. "And I was there for all of that because I was a day shift worker."

But FPL spokesperson Mayco Villafana says negotiations are still ongoing.

"We believe that IBW employees are worth it and, as with any negotiations that are multi-faceted, they take time to complete to everyone's satisfactions," he told me on the phone.

Villafana wouldn't give me any contract details, but did say FPL is facing a tough economic climate and already pays workers higher than average wages.

Pooja Lodhia
Reporter

Almost Half of Union Pension Plans Now Under-funded

Almost half of top unions have underfunded pension plans

By: Kevin Mooney
Examiner Investigative Reporter
06/07/09 6:45 PM EDT.

From the Washington Examiner

Almost half of the nation’s 20 largest unions have pension funds that federal law classifies as “endangered” or in “critical” condition due to being underfunded, an Examiner review of federal actuarial reports shows.

Pensions with less than 80 percent of the assets needed to cover present and projected liabilities are considered “endangered,” while those that fall below a 65 percent threshold are classified as “critical” under the Pension Protection Act of 2006.

Unions are required to file 5500 forms that record the financial health of their retirement plans, show that union pension funds have lost their financial footing over the past several years.

Eight of the largest unions have underfunded plans, according to the most recent 5500 reports, including the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the Laborers International Union of Northern America, the International Association of Machinists, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, the International Union of Operating Engineers, and the National Plumbers Union.

The average union pension has resources to cover only 62 percent of what is owed to participants, according to the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC). Less than one in every 160 workers is covered by a union pension with required assets.

These figures demonstrate that the liability challenge to the long term of health of union funds is systemic and across the board, said Brett McMahon, vice-president of Miller and Long, a Maryland-based concrete construction company.

Demographics figure prominently in the erosion of pension assets now that a smaller percentage of union workers are available to support an expanded group of retirees, McMahon said. Only 7.6 percent of private sector employees are members of a labor union, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The growing number of local and national union pensions that lack sufficient resources to cover their obligations could threaten the retirement security not just of union members, but also non-union employees if the proposed Employee Free Choice Act (Card Check) becomes law as currently written, McMahon said.

The Card Check legislation includes provisions both to abolish secret ballots in union representation elections in the workplace and to require a binding arbitration process that greatly favors unions, McMahon said.

“It’s like the Social Security problem on steroids,” McMahon said. “We are talking about a systemic, demographic problem where there are too few people paying in and the plans can’t earn enough returns to make up for the difference.”

McMahon believes “union members are not being told the truth about the condition of their retirement plans. The danger to non-union workers comes in with Card Check because there is nothing in it that prohibits an arbitrator from shoving companies and workers into these underfunded plans.”

Diana Furchtgott-Roth, a senior fellow with the Hudson Institute, is encouraging EFCA critics to focus more attention on the arbitration side of the bill in addition to “card check” for this same reason.

Multi-employer pension plans that are typically negotiated by unions should be of particular concern because they have less federal insurance than single-employer pension funds, McMahon pointed out. The PBGC only guarantees $12,870 in annual payments to a member of the multi-employer plan in contrast to $54,000 for members of a single-employer plan.

If anything, the current 5500 records vastly understate the deteriorating condition of union pensions because they do not include the stock market drop from last year, James Sherk a labor expert with the Heritage Foundation points out. Reports are typically not filed for more than 12 months after the end of a plan year.

“There are a lot of red zone notices going out now for funds that fell under the critical percentage for liabilities with the market meltdown,” he said. “This would not be evident under the most recent 5500s because they only cover through 2007.”

IBEW Local 103 (Boston) help Struggling Newspaper

Through the AFL-CIO NOW Blog
IBEW, Boston Globe: Technical services workers at the Boston Globe, represented by the Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 103, ratified an agreement to help the financially struggling newspaper company. Members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) are set to vote on similar proposals.

Car Dealers Third in Donations to Politicians, behind the Realtors and the IBEW

GM Bankruptcy May Turn on $13 Million in Donations (Update2)

From Bloomberg News

By Jonathan D. Salant

June 8 (Bloomberg) -- Automobile dealers have been among the biggest contributors to U.S. political campaigns over the past decade, surpassing all but two groups in donations. That $13 million investment may be paying off as the dealers get a lot of attention on Capitol Hill.

Congress has held hearings on the planned shutdown of thousands of dealerships and is debating ways to provide relief to the businesses. Almost a quarter of the members of the House of Representatives signed letters to President Barack Obama and his auto task force questioning plans to close the dealerships.

