IBEW News and Views

Montana Electricians Build Training Tower

2010-08-22T18:29:00.000-04:00

Following the winds of change

By JOHN HARRINGTON, Independent Record | Posted: Sunday, August 22, 2010 12:05 am
Within weeks a 60-foot tower that could support an electricity-generating wind turbine will be built in the Helena Valley. But there are no plans to put blades on the tower, no plans to connect it to the electrical grid and start harnessing some of the valley’s renewable resource.
Instead, the tower will be placed at the Stan I. Dupree Lineman Training Center off Canyon Ferry Road and will be used by electricians and other tradesmen for training in how to install and maintain the towering structures that make up the growing number of wind farms across the country.
The project is being funded by a $5 million stimulus grant to be used for new energy job training across the state.
“This grant will help our state’s current and emerging workforce needs in wind, solar and other renewable energy and energy-efficiency industries,” said Gary Pemble, state training director for the Montana Electrical Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee.
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and National Electrical Contractors Association joined the MEJATC-led consortium that applied for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding.
A foundation was dug this week for the tower, and delivery of the unit, which is being built in Wisconsin and will be delivered in one piece, is expected later this summer.
Mitch Hegman, assistant training director for the MEJATC, said the tower will be added to the training center’s curriculum.
“For example, we might bring an apprentice class down here for a day and have them climb up inside, show them how to tie off to climb up and show them all the other safety procedures,” he said. “The idea is to pre-train people before they go on the site so somebody doing a wind turbine project will know they’re already capable of doing the work.
In addition to turbine installation, the grant will help train workers in power plant and hydroelectric construction and be used for power transmission lines, new oil pipeline and upgrades and maintenance to refineries.
Part of the grant is also being used for a system of solar panels on the roof of the MEJATC building on Bozeman Avenue. But rather than simply having the system put on the roof, the training center hosted a two-day class last week for professionals from around the state to learn photovoltaic installation.
One local electrician attending the class was Troy Brandt, a co-owner of Eagle Electric who’s already been in the trade for 14 years. Brandt said it’s important to keep up with the new technology.
“(Solar) is what everyone is doing now, and if we don’t latch onto it we’ll be left behind,” he said.
Brandt said solar was traditionally used more in off-the-grid locations where other power sources weren’t available, but more and more people in urban areas are looking for ways to use more renewable energy as well.
“We’re seeing such demand for on-grid systems in cities, how a lot of people want solar on their houses,” he said. “We’re licensed electricians and we want to be the ones doing the installation.”
Hegman said similar solar arrays are planned for other buildings around the state.
And on a much smaller scale, grant money was used for a small, 15-foot wind turbine that will power the lights in the sign outside the MEJATC building. That unit, which will power LED lights inside the sign, was installed this week by Greenlight Electric Co. of Great Falls.
Reporter John Harrington: 447-4080 or john.harrington@

Trinity Workers Vote to Join the IBEW

2010-08-20T15:24:00.002-04:00

By JOHN JENNINGS NDN Staff Writer

Trinity  workers  vote to  unionize

Employees of Trinity Structural Towers in Newton voted to join the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Union Friday. The final vote was 69 in favor of joining, with 62 opposed. Ray Robson, a member of the union volunteer organizing committee, said the work is not over.
“Now, we have to set a date for negotiations (with Trinity management),” Robson said. “That could take up to a year to get done. At least we’re on the right road.”
Robson said some folks were nervous about forming a union at Trinity, but he felt the company would be much stronger with union representation for the employees.
“We want to let the company know that we’re here to work with them,” Robson said. “With the union, we can be much stronger.” He said he felt that Trinity has invested too much in the Newton plant to close it and move elsewhere, and that the company appreciates their employees’ strong work ethic.
Officials at Trinity Structural Towers declined to comment on the recent vote to unionize.

IBEW Local 110 Volunteers Replace Flagpole

2010-08-18T08:05:00.000-04:00

Wounded soldier is honored at ceremony

Thursday, 12 August 2010

by Tim Hennagir
Life Editor

Civil Air Patrol (CAP) Anoka Composite Squadron members have dedicated a new flag pole to honor a former cadet who was seriously wounded during his service in Afghanistan.

U.S. Army Pfc. Matthew Birr, a former Civil Air Patrol (CAP) Anoka Composite Squadron cadet and Fridley resident, his mother, Frieda, and 2nd Lt. Kris Brown, the squadron’s financial officer, share a lighter moment during the July 20 flag pole dedication at the Anoka County-Blaine Airport. Birr was wounded last summer when a 7.62 mm round from an AK-47 assault rifle hit him from behind. He played a key role in replacing the squadron’s missing flag pole, which was struck by a vehicle, damaged and subsequently removed. (Photo by Tim Hennagir)

Pfc. Matthew Birr returned to the Anoka County-Blaine Airport July 20 for an emotional evening ceremony that featured a U.S. flag flown over war-torn Kunnar Province.

“To watch that flag being risen and flown again almost made me break out in tears,” Birr said. He also received a commemorative plaque at the July 20 event.

Birr, a Fridley resident, was wounded last summer when a 7.62 mm round from an AK-47 assault rifle hit him from behind. The bullet exited above his right eye.

“They removed the round from the computer I was sitting at,” Birr said in a recent interview. He carries the dented rifle bullet on a chain round his neck.

Birr joined the U.S. Army after graduating from Fridley High School in 2008. He did his basic military training at Fort Sill in Oklahoma and was stationed in Fort Carson in Colorado until he was deployed overseas last June.

He was wounded Aug. 9, 2009, while on active duty with Bravo Battery, 2nd Battalion of the 77th Field Artillery Regiment. Birr received a Purple Heart and an Army Commendation Medal from Gen. (Ret.) John Vessey, former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman.

“Right now, I’m in the Warrior Transition Unit,” Birr said. “It’s a unit that a solider is attached to before he or she goes before a medical evaluation board that decides whether or not a solider will be medically retired from service or can remain on active duty status. I’m still pending with that process.”

The Army created Warrior Transition Units (WTU) at its installations to provide personal support for wounded soldiers.

According to a U.S. Army website, the WTU provide critical support to wounded soldiers who are expected to require six months or more of rehabilitative care and the need for complex medical management.

Birr said he is still undergoing therapy at Evans U.S. Army Hospital in Fort Carson. His mother, Frieda, sat next to him during the flag pole dedication.

Birr played a key role in replacing the Anoka squadron’s flag pole, which was hit by a vehicle, damaged and subsequently removed.

Birr noticed the missing pole during a return visit to Minnesota and started asking about it, because he had a special U.S. flag to fly.

According to Capt. George Supan, the squadron’s deputy commander for cadets and public information officer, Birr did not hesitate in making a spot donation, jump starting the fund-raising effort.

Supan said a local contractor quickly offered donated materials and labor.

Second Lt. Kris Brown is the Anoka Composite Squadron’s financial officer. She’s also president and chief executive officer, of Brown Technology Group, Inc., which has its company headquarters in Bethel.

Brown made a donation on behalf of her company, and with the help of her husband. Leo, mentioned the flag-pole fund-raising to Steve Erickson and Lyle Dahlin, who own Interstate CM Construction.

Supan said it wasn’t long before a new and much larger concrete base, four white protective bollards, lighting and a new pole were installed with help from volunteers representing IBEW Local 110, Muska Electric Co., Ground Tech and Total Fire Protection.

“The flag pole project was unexpected and was not on our radar from a budget standpoint,” Supan said.

“When someone puts down a contribution for such an important project it becomes top priority. We wanted to complete it as soon as possible so Matt could fly his flag. Donations were received in very short order.”

According to Supan, the new flag pole’s place of honor helps identify the Anoka Composite Squadron’s location and better defines the airport’s northeast corner.

“This mission was special, because it involved a person who has served our country,” Supan said.

Current squadron cadets spoke with Birr after the July 20 ceremony.

Project Phoenix to Benefit Loves Park Area

2010-08-02T14:50:00.000-04:00

Posted: 5:35 PM Jul 23, 2010

Loves Park to Benefit from New State Law

An Illinois law aimed at offering tax incentives to potential businesses is now extended. And it's expected to directly impact the Stateline.

Reporter: Tina Stein

This here is what the people of Loves Park consider a field of dreams. A manufacturing company city leaders call "Project Phoenix" is considering moving in to build its world headquarters. Four-hundred high paying jobs will come with the deal.
"We have to get our economy back on track and it's important we use every tool at our disposal to do exactly that," said Governor Pat Quinn while in Rockford Friday.

That tool is the Industrial Jobs Recovery Law, which gives tax incentives to businesses. It got new life today after expiring earlier this year.
"The extension of this legislation is critical due to the geography. One of the competing sites for our project is Wisconsin and there are other incentives we just simply are unable to offer," says Loves Park's Director of Public Works and Development, Dan Jacobson.
Workers comp, property taxes and health care costs make the Land of Lincoln an expensive place to do business.
"Unfortunately overall Illinois is still higher but we have other advantages with our logistics, transportation so if we could at least reduce some of the cost to make us more competitive," says State Senator Dave Syverson.
Which could help keep our residents since they'll have jobs that support a family.
"In the T.I.F. districts there are a lot of construction jobs, all businesses requires electricity and we'll be wiring those buildings," says I.B.E.W. Organizer Charles Laskonis.
Management positions will also be available. Giving opportunities to Stateline residents with various backgrounds.
Machesney Park would also benefit by making the 173 corridor a T.I.F. district. The law was established in 1994 and was extended through the end of 2011. State Senator Dave Syverson says he hopes to work with legislators to rewrite the law that way Illinois will have even more incentives to offer.

Terra Haute LU 725 Pushes "Responsible Bidder" Law

2010-08-02T14:47:00.000-04:00

Terre Haute (WIBQ)-A Responsible Bidding Ordinance. Why? So that taxpayers in Vigo County will be afforded the same tax savings as those in the city of Terre Haute. Simply put, the ordinance would allow jobs that are being done in Vigo County which use taxpayer money to be done by responsible contractors. IBEW Local 725 is pushing the issue and Vigo County Commissioners say they're considering it.

IBEW LU 317 Credit Union Offers High Interest on Savings

2010-08-02T14:41:00.000-04:00

High Interest Savings Account Rate Deal: I.B.E.W. 137 Credit Union at 1.51% APY

Posted in Credit Union, High Interest Savings Accounts, Rates, Savings Account
July 30th, 2010

IBEW 317 FCU

There are so many credit unions across the nation, how do you choose the right one for you? A good place to start is one that provides high interest rates. The I.B.E.W. 317 Credit Union has a lot to offer members, including an excellent high interest savings account rate of 1.51% APY.

In order to earn one of the highest savings rates currently available, all you have to do is become a member ofI.B.E.W. 317 CU. The share savings account is available to everyone, regardless of age. Interest is compounded daily and credited quarterly.

I.B.E.W. 317 Credit Union is a non-profit, full service financial institution run by members and a board of directors elected every spring. It was granted charter by the National Credit Union Association (NCUA) in 1960 and began with a Treasurer who carried a briefcase as a file drawer, traveling to job sites and recruiting members. The Treasurer handled all daily member transactions. TheI.B.E.W. 317 Credit Union has grown quite a bit since then, with assetstotaling$ 14,100,000 as of 2003. It is located in Huntington, West Virginia.

Illinois Representative Lisa Dugan, IBEW Local 176

2010-08-02T14:37:00.000-04:00

State: Dugan speaks at IBEW conference
July 31, 2010, 8:55 am

By Robert Themer
rthemer@daily-journal.com

Illinois Rep. Lisa Dugan, D-Bradley, was a featured speaker in Washington, D.C., last week -- not in the legislative chambers there but at the 2010 International Women's Conference of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

Dugan, a state representative since 2003, has been an IBEW Local 176 member for 30 years.

At the women's conference, she told more than 375 members from the U.S. and Canada about her experience as an electrical worker and a legislator.

Union Leader saw World

2010-08-02T14:32:00.000-04:00

Union leader saw world during government work
By Erin Zureick
Staff Writer
Sunday, Aug 1, 2010

Ken Ward's career as an electrician has taken him around the world and into some of the United States' most tightly secured nuclear programs.

Ken Ward is in his second term arranging and monitoring jobs and leading negotiations for International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers members in 16 counties. He spent 15 years working for Savannah River Site, and he went back to college in 1996 to receive a business administration degree.

Ken Ward is in his second term arranging and monitoring jobs and leading negotiations for International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers members in 16 counties. He spent 15 years working for Savannah River Site, and he went back to college in 1996 to receive a business administration degree.

Occasionally, the occupation also has sent him tumbling off a ladder and into the emergency room.

"(It's) one of the most hazardous jobs there is because you cannot see electricity," Ward said. "It only takes a milliamp to kill someone."

The Aiken native followed his father into the profession and now serves as business manager and financial secretary for Local 1579 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in downtown Augusta.

He has been involved with the union since he took up the trade after graduating from Langley Bath Clearwater High School.

Ward, 62, is serving his second three-year term in the post. He spends his days arranging and monitoring jobs for about 750 local union members and negotiating contracts.

"I try to follow the IBEW constitution. I am a rule person," Ward said. "Any rules I follow to the best of my ability. I try to be honest and keep everything out in the open for our members."

IBEW Assistant Business Manager Will Salters said he enjoys working for Ward.

"Ken is laid-back and fair, but he's strict when he needs to be," Salters said.

Finding a career

Love led Ward to become a member of the union. He had planned to go to college but fell for his wife of now 43 years, Dianne, and put in an application for the union, where his father also was a member.

He completed a four-year apprenticeship while attending IBEW night classes to be trained in electrical construction.

Ward spent 15 years working at Savannah River Site and also has taken jobs in places such as Texas, Michigan and southeast Asia for the U.S. government. The work gave him an insider look at the country's nuclear weapons program during the Cold War.

While working for the Department of Energy, Ward also was sent to Japan; Guam; and Seoul, South Korea, to complete projects.

Learning more about the nuclear industry was one of his favorite parts of the job, Ward said.

"We can go out and work in these places if we use extreme caution and follow safety procedures and don't do anything foolish," he said.

In 1996, Ward followed a dream and went back to college at the University of South Carolina. He received his bachelor of science degree in business administration management in 2000.

"That was something I wanted to do and I just put it off," he said. "I just wanted to finish something I started years ago. It was a challenge. It was one of the toughest things that I think I've done."

His wife is also a USC graduate and works as a registered nurse at Medical College of Georgia Hospital.

She said her husband was very determined to complete his course work.

"It wasn't easy," she said. "I think he was probably the oldest student in his class."

Union man

Ward is in charge of negotiating contracts for IBEW members in 12 Georgia counties and four South Carolina counties that represent about a 50-mile radius.

Local contractors who work with the union will call the IBEW office and request a certain number of workers. Those jobs are then listed by the local union and filled on a first come, first served basis.