The lawmakers’ involvement may disrupt plans by General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC to emerge from bankruptcy with a leaner dealer network.

“The intention of bankruptcy is for companies to streamline their operations,” said Maryann Keller, an auto analyst and president of Maryann Keller & Associates, based in Stamford, Connecticut. “If Congress does something that says, ‘No, you can’t terminate contracts that you believe are to your detriment,’ of course it threatens them.”

Executives of Detroit-based GM, which is to shrink its dealerships to as few as 3,500 from 6,000, and Auburn Hills, Michigan-based Chrysler, which plans to shut 789, said the reductions are crucial to their viability.

Fritz Henderson, chief executive officer of GM, told the Senate Commerce Committee on June 3 that the cuts were about “creating a healthy, stronger and profitable dealer network.”

Too Many Dealers

Chrysler President and Vice Chairman Jim Press told the panel his network “is not viable and not profitable.”

Obama has pledged to allow the automakers to make their own decisions on restructuring.

As a result, the National Automobile Dealers Association -- whose members are in all 435 U.S. congressional districts --is asking its more than 17,000 dealers to help it delay, if not scale back, the closings.

Almost 200 dealers visited their lawmakers in Washington last month, and the association has asked its members to recruit their workers to contact local representatives. The McLean, Virginia-based group estimates that on average each dealership has 52 sales people and support staff, and the dealers are often the largest employers in many small towns.

Behind Realtors, Electricians

The association’s political action committee has donated more money to federal candidates in the last 10 years than all but two PACs, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington research group. It gave more than $13 million from 1999 through 2008, behind only the National Association of Realtors and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

“When an organized industry with a history of generous giving to members of Congress appeals for help, those members aren’t likely to turn them down cold,” said Rogan Kersh, associate dean at New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.

Lawmakers responded by sending letters to Obama and his task force urging a review of the planned closures. Signing the letters were 104 House members -- 83 of whom received PAC donations from the dealers’ association for their 2008 or 2010 races. These included Republicans Chris Lee, who drafted one letter with Democrat Dan Maffei, both of New York, and Steven LaTourette, who wrote the other letter with Democrat Dennis Kucinich, both of Ohio.

Maffei and Kucinich got no money from the trade group, according to the center’s data.

Fabric of Community

LaTourette, who received the maximum $10,000 donation for his 2008 re-election, said donations had nothing to do with lawmakers’ support for the dealers.

“Auto dealers happen to be part of the fabric of every small community I represent,” he said.

Lawmakers say GM and Chrysler should at least give dealers more time to wind down their businesses, especially when the automakers have gotten billions of dollars in federal aid.

“I don’t believe that companies should be allowed to take taxpayer funds for a bailout and then leave local dealers and their customers to fend for themselves,” said Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat.

Dealers say they aren’t a financial drain on automakers.

“We purchase the parts, we purchase the vehicles,” said Roger Burdick, who with his brothers owns 20 dealerships near Syracuse, New York. “We carry all the costs ourselves.”

Recruiting Customers, Too

Jack Fitzgerald, who owns dealerships in Florida, Maryland and Pennsylvania and is scheduled to lose Chrysler and Jeep franchises, asked his customers to join the fight. Visitors to his Web site are met with a plea for help.

“If you’re going to rise again in Detroit, you have got to serve the people who are riding around in your cars,” Fitzgerald said.

Senator Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican, has introduced legislation to require GM and Chrysler to use federal aid to buy unsold cars and parts from shuttered dealers and give them 180 days to close.

Maffei and fellow Democrat Frank Kratovil of Maryland today introduced a measure that would prevent Chrysler and GM from closing the dealers.

“Forced, arbitrary closure of dealers by manufactures will not necessarily be financially beneficial to automakers, and it certainly will not help the local economies where dealers are integral to the business community,” Maffei said.

‘High Profile’ Issue

Hearings and letters may be enough to slow the process, said Representative Ron Klein, a Florida Democrat.

“Sometimes, Congress’s power is not passing legislation,” said Klein, who signed one of the letters and got money from the dealers’ group. “It is creating a very high profile of an issue.”

GM and Chrysler have said that they need fewer dealers so that the remaining retail locations will get more business and be able to invest in their operations. U.S. stores for Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. each averaged more than 1,100 sales in 2008, almost three times as many as at GM’s and Chrysler’s, according to consulting firm Grant Thornton.