Ward estimated that 25 percent to 30 percent of electrical workers in the Augusta area belong to the union.

"The unions in the Southeast are not as prevalent as they are a little farther up north, say Ohio and Pennsylvania. We work to try to unionize as much as we can."

He said the main difference between the union and nonunion is the extra benefits IBEW provides.

"We try our best to organize as many people as possible in the CSRA to be part of the IBEW," Ward said. "We have some of the best negotiated wages; we have health insurance and one of the best pensions in the United States here at 1579."

A down economy means smaller bids usually are tougher to win for union workers because the benefits do add to costs, he said. The union is more successful bidding for larger projects because union benefits don't make up as large a percentage of the bid, Ward said.

The union negotiates annually with a group of electrical contractors for wages and benefits. Meetings are going on weekly now for a contract that expires at the end of September, he said.

Sometimes Ward is faced with particularly tough negotiations, such as talks that lasted about a year and a half with the contractor handling the construction of two reactors at Plant Vogtle. The talks wrapped up in March.

"We did convince them that we have the ability and manpower in the Southeast and people are willing to come here to work," Ward said.

He said he plans to serve a third term before retiring.

"My biggest challenge is trying to get the best that we can for our membership in bargaining contracts," he said. "My biggest challenge is to keep all of our members employed."

His wife, Dianne, said he knows what it's like to be in a worker's shoes and be unsure when the next job will come.

"I think he's an asset as a business manager. He's got a lot of experience," she said. "I think he's on the job 24-7."

Local 1600 signs four year contract with PPL

2010-06-23T11:58:00.000-04:00

Posted on Tue, Jun. 22, 2010

Four-year contract for PPL, IBEW local

By Andrew Maykuth

INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

PPL Corp. of Allentown will provide annual pay increases up to 3 percent for 3,300 unionized workers under a new four-year contract that also curbs some health-care costs.

The energy company's contract with Local 1600 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers provides for pay increases that step up annually from 2.5 percent the first year to 3 percent in the final year, Paul G. Wirth, a PPL spokesman, said Tuesday.

The contract, which applies to workers at PPL Electric Utilities as well as PPL's power-generation subsidiary, runs through May 11, 2014.

Wirth said the contract also changes the premiums charged to workers for health-care benefits.

Under the old contract, all employees were charged the same amount, regardless of marital status.

Under the new contract, employees with spouses or dependents will pay more, and single employees will see a reduction in premiums, he said. He declined to say how much the change would affect the company's health-care costs.

IBEW Local 1600 is PPL's largest union, representing nearly half the company's workforce of 7,000 employees. The utility serves customers in eastern and central Pennsylvania.

Contact staff writer Andrew Maykuth at 215-854-2947 or amaykuth@phillynews.com.

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/breaking/business_breaking/20100622_Four-year_contract_for_PPL__IBEW_local.html

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IBEW Local 1 (St. Louis) Helps Holy Name Society Help Mother in Need

2009-10-18T14:31:00.000-04:00

Last modified: Saturday, October 10, 2009 3:12 AM CDT

Catholic Holy Family Society gets to work

About 70 Catholic Holy Family Society members, staff and trustees are spending this weekend building a home for a military mother and her three children with Habitat for Humanity of St. Charles County in St. Peters.

This marks Catholic Holy Family Society's 16th build and Habitat for Humanity of St. Charles County's first blitz build.

Plans for the three-bedroom home include a walkout basement and attached garage. The project site is located in The Enclaves at Eisenhower at 118 Eisenhower Drive.

All volunteers are members of Catholic Holy Family Society, a member-owned life insurance organization.

On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, volunteers were working on exterior walls, roof trusses, shingling, siding, and window and door installation.

In addition, Catholic Holy Family Society was to present Habitat for Humanity with a $5,000 donation to help with building costs.

Other home sponsors include Immaculate Conception of Dardenne, Laclede Gas and the IBEW L.U. 1.

Families are selected to partner with Habitat for Humanity on the basis of income and need for affordable housing.

After an extensive qualification process, the families must complete 350 hours of "sweat equity," purchase the home at construction cost through a 30-year, interest-free mortgage, and make monthly mortgage, insurance and tax payments of $475 to $550.

For more information or to make a donation, contact Habitat for Humanity of St. Charles County by visiting www.habitatstcharles.org or calling 636-978-5712.

IBEW Local 363 (New City, NY) Endorses County Executive Ed Diana

2009-10-18T14:27:00.000-04:00

IBEW endorses Diana

Published: October 15, 2009

From Strauss News/ Photo News

Goshen- County Executive Ed Diana has been endorsed by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers 363, which represents over 2,500 union members.

Diana is seeking a third term as Orange County Executive.

IBEW 2009 Membership Conference Roundup

2009-10-15T19:33:00.001-04:00

A few moments from the 2009 Membership Conference

Thanks, IBEW Local 2376!

2009-10-09T14:17:00.000-04:00

Thanks, IBEW!

Published By Times Herald

Posted: 10/02/2009 01:01:28 AM PDT

I would like to take the time to thank IBEW Local 2376 graciously for choosing me for its scholarship. I very much appreciate it -- this really helps my parents out, and will help me in my path to become a dental assistant.I know that the city is going through tough times, but it's great to know that IBEW 2376 still cares about the students in need in our community, and shows passion toward them.
Anna Raygoza
Vallejo

Line Clearance Workers Choose IBEW Local 47

2009-10-09T14:12:00.000-04:00

Line Clearance Workers Choose IBEW

Posted By James Parks On October 6, 2009 @ 3:11 pm In Organizing & Bargaining

The workers at Guzman Garden Line Clearance voted to join [1] Electrical Workers (IBEW) [2] Local 47 last month after their bosses reneged on promises to make changes and give workers a voice.
Guzman Gardens is a line clearance contractor that works on Los Angeles Department of Water and Power property. This summer, Guzman workers contacted Local 47 and inquired about joining the union and 22 of the 24 workers signed cards seeking representation by the union.

But the company demanded a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)-supervised election and hired a union-busting firm to try and persuade the workers to reject the union. Had the [3] Employee Free Choice Act been in effect, the workers would have had a union immediately because a union would be recognized through the cards they signed (majority verification or “card-check”). The Employee Free Choice Act would give workers the option of choosing whether to join a union through the labor board process or via majority verification.
The day before the first election, the company’s owner held a captive audience meeting with all his employees. Workers said he apologized to the workforce and promised to listen to their concerns and asked them for one more chance.
The workers, out of a sense of loyalty to the owner, and trusting he would keep his promises, decided to give him one more chance and voted against union representation.
But within days, the owner reneged on his promised changes. Local 47 filed unfair labor practice charges against the company with the NLRB, which ordered a new election. This time the workers voted overwhelmingly for IBEW.
Guzman is an example of a small employer hiring a union-buster and pulling out all stops, including engaging in deliberate deceit, in order to foil its workers’ desire to form a union. Large employers routinely deploy even greater resources and more insidious strategies against workers and unions in order to maintain unimpeded control over their workers’ livelihoods. The Employee Free Choice Act is absolutely necessary to level the playing field and deter these abuses.