Average new-auto revenue was $14.3 million for GM dealers and $12.8 million for Chrysler last year, compared with $40.9 million for Toyota, based on data from auto-research company Edmunds.com. Dealers also make money on used vehicles, parts and service.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan D. Salant in Washington at jsalant@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: June 8, 2009 14:48 EDT

Careers Without College can be Profitable Option

June 8
Careers without college can be profitable option

On-the-job experience is often necessary.

From the Northeast Pennsylvania, Times Leader Homepage

By Rory Sweeneyrsweeney@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

Alli Owens’ formal education stopped at high school graduation, but she’s been gaining experience at her job ever since she started at age 12.

Racecar driver Alli Owens talks to electrician apprentices at the IBEW Local 163 hall in Hanover Township.

Fred Adams/For The Times Leader

It’s fitting, then, that the racecar driver’s sponsor is a coalition of the National Electrical Contractors Association and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which entice high school grads into electrical trades with an “earning while you’re learning” appeal.

In fact, trainees will earn perhaps $150,000 over their 5-year apprenticeship, according to John Nadolny, the training director for IBEW Local Union 163 in Hanover Township. After that, work through the union is guaranteed to be at least $30 per hour. “All in all, it’s a great career,” Nadolny said. “You can actually support a family on this.”

With high school graduation season in full swing, a new crop of former students is looking at a weak economy and considering its options. Most say they plan to continue their formal education, although there are no reliable statistics on how many actually earn a degree. But for others – including Owens, who stopped by Local 163 on Thursday to talk to apprentices before her ARCA race on Saturday at Pocono Raceway – a career without college is the way to go.

That’s what worked for Steve Bekanich, Luzerne County’s emergency management coordinator. “I basically started out as a volunteer firefighter when I was 16 years old,” he said. From there, he volunteered as an emergency medical technician before beginning work at the county after graduating from high school in 1988. By 1993, he had switched to the county’s Emergency Management Agency and became director in 2006.

“I’ve attended thousands of hours of training, but I don’t have a formal degree. A lot of the training we do is on the job, or work provided,” he said. “There is room for advancement if you do your job well and you continue the training. We train constantly, so it all hinges on how hard you’re willing to work.”

Becoming a police officer requires a bit more formal training, but the Act 120 training can be accomplished within 22 weeks, according to Gene Baidas, the director of the police academy at Lackawanna College. Going part-time, students complete the training in 11 months. Either way, he said, grads earn about 30 credits toward a criminal justice degree if they choose to pursue it, but that isn’t a requirement to landing a respected job that pays anywhere from $8 per hour to $15 per hour part time, or perhaps $35,000 full-time at larger departments.

“In our area, the majority of the chiefs of police basically just have their (Act) 120 (training),” Baidas said. “Even in law enforcement, some of the better jobs, you still do need an associate’s degree. … It’s up to the individual. If they want to work and really do a good job, it’s up to them.”

Careers without college are often predicated on experience. Electrical apprentices must accumulate 8,000 hours on the job; police need 785� hours of training. Other non-degree jobs that pay the bills, such as truck driving and health care, have their own certification or licensing requirements.

Even agriculture can require some in-class bookwork. “Families are much more encouraging of their children … to go through college because there are so many new things out there … that can only help the future of the farm,” said Mark O’Neill, media relations director for the state Farm Bureau. Still, farming is a calling, he said. “If it’s just for a paycheck, I don’t recommend it,” he said. “You really have to have a connection to the farming life to make it a career.”

Making something you enjoy pay off is the entrepreneurial spirit that’s helped Tony Hudak and Chip Sorber find financial rewards as hunting guides. “I actually make more money guiding than I do contracting, pound for pound,” said Hudak, whose full-time job is contracting. He makes about 1� times more in six days leading hunters around private lands looking for gobblers “than banging nails.”

Sorber, a retired school teacher, has parlayed a lifetime of hunting into a part-time business guiding hunters to bobcats. He had hunted the cats before it was banned for about 20 years, and would note their locations while running coyotes with his dogs. When the ban was lifted, “nobody knew how to hunt bobcats,” he said, so he put his name on a list of guides. People who were awarded hunting tags called him.