Article printed from AFL-CIO NOW BLOG: http://blog.aflcio.org

9,000 IBEW Workers, IBEW Local 21, Ratify New Contracts at AT&T

2009-10-09T14:05:00.000-04:00

From the AFL-CIO Blog
9,000 IBEW Workers, Represented by IBEW Local 21, Ratify New Contracts at AT&T
by Belinda Boyce, Oct 5, 2009 http://blog.aflcio.org

IBEW, AT&T: Nearly 9,000 core wireline workers in Illinois and Indiana, members of the Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 21, ratified a new three-year agreement with AT&T on Tuesday. Nearly half of AT&T’s 120,000 wireline workers have ratified contracts, while negotiations continue with CWA in the East, Southeast and Southwest regions.

Onorato pledges 'real reform' in race for governor

2009-10-07T17:45:00.001-04:00

Onorato pledges 'real reform' in race for governor

By Brad Bumsted, Salena Zito and Mike Wereschagin
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato kicked off his campaign for governor Tuesday with a three-stop tour across the state, beginning in Philadelphia and ending in front of about 500 supporters in the South Side.

"I'm serious about real reform in Harrisburg. And don't let them tell you that it can't be changed," Onorato said at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers hall. "Sure, there's good people up there, but the system is broken. We need to fix it."

With the long expected announcement, Onorato joins a crowded field for the Democratic nomination in 2010. State Auditor General Jack Wagner, a fellow Western Pennsylvanian; Scranton Mayor Chris Doherty; Montgomery County Commissioner Joe Hoeffel; and retired Philadelphia businessman Tom Knox have said they're in the race.

Onorato said his nearly six years of running Allegheny County government sets him apart, highlighting the row office consolidation that took place during his first term, environmental remediation that made polluted industrial sites ready for redevelopment and the lack of a property tax increase.

"We created a business climate that can compete with any region in the United States, and that allows the private sector to flourish," Onorato said in Philadelphia. "We've seen more than $10.8 billion in investments and development in Allegheny County since I took office."

A Quinnipiac University poll last week revealed that none of the Democratic rivals is broadly known. The survey showed Onorato, with 14 percent of the vote, led Democrats, followed by Hoeffel at 12 percent and Wagner at 11 percent. Doherty and Knox were in single digits.

"The polls have shown that none of the candidates really has a leg up," said G. Terry Madonna, a pollster at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster.

Onorato's biggest advantage might be his campaign account. His latest filing shows he has more than $4.1 million in the bank.

"He is someone that is well-positioned to run a good campaign," said Chris Borick, director of Muhlenberg College's Institute for Public Opinion. "Now it remains to be seen if he will."

Onorato started off yesterday with about 100 supporters at Philadelphia's majestic City Hall, and followed with about 75 supporters at Riverfront Park in Harrisburg. For Onorato's homecoming, the campaign paid for hoagies, Miller Light and Yeungling beers and wine.

He addressed two controversial issues that have been raised by opponents: his support for the drink tax and his position on abortion.

Onorato said he relishes the chance to debate his support of the drink tax, saying the only alternative was a property tax hike.

"If it's between the drink tax and property taxes, it's a no-brainer," he said.

On abortion, Onorato said he, as a Roman Catholic, is personally anti-abortion rights but would not overturn state law to tighten abortion restrictions.

Onorato plans to continue his campaign swing today with stops in Johnstown, State College and Wilkes-Barre. He plans to visit Erie and Allentown on Thursday.

Six protesters arrested at kickoff

Pittsburgh police handcuffed and removed six protesters from the IBEW Hall Tuesday evening after they disrupted Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato's campaign event.

Naomi Archer, 43, of Asheville, N.C., managed to get on stage with Onorato and briefly grab the microphone, before he shouldered her aside and an aide pulled her off stage. Hers was the first of four separate disruptions.

Others stood in the crowd, some wearing duct tape over their mouths, to protest the arrests of 110 people in Oakland the night the G-20 leaders left town.

While most of the protesters demanded the charges against those people be dropped, Archer said her group, Climate Camp, had items stolen from Schenley Park, where the group had permission to leave them overnight. She blames city workers and wants the items returned.

Protesters chanted as they were escorted and dragged out, and the crowd shouted Onorato's name to drown them out.

"You wonder why I love this town. Thank you," Onorato said.

Afterward, he shrugged off the protest.

"God bless 'em. It's America," Onorato said. "They got their point across but they probably picked the wrong forum to do it."

From staff reports

Images and text copyright © 2009 by The Tribune-Review Publishing Co.
Reproduction or reuse prohibited without written consent from Trib Total Media

IBEW Local 2222 Fights to Maintain Decent Jobs

2009-10-04T17:10:00.001-04:00

Boston union workers rally over layoffs

By Jay Fitzgerald | Friday, October 2, 2009 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Business & Markets

Hundreds of angry union workers marched through downtown Boston yesterday to protest recent layoffs at the Hyatt Hotel and planned cutbacks at other firms including Verizon.

Saying they won’t tolerate a “jobless recovery,” union members rallied first on Boston Common near the State House, then marched to the Verizon building in Post Office Square - and then they ducked backed into the Downtown Crossing area to the Hyatt, which recently fired dozens of non-union housekeepers in favor of lower-paid subcontracted employees.

“People are loud and people are angry,” said Rand Wilson, of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 2222.

About 80 unions were involved in the rally and march, which were planned weeks ago. The union event picked up steam and passion due to recent labor disputes at Hyatt and Verizon.

“It’s symbolic of the concerns of all workers,” said Wilson.

Hyatt has come under heavy fire for axing 98 housekeepers and replacing them with lower-wage workers. The hotel chain later offered the ousted cleaners jobs with a staffing agency, but the housekeepers say they want their old jobs back.

Meanwhile at the State House yesterday, Republicans blocked a move by three Senate Democrats - Anthony Galluccio (D-Cambridge), Jack Hart (D-South Boston) and Anthony Petruccelli (D-East Boston) - to pass a resolution urging a boycott of Hyatt.

Around 7:30 p.m., after a caller reported a stolen truck loaded with gasoline was enroute to the Hyatt, a police bomb squad investigated a truck in the hotel’s parking garage. The bomb squad later left the scene. It was unclear whether they found anything suspicious.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1201633

Vallejo Declares Bankruptcy -- Time for a CHANGE!

2009-10-04T17:01:00.003-04:00

Time for a change

Published By Vallejo Times Herald Online

Posted: 10/02/2009 01:01:34 AM PDT

This election is a time for change to Vallejo's elected officials. A recent letter writer stated, "The present candidates for re-election have had to make some unpopular decisions." At this time we need stability.

What unpopular decisions? These:

* Voted to write-off (loss) the $13.5 million loaned from the General Fund to redevelopment, transportation and the Empress Theater. Then blamed the firefighters for the city's deficit, because we all know that's were it started.

* Voted to file for bankruptcy instead of working out (fair) deals among all city unions. Remember, the council voted for the VPD contract. And it is now imposing salary and benefits cuts only to IBEW and Local 1186 (fire).

* Started the charter review committee to get rid of section (809) -- binding arbitration only. Now the committee doesn't know what to do.

* Received the $900,000 from Lennar and now are not going to re-open the fire station. Are the residents of Mare Island aware of this? Where are the savings of $2 million per a closed fire station going ? I would be at every council meeting complaining about that.

Are these some of the "unpopular decisions"? No these are popular (attacks) decisions by your elected officials (activists).

You want unpopular decisions? Here are a few. Remember the city is in bankruptcy -- they can do what they want, or is that just to the fire department?

* Every city employee (department head, city manager, etc...) making more than $150,000 a year take a 10 percent cut across the board for one year (not just IBEW and fire). That's at least 230 employees; it's about $15,000 per person. That would save the city about $3,375,000 million per a year.