“Word of mouth is basically how I do it today. Matter of fact, I get a lot of calls. I turn down more than I take,” he said, noting that he charges $1,000 for a cat, or $100 per day. “It’s not really the money factor,” he said. “It’s part of it,” but it’s more about finding a way to enjoy the thrill of the hunt and the experience even though “I can’t really shoot the bobcat anyway because I don’t have a tag.”

Hudak charges $250 per day “win, lose or draw” for his service, transportation and access to the land, but guiding is more about “somebody who’s spent the time,” he said. “In my opinion, being a good guide is somebody who knows their area, knows how the animal is going to react.”

He got that experience by forsaking his chance at college. “The reason I didn’t go is I just had a hard time with my schooling in high school,” because he missed a lot while he was out hunting and fishing, he said.

“There’s times when I stop and think I wonder where I would have been” had he gone to college, Hudak said.

But not often: “I’m happy with the way it’s worked out.”

Rory Sweeney, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 970-7418.

IBEW Local 2330 (Newfoundland & Labrador) Answers Questions at "Job Fair"

Union questions answered at trade fair
ELIZABETH MACDONALD
The Charter

From the Charter News, serving the town of Placentia and the Cape Shore

Over 100 people including students from Crescent Collegiate attended a Union Trade Fair at Long Harbour May 22 where they could find answers to questions they may have had about job availability, education and unions.

The event was organized by the Town of Long Harbour and had representatives from five unions at the fair providing information and education for anyone interested.

Mayor Keating said they felt it was a timely exercise in providing information to people who could benefit from work at the Vale Inco hydromet plant currently going ahead in Long Harbour.

"(They were) showing them the opportunities that are available in getting in and getting the courses and in terms of employment at Long Harbour and other jobs that are coming up in the future," said Mayor Keating. "(Unions) had booths set up where students and the general public were just going around picking up pamphlets and asking questions about each course and that type of thing."

Mayor Keating said it was important that young people got the opportunity to participate.

"There are certainly significant opportunities for the youth of today to take advantage of here," he said.

"I think a lot of young people were interested. I think they realize there is a significant opportunity in this skilled trade movement. It's not like years ago and people were mostly focusing on university as a prime source of education but today with construction and the rates of pay, which are pretty significant, they can take advantage of it and hopefully that will increase as time goes on."

Cal Jones, president of the Resource Development Council and business manager of the pipefitters union, U. A. Local 740 Plumbers and Pipefitters was on hand during the fair to help get information out.

There were booths and information available from IBEW Local 2330 - Electrical, Newfoundland and Labrador Regional Council of Carpenters, Millwrights and Allied Works, Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers, and representatives from Women in Trades also at the trade fair.

Mr. Jones said he thought the day was a success.

"There were about 100 people total. That was a reasonable turnout. I thought it was very good. A lot of interest. People wanted to hear what you had to say and what you had to offer," he said.

Mr. Jones said there is talk of offering another union trade fair in Placentia since Laval students were unable to participate at this time.

Mr. Jones said he was involved with this project because he wants to promote more people from the area getting involved in the Long Harbour project.

"There are employment opportunities that do exist here within certain craft levels and even though we have a very sizeable number of people in the province that are members with some of the different union affiliates, we would like for job opportunities to be made available to locals in the area and we would work with them to help them where possible," he explained.

Mr. Jones said the union he's with has just completed a state of the art building that can house 118 students at a time in Donovan's Industiral Park and they are committed to providing seats to students from the Long Harbour area and surrounding communities.

"If there is 25 students from Long Harbour and surrounding communities interested in getting involved in the piping industry, we have committed that there will be 25 seats for them and we will work hard with the mayors of the surrounding communities, with Vale Inco and with the employers to ensure that these people get jobs on that project. It don't get no better than that," he stated.

"That's about the extent of it. We look forward to doing a trade fair in Placentia to provide information that people would be interested in hearing."

editor@thecharter.ca

IBEW Local 725 Business Manager Speaks out for "Single Payer"

Monday, June 8, 2009

IBEW Business Manager, CNA Indiana Organizer Speak at Rally for HR 676

Through the "Buffalo 14228" Blog at Blogger.com

Indianapolis, Indiana. Over 100 people rallied for HR 676 outside the annual stockholders meeting of Wellpoint/Anthem on May 20, then marched to the offices of Indiana U.S. Senator Evan Bayh. The rally was sponsored by Hoosiers for a Commonsense Health Plan.