* Charge $3 a day for ferry parking. There are about 710 spots; that's about $777,450 a year in revenue. If the riders don't like that, then drive to the city and try and find a spot for $3 in San Francisco.

* Not pay full medical coverage to elected officials that have served two terms. Not sure how much that is.

* Now with the 9-1-1 hang up fee, 4,000 calls X $200 per a call -- that's $800,000 a year.

That's a savings/revenue of $4,952,450 in one year. Those would be unpopular decisions.

We all know none of the current council will do this, because they haven't done it. That's why it's time for a change, Vallejo.

Todd Swanson, Napa

AT&T reaches tentative agreement with union covering 8,900 core wireline employees

2009-10-04T16:56:00.001-04:00

AT&T reaches deal with International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers

August 17 /blog.taragana.com

DALLAS — AT&T Inc. said Sunday it reached tentative agreement with a union covering about 8,900 of its electrical workers on new contract terms.

The deal with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers on core wireline contracts will be submitted for a ratification vote in coming days. The agreement marks the third reached with a bargaining unit representing AT&T’s core wireline workers.

AT&T and the Communications Workers of America earlier ratified a new contract in the Midwest and West regions. A total of about 50,000 employees in core wireline contracts now have ratified or reached tentative agreements.

The IBEW contracts expired June 27 and employees have worked under terms of the expired contracts while negotiations continued. Most of the IBEW employees covered under the contracts are in Illinois and northwestern Indiana.

The tentative deal calls for wage and pension increases in all three years for most employees. Wages would increase 3 percent in the first and second years and 2.75 percent in the third year. The agreement also provides for continued health insurance coverage with some cost sharing.

The company said that most of the financial impact of the contract will be reflected in its results beginning in 2010.

Negotiations are continuing in other CWA regions where contracts expired on April 4, including the East, Southwest and Southeast.

A total of about 120,000 employees are covered under the various contracts.

Dallas-based AT&T is the largest private employer of union labor in the U.S.

NOTE: Correction: AT&T labor story DALLAS — In an Aug. 16 story about AT&T agreeing on a new contract with 8,900 employees, The Associated Press erroneously reported that members of the Communications Workers of America had earlier ratified a new contract with AT&T in the West region.

Manitoba Hydro pushes IBEW Local 2034 into first strike in 50 years.

2009-10-04T16:20:00.002-04:00

Hydro workers strike tonight

By: Staff Writer

Winnepeg Free Press Online Edition

2/10/2009 4:13 PM | Comments: 23

WINNIPEG - A picket line will be up around Manitoba Hydro's utility services headquarters at 35 Sutherland Avenue tonight.

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which represents 3,000 Manitoba Hydro employees, has called for a strike at 6 p.m. after conciliation talks broke off earlier today.

Local 2034 IBEW represents members in more than 120 job classifications, including metering technicians, building operators, store keepers, truck drivers, mechanics, welders and lab technicians.

According to the union’s website, picket lines will be set up at most Manitoba Hydro facilities across the province, including nine locations in Winnipeg.

Manitoba Hydro was attempting to recertify managers to cover some union jobs, but a utility spokesman said there is no way the managers could provide the same level of service as the union members.

This would be the first strike at Manitoba Hydro in Local 2034’s 50-year history.

Manitoba Hydro president Bob Brennan circulated an e-mail to utility employees this afternoon, stating the IBEW will be going out on strike at 6 p.m. and thanking non-striking employees for their co-operation.

"I respect the rights of IBEW and its members to take this action," Brennan states in his e-mail to employees. "I remain hopeful that the strike will be short."

It’s possible that the strike could extend to a second union involved in contract negotiations. A spokesman for Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Local 681, which represents the utilities natural gas operations, said its 235 members will not cross an IBEW picket line.

Jim Dixon, a CEP national representative, said his union expects to resume negotiations with Manitoba Hydro on Monday but added that if the utility instructs CEP members to cross the IBEW picket line the CEP members will also go out on strike.

Dixon said CEP members share a common works yard with the IBEW members, where their trucks, equipment and tools are located. However, he said that CEP is making arrangements with the utility so that CEP members can be dispatched from their homes without having to cross the IBEW picket line.

"We are in a legal strike position," Dixon said. "If Hydro doesn’t want to bargain with us on Monday, we told them to tell us now and we’ll go out on strike too."

A spokesman for CUPE Local 998, which is also in bargaining with Hydro, could not be reached for comment.

city.desk@freepress.mb.ca

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

2009-06-09T19:09:00.002-04:00

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

2009-06-09T19:00:00.002-04:00

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

2009-06-09T18:57:00.001-04:00

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

2009-06-09T18:54:00.002-04:00

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

2009-06-09T18:49:00.002-04:00

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

2009-06-09T18:42:00.002-04:00

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 Sweeney rsweeney@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"

2009-06-09T18:34:00.002-04:00

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"

2009-06-09T18:31:00.002-04:00

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

2009-06-09T18:27:00.002-04:00

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

by The Electrical Worker,

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.

Aboundu Designates IBEW Local 490 Apprenticeship as Certified Training Facility

2009-05-12T11:44:00.002-04:00

Aboundi Inc. Recognizes the IBEW Local 490 New Hampshire JATC as Its Certified Electric Connect Training Facility

Innovative Electric Connect solution prepares New Hampshire JATC apprentices to meet the challenges of upcoming ubiquitous high speed networking connectivity frontiers.

Nashua, NH, May 09, 2009 ---- Aboundi Inc. has recognized IBEW Local Union 490 JATC as its first off-site third party certified training facility for its innovative Electric Connect technologies.

Electric Connect is commercially advanced, cost-effective deployment solution that enables high speed Ethernet packets to traverse over existing legacy copper wiring as its networking infrastructure. It encompasses many different transmission mediums, such as in-premise electrical wirings, coaxial cables and voice grade twisted pairs. Electric Connect complements the existing structured networking infrastructure with CAT5/6, fiber and WiFi as its Ethernet based IP applications.

“Aboundi’s Electric Connect technology is very impressive and this new technology synergistically complements our mandate to provide our apprentices with the ‘Green Technology’ knowledge in addition to our Wind and Solar renewable energy technologies program,” said Jonathan Mitchell, training director for the IBEW Local Union 490 JACTC based in Concord, New Hampshire. “The ability to network high speed data over the existing electrical wirings opens up a whole new frontier for many future ubiquitous applications. Its greatest merit is minimizing the need for installing additional expensive CAT5/6 copper for much of the in-premise wiring in order to provide networking applications.”

“I appreciate the opportunities Electric Connect brings forth to our apprentice students," commented Lyle Doughty, Chairman of the IBEW Local Union 490. “This new technology prepares our students to meet more complex challenges in their future endeavors."

“We are most delighted to have the opportunity to introduce our Electric Connect to broader industry professionals at the grass roots level through an organized and well-equipped facility,” said Hong Yu, President and CEO of Aboundi Inc. “We are very honored to become the IBEW Local 490 technology training partner, where our Electric Connect technology and knowledge will benefit the apprentices and provide the opportunity to flourish through knowledge-sharing opportunities. We believe the ability to network utilizing the existing in-premise copper wiring will be the wave of the future. It will not only reduce the Total Cost of Deployment (TCD) but also provide the ability to accelerate many IP based ubiquitous applications, such as smart facility energy management, security / video surveillance, and audio video (AV) appliances networking. We will work diligently with the JATC team to continually upgrade our program as both organizations learn more from the expansion possibilities of our applications.”

About IBEW Local Union 490 JATC NH Electrical Training Facility
IBEW Local 490 JATC is New Hampshire’s new Joint Apprenticeship Training Council electrical training center co-sponsored by the National Electrical Contractor’s Association (NECA), which officially opened on September, 2008 in Concord, New Hampshire. The training center is a state-of-the-art 8,080 square-foot facility with seven classrooms and a large lab to train all skills required to become a licensed journeyman electrician, from pipe-bending, programmable logic control to emerging technologies, including solar / photovoltaic and wind energies. Industry leaders have referred to the facility and its programs as “the future of the electrical industry” in the state.

About Aboundi, Inc.
Aboundi, Inc. is the leading company providing POS/Retail/Hospitality, Small to Medium-sized Businesses (SMB), Municipalities and Enterprises with commercially advanced and cost-effective deployment solutions utilizing the existing/legacy copper wiring as their networking infrastructure. Our combined solutions of ‘Electric Connect’ and ‘WebEyeAlert’, an open system IP based camera brand agonistic remote video surveillance monitoring and management software platform, provide corporate, commercial and institutional clients with unparalleled cost-effective and powerful networking solutions.

PR Contact:
+1-603-889-8188

###

IBEW Local 7 Helps Family of Iraq Marine

2009-05-12T11:42:00.002-04:00

Lending a Helping Hand

Posted: May 8, 2009 09:27 PM

Updated: May 9, 2009 08:53 AM

By: Elizabeth Corridan

GOSHEN, Mass (abc40) -- A Goshen Marine learned firsthand what true friendship means when his family needed a helping hand. Greg Denys' family was without power for a week last December following the devastating ice storm that crippled much of the region. Greg was not there to put his electrical skills to work because he was on leave from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 7 Apprentice Program serving in Iraq. Denys' says, "It sucks knowing that I'd rather be in that position than have them in that position."

Once the ice had thawed and the lights were back on, Denys' family decided to install a back-up generator. Greg's mom mentioned their plans to one of her son's mentors at the I.B.E.W. who had called to check in. Training Director Mark Kuenzel said, "They had bought a generator and were about to start calling contractors for the install and I said 'Don't do anything. I will call Greg's teacher and class to see what they can do.'"

Greg's class stepped up in a big way. Not only did they provide all the labor for free, they even found a local contractor to donate additional parts for the installation. Classmate Mark Rodrigo says, "We are required to do six hours of community service as part of our program but when it was to help Greg out it was easier to do."

Longtime friend and classmate Jacob McGrath agrees, saying, "Growing up with him, when I learned what happened I was happy to help."

Greg was thrilled when he heard. "It's always good to get news from home but great news like that is even better," he says.

Greg is back home in Goshen with his family. He knows he has more than just classmates looking out for him. He has friends for life and they are all happy to have Greg home.

Students get education in construction from IBEW Local 48

2009-05-12T11:36:00.003-04:00

Teens gain hands-on industry experience at Northwest Youth Careers Expo
Posted: 04:00 AM PDT Monday, May 11, 2009
BY JUSTIN CARINCI
With schools across the state cutting shop classes, students might leave high school without having been exposed to technical education. On Thursday, masses of high schoolers got a crash course at the Oregon Convention Center.

Approximately 6,200 students thronged the convention center for the Northwest Youth Careers Expo, spilling out into the lobby and sidewalks. As inspiring as the turnout was, it’s not a substitute for vocational training, expo organizer Drew Park said.

But events like the expo can get students interested and excited about careers in construction and related industries.

“It’s just to spark their interest,” said Park, president and CEO of Columbia Wire and Iron.

“We’re trying to give kids an opportunity to see companies in the local economy, what kinds of jobs they offer, what kind of pay they offer.

“This will at least give them a little glimpse of something, something to put their hands on.”

Tyler Winslow, an Oregon City High School senior, got his hands on a drill at the Hoffman Construction booth. Students were able to practice drilling screws into two-by-fours at the display.

Winslow, who also takes welding instruction at Clackamas Community College, said he’s interested in all types of construction. “I’m in it for whatever,” he said. “I just like building stuff.”

Dick Burnham, operations manager with Hoffman, said he saw plenty of enthusiasm at the booth. “Some of the kids are really energized and asking good questions,” he said.

Various colleges and job programs set up booths for interested students. Other companies set up video games and other displays without any apparent educational purpose.

Not so fast, Park said. Watching students manipulate a backhoe at the Nutter booth, it’s clear some are putting their video game skills to good use.

“Some of the kids, they come in here, with all their gaming abilities, and it’s just ‘boom, boom, boom.’ They get it right away.” Park said. “It transfers directly.”

Ian Bruggeman, a Job Corps student from Estacada, bragged about his prowess after using a backhoe to dunk a softball into a traffic cone. “I got it in three seconds,” Bruggeman said.

“It’s, like, a new world record.”

Jacob Cutts, an Estacada freshman, has plenty of video game experience but took longer to adjust to the machine’s dual joysticks. “It’s kind of confusing with the controls,” he said.

Keeping up with high-school students requires extra effort to stay up to date, said Sarah Hammer, working at the National Electrical Contractors Association and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers’ booth. “You have to be when you’re working with these kids,” she said.

The union Local 48 booth offered free digital music cards and videos of workers in action. Students entered their names into a drawing for a backpack.

Stressing the electrical connection, the backpack has a solar panel to charge personal electronic devices. “One kid actually called it ‘gangsta,’ ” Hammer said.

Each person who entered the drawing will get a friend request from the union local’s MySpace and Facebook pages. And, yes, Local 48 also tweets.

It looks like the kids are going for it, Hammer said. “People are saying ‘You have a MySpace page? That’s awesome!’
© 2009 DJC News
The Daily Journal of Commerce Inc.
921 S.W. Washington St.
Suite 210
P.O. Box 10127
Portland, Oregon 97296

Phone 503-226-1311 | Web: www.djcoregon.com

Philadelphia Auditor's Race Draws Support from IBEW Local 98

2009-05-12T11:33:00.003-04:00

Posted on Tue, May. 12, 2009
from the Philadelphia Inquirer web site

Butkovitz rivals say he's part of the problem

By Jeff Shields

Inquirer Staff Writer
This year's race to become the city's fiscal watchdog for the next four years will be a referendum on the man who now holds the job, as Controller Alan Butkovitz's challengers pose this question: Can you be part of the system and still reform it?

The practical advantages belong to Butkovitz, the first-term controller, over his two Democratic rivals in the May 19 primary. His challengers are former Common Pleas Court Judge John Braxton and Brett Mandel, the former head of Philadelphia Forward, which has campaigned for five years to reduce wage and business taxes in the city.

The winner will face Republican Al Schmidt, a former federal auditor, in November.

A Democratic ward leader in the Northeast and a former 15-year member of the House of Representatives, the 57-year-old Butkovitz has gathered support not just from establishment Democrats and unions but from the Black Clergy of Philadelphia and Vicinity and Mayor Nutter, who was elected in 2007 on a promise to clean up the city.

How do you beat that? By attacking Butkovitz's strengths as his weakness, his opponents have concluded.

"If you're part of the old guard, you're not going to speak up, you're not going to stand up, and you're not going to say anything," said Braxton, 64, a Common Pleas Court judge for nearly 15 years who was thrown off the primary ballot on a technical issue when he sought the same office in 2005.

Mandel and Braxton have both accused Butkovitz of "gotcha" auditing and shameless self-promotion - tailoring audit findings to gain media attention for himself, not to effect lasting changes.

"The professional people who can do great work are being forced to do the 'gotcha' audits and political auditing, and that's causing long-term damage to the Controller's Office," said Mandel, 40, a financial analyst in the Controller's Office under Controller Jonathan Saidel. Mandel has written books on city economic policy and baseball.

Schmidt, 37, formerly worked as auditor in the federal Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, and as a consultant before moving to Philadelphia in 2005 and becoming executive director of the Republican City Committee. He left in January to run for controller.

Schmidt said he offers voters a simple choice in November - choose a minority party candidate to do a job that a Democrat will never do.

Schmidt told voters last week at a Philadelphia Magazine-sponsored debate at the National Constitution Center that he would "do something about the one-party rule that's ruining Philadelphia."

Butkovitz has embraced - his opponents say abused - the bully pulpit of his office, the main responsibility of which is auditing city expenditures by all departments.

By doing so, he has collected some considerable headlines with audits on EMS response times, the poor condition of police facilities, and a hidden $200 million deficit in the school district.

Butkovitz has won national awards, and combined with Nutter and municipal unions on a budgetsaving pension proposal to save $332 million by spreading out payments and adjusting accounting rules. But he has also been criticized for far-afield audits such as of juvenile crime in the subway system.

He has stretched the mandate of his office, speaking out on genocide in Darfur and educating low-income residents on financial services and banking.

"I want to continue fighting for the people of Philadelphia and saving taxpayers' money by eliminating waste, fraud, and mismanagement in city government - while offering new and innovative solutions to some of our most pressing problems," Butkovitz declares on his campaign Web site.

Butkovitz has emphasized performance audits, which test the effectiveness of a department, over traditional department audits, which simply make sure all the numbers line up.

Mandel says Butkovitz's failure to perform complete audits of departments yearly, as mandated by the City Charter, shirks his responsibility and compromises accountability. Butkovitz notes that Mandel's former boss, Saidel, also saw that yearly audits were not the best use of resources, and says his performance audits have revealed $413 million in savings and new revenues.

"I have been a strong and independent voice in the Controller's Office," Butkovitz said at a forum in Mayfair last week, noting that he had taken on such establishment figures as former schools chief executive Paul Vallas and convicted former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo.

Butkovitz is supported by elements of the traditional establishment, including Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and other members of the building trades, and fellow ward leaders. Local 98 gave him $20,000 this year - nearly 30 percent of all his contributions since Jan. 1.

Butkovitz's two appointees on the Philadelphia Housing Authority are Debra Brady, wife of U.S. Rep. and Democratic City Committee Chairman Bob Brady, and Pat Eiding of the Philadelphia Central Labor Council of the AFL-CIO; his campaign spokesman, Marty O'Rourke, has the same role for the Parking Authority, which Butkovitz is supposed to be auditing, and until recently, had it for the Controller's Office itself.

Mandel has made the Parking Authority audit a theme of his campaign, and recently held a news conference in front of the Parking Authority's Market Street office before being kicked off the property.

Following a series of articles in The Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News about the Parking Authority's spending in the fall of 2007, Gov. Rendell asked Butkovitz for an audit. Butkovitz said Rendell held up the audit for six months by withholding the $80,000 promised for the audit. Butkovitz said he eventually proceeded on his own with the audit, and he asked for it to be rewritten because the findings were not as "sharp or hard hitting" as the underlying information indicated.

Braxton said the alleged foot-dragging is emblematic of the way Butkovitz does business. He said Butkovitz has largely avoided "sacred cows" such as the Police Department and the Department of Human Services, although Butkovitz said he has exposed police overtime abuses.

All the candidates have piled on Butkovitz for creating an office of community affairs, which is headed by his former legislative chief of staff, Lisa Deeley. Butkovitz said the agency is needed to reach out to the community to gather information on potential waste and abuse in city government.

Deeley serves as Butkovitz's campaign treasurer. She can hold the treasurer position because she is an employee only of the school district, one of six controller employees funded by the school district in a decades-old arrangement to pay for district audits. (Most city employees are prohibited from participating in political campaigns.)

In addition to Deeley, three of those employees are Democratic committee people, elected political positions they could not hold if they were on the city payroll. Those employees were there when Butkovitz arrived in office in 2006.

"He can't be expected to root out patronage when his own office benefits from patronage and practices patronage," said Schmidt.

"My concern is, Butkovitz is so entrenched in his political dealings that he cannot function," Braxton said.

Butkovitz has parried these attacks in public with the skill of a veteran politician. He has painted Mandel as a champion of property tax hikes; Mandel acknowledges that he would choose to raise property taxes before "job-killing" wage and business taxes, though says he is in favor of lower taxes all around.

Butkovitz has repeatedly criticized Braxton for his role as chair of the Berean Institute when the charter school in North Philly was skewered in 2008 in a state audit of the school. Braxton said the problems involved the school's management, not the board that oversaw it.

IBEW Local 611 reaches 11th Hour Agreement with PNM

2009-05-06T08:34:00.004-04:00

PNM, workers union leaders reach labor agreement
By James Monteleone
(Farmington, New Mexico) The Daily Times
Posted: 05/05/2009 12:00:00 AM MDT

ALBUQUERQUE — PNM officials and leaders of the electrical workers union reached a contract agreement in late-night negotiations Friday, according to a company spokesman.

PNM and the Electrical Workers Local Union 611 earlier were unable to reach agreement through the final day of the 2005 labor contract April 30, union and PNM officials said, despite holding more than 50 negotiation meetings since February.

Although the contract was expired, negotiators agreed to extend the outdated agreement through May 14, giving union members an opportunity to approve the settlement.

Work never was stopped as a result of the union negotiations running beyond the contract period.

"We did reach a tentative agreement on Friday evening, and the union will be putting it to a vote of its membership either this week or next," PNM spokesman Don Brown said Monday.

Brown declined to comment on details of the agreement.

Union President Carl Condit did not return calls for comment Monday. The union previously has declined to comment on the status or terms of the contract negotiations.

Preparing for a potential walkout of union workers on Friday if a new contract wasn't reached, PNM hired and trained temporary workers to ensure operations at the San Juan Generating Station would continue, according to an internal PNM memo.

After the preliminary contract agreement was reached, the recently hired temporary workers were released from the company Saturday, Brown said. The number of temporary workers hired and laid off by PNM was undisclosed.

Approximately 670 PNM workers statewide are represented by the Albuquerque-based union, about a third of PNM's total work force. Nearly 75 percent of the 381 employees who staff the San Juan Generating Station are represented by the union.

James Monteleone:

jmonteleone@daily-times.com

IBEW Local 2323 Involvement in Rhode Island Training Program

2009-05-06T08:31:00.002-04:00

Providence mayor announces job-training program for the young

01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, May 5, 2009

By Philip Marcelo

Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE — Free evening job-training courses will be offered for young adults and unemployed out-of-school adolescents at the Providence Career and Technical Academy, the city vocational high school that is set to open in the fall after a major expansion and renovation.

Mayor David N. Cicilline announced Monday that the city has received a $650,000 state grant to finance the first year of the program, which will serve as many as 300 people between the ages of 17 and 24.

The job-training program is one of 30 steps that the mayor outlined in Operation Opportunity, his 18-month plan to revive the city’s flagging economy and create more job opportunities for residents.

“As we focus on rebuilding our economy through strategic investments that create jobs, I want to make sure that Providence residents have the skills they need to obtain good paying jobs in construction and the growing field of information technology,” Cicilline said at a news conference in what will be the electrical shop of the academy, on Cranston Street.

Participants in the adult-education courses can take one of two programs: they may earn certifications in building trades, including the “green” industries, or Microsoft Office Specialist certification, which is helpful in qualifying for jobs in the information-technology industry or in administrative positions, according to Cicilline.

The city is working to develop the programs’ core curriculum as well as the required qualifications for those interested in enrolling.

William McGovern, business manager for Local 2323, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and a member of the Governor’s Workforce Board, which awarded the state grant, said the award was the largest given out this year.

“Most of our grants are $10,000 to $15,000 matching grants given to employers in order to train their workers,” McGovern said.

School Supt. Tom Brady noted the program will allow the Career and Technical Academy to serve more than the estimated 700 students who will attend the school during the day. “This is a glimpse into the future, and it is a bright future,” he said.

When the renovation is completed, the school will encompass 296,000 square feet and feature nine vocational career laboratories including carpentry, automotive, electrical and general construction trades.

pmarcelo@projo.com

(Virginia Governor candidate) McAuliffe's past could complicate campaign

2009-05-06T08:27:00.001-04:00

From the Washington Post by way of the Shenandoah Valley News Leader

May 4, 2009

McAuliffe's past could complicate campaign

The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — Terry McAuliffe has a simple message for Virginia: Elect him governor this year and he will bring jobs, because he has more business experience than anyone else in the race.

Yet McAuliffe's business pedigree is not so simple. He is a dealmaker who made millions from investments. And many of his biggest deals came in partnership with prominent donors and politicians, creating a portrait over the years of a Washington insider who got rich as he rose to power within the Democratic Party.

McAuliffe is, at his core, a salesman — and even called himself a "huckster" in his autobiography. In this year's bid for governor, McAuliffe is selling the idea that his uncanny knack for making money can bring prosperity to all Virginia. But at a time when public mistrust of millionaires and politicians is high, that strategy could backfire.

"People are somewhat skeptical at the moment of certain kinds of business dealings," said Robert Holsworth, a political scientist and author of the blog Virginia Tomorrow. "There is a populist resentment that's directed at both government and business simultaneously. I don't know how that's going to play out."

McAuliffe faces Brian Moran and Creigh Deeds in the June 9 Democratic primary; the winner will face Republican Robert McDonnell in the fall. On the campaign trail, McAuliffe has repeatedly used local businesses as the backdrop for his political rallies. He tells audiences that he has been a one-man engine for job creation for decades.

Wearing a hard hat recently while touring a trash incinerator that converts waste to energy, McAuliffe sloshed through trash ooze in hiking boots. "I love landfills!" he declared, machine-gunning his tour guide with questions and barraging his staff with ideas to jot down. "Oh, wow!" he gasped while looking at a four-story mountain of trash.

Such hands-on displays, along with an endless stream of exuberant one-liners ("I started my first business at 14!"), reveal a showman and salesman.

But they belie the complexity of a business career built mostly on intricate land deals and dot-com investments, often with wealthy political donors — and sometimes with no jobs to show for it.

Since his early 20s, after graduating from Georgetown Law, McAuliffe has been forming partnerships, raising capital and investing in business ventures. He has earned millions as a banker, real estate developer, home builder, hotel owner, Internet venture capitalist and credit-card marketer.

For McAuliffe, politics and business have always been intertwined.

He was Richard Gephardt's national finance chairman and later gave Gephardt a loan from the bank he led, Federal City National Bank. He worked with then-House Whip Tony Coelho on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in the 1980s and later worked with him at a Washington real estate brokerage, the Boland Group.

One of McAuliffe's most lucrative deals, earning him $8 million, was a $100,000 investment in Global Crossing Holdings in the 1990s. The company's chief, Gary Winnick, later became a contributor for whom McAuliffe had secured a golf date with President Bill Clinton.

McAuliffe made $16 million developing a shopping center in Florida after persuading a top labor leader he knew through the Democratic Party to invest $40 million from the union's pension fund.

He made another $1.2 million helping Telergy, an Internet startup firm from his home town, Syracuse, N.Y., secure a $40 million investment from Winnick, the Global Crossing chief.

Telergy paid McAuliffe the referral fee, he recalled, after its executives invited him to serve on the board to help forge contacts with national politicians.

By the end of Clinton's second term, McAuliffe was the president's top fundraiser, well known for working with Clinton to arrange perks for party donors — and doing business with some of those same donors. One of those was Carl Lindner, who headed Chiquita Brands International and the insurance company American Financial Group. Although Lindner is known for supporting Republican causes, McAuliffe said he introduced him to Clinton and encouraged him to donate.

About the same time, McAuliffe was also partnering with Lindner in the purchase of American Heritage Homes, a home-building company in central Florida.

McAuliffe said he finds nothing controversial about his mixture of politics and business. "I've done business with people I've met in politics, who I went to law school with, who I grew up with," he said. "Who do you do business with? People you meet in life."

A long history of media coverage portraying McAuliffe as someone who traded his political influence for favorable business deals misses a fundamental point, he says: that the deals stood on their own merits.

He calls American Heritage Homes one of his proudest success stories, a company he took from the brink of failure to building more than 800 houses a year and employing thousands of workers in the construction trades. The deal also earned millions for him and Lindner when they sold the company to a national home-builder.

Similarly, he said, the partnership with the union pension fund provides one of his proudest examples of job creation.

McAuliffe formed the partnership in the early 1990s with the pension fund of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers to develop a commercial property and apartments in central Florida. The deal began with McAuliffe's relationship with Jack Moore, treasurer of the union's political action committee, who oversaw donations of close to $2.5 million to Democrats in 1996. McAuliffe asked Moore to invest. The pension fund put up virtually all the money — about $40 million, compared with McAuliffe's $100 — even though McAuliffe would own a 50 percent share in the partnership. This detail would become a point of contention in a lawsuit filed against the fund trustees by the Department of Labor, which regulates the management of pension funds and which determined that it had not been a good investment for the electrical workers. In 2001, after two years of litigation, the trustees, including Moore, settled in U.S. District Court.

In the end, the pension fund sold its share to McAuliffe and made a profit. McAuliffe unloaded the apartments and then renovated the commercial strip and sold it for $39.7 million, a far greater return for McAuliffe than for the union.

He said that even though his initial investment was tiny, he was the "sweat equity" partner — the one who found the deal, put it together and managed it for years without making money. And it's not his fault, he said, that the pension managers chose to sell before bigger profits came.

McAuliffe also noted that he transformed a downtrodden shopping center into what is now a vibrant mall. Along the way, the project created hundreds of construction jobs, he said.

Richard Swann of Orlando, McAuliffe's father-in-law and lawyer on several Florida land deals, said he has never met a smarter businessman with a more uncanny sense for when to invest. In 2000, McAuliffe sold his stake in the home-building company because he predicted that the real estate bubble would soon burst, Swann said. More recently, McAuliffe put much of his portfolio in municipal bonds (most of them in Virginia, public records show) because of his sense that stocks were heading down.

"He's very prescient and just has a good sense and a good instinct as to value and a sense of timing," Swann said.

At a recent debate, one of McAuliffe's opponents, Brian Moran, took a swipe by criticizing investors in Global Crossing who "walked away with millions, leaving their employees up the pole without pensions."

It was an early attempt to portray McAuliffe's business career as a liability. And the portrait could resonate because McAuliffe has made a fortune investing — sometimes in companies that went bust, laid off thousands and drained investors' and employees' savings.

Already some view McAuliffe's energy and sales