Speakers at the rally included Tom Szymanski, Organizer and Business Representative for IBEW Local 725 in Terre Haute, and Gary Fritz, Indiana Organizer for the California Nurses Association/NNOC. The Rally was chaired by Julia Vaughn from Indiana AFSCME.

The rally called for passage of HR 676, national single payer health care, ending for-profit insurance companies’ participation in healthcare, and for the resignation of Susan Bayh from the Board of Directors of Wellpoint. Susan Bayh, wife of Senator Bayh, was paid almost $300,000 as
a Wellpoint director last year.

Tom Szymanski can be heard at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylES7MKQNPU

Gary Fritz can be heard at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16K9i5uMsRE

We are grateful to Robert Pedersen for these videos.

For further information, a list of union endorsers, or a sample endorsement resolution, contact:

Kay Tillow
All Unions Committee For Single Payer Health Care--HR 676
c/o Nurses Professional Organization (NPO)
1169 Eastern Parkway, Suite 2218
Louisville, KY 40217
(502) 636 1551
Email: nursenpo@aol.com
http://unionsforsinglepayerHR676.org

IBEW Green-Job Training Facilities Open Doors to the Public Nationwide

IBEW Green-Job Training Facilities Around the Country Open Doors to Public

by The Electrical Worker,

Share this on Twitter - IBEW Green-Job Training Facilities Around the Country Open Doors to Public

Through the Daily Kos, June 9, 2009

Mon Jun 08, 2009 at 08:22:08 AM PDT

With renewable energy looking to be the wave of the future, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers is letting everyone know that its members are the best-trained green-work force around.

• The Electrical Worker's diary :: ::
• 
  

During the Memorial Day break, local International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers training centers opened its doors to policy makers and members of the public to learn more about the union's extensive green job-training programs.

"I hope I saw the future and I believe that I did," Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman said after touring New Haven Local 90's training center.

Legislators were in their home districts for Congress's Memorial Day recess and many eagerly accepted the IBEW's and the National Electrical Contractors Association's invitation to tour their local joint apprenticeship training facilities. More than 90 members of Congress attended open house events.

In Warren, Ohio, state and local leaders got a first look at plans for a new solar photovoltaic system and wind turbines to be installed at Local 573's Electrical Trades Institute, while in Tennessee, Rep. Jim Cooper (D) called Nashville Local 429's apprenticeship training center and its green-skills program, a "ticket to the future," after touring its facility.

In San Diego, more than 120 community, local and state leaders visited Local 569's Electrical Training Center, including representatives from Sen. Barbara Boxer's and Rep. Susan Davis's offices. The center focuses on solar power, which allows apprentices to earn professional certification in photovoltaic installation.

Local 569 is also planning to open a new green-training facility in neighboring Imperial County to help staff its rapid-growing solar and wind market. The local's program was featured in the San Diego Union Tribune newspaper as part of its hot-jobs list for new college grads.

Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.) dedicated a new photovoltaic display at Denver Local 68's training center. Perlmutter told guests that renewable energy will "rebuild the country and the middle class."

The 18-kilowatt panel was originally displayed at last year's Democratic National Convention in Denver. The local plans to add wind turbines to the facility soon.

More than 200 apprentices from Richmond, Va., Local 666 are learning specialized skills in solar and wind that could become one of the fastest growing job-sectors in central Virginia. "We're the best kept secret in the industry," Business Manager Jim Underwood told WWBT-TV during the local's open house.

New opportunities are opening up in the renewable energy sector as millions of federal stimulus dollars are made available for training and investment in the new energy economy. But the expected rapid growth of green jobs - covering everything from retrofitting buildings for energy efficiency to installing and wiring solar panels and wind turbines - means the our economy will require thousands of trained electricians who can safely and professionally carry out the work.

It's a demand that is already being met by the IBEW.

According to Honolulu Local 1186 Business Manager Damien Kim:

Renewable energy is not the wave of the future, it's already here. Our members and apprentices will be going into the workplace with skills that are expected of them as we move toward a new energy economy.

Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) toured Local 1186's facility which features training in photovoltaics, wind turbines and automated building operations.

According to IBEW International President Edwin D. Hill:

The IBEW has the curriculum, facilities and instructors needed to lead the new energy revolution and we've been doing it for nearly a decade. And we make sure that green-collar workers and their families get a decent wage and benefits so they can take their place in the middle class.

More than 70 IBEW training centers offer training in renewable energy, with more and more facilities incorporating green power into their curriculum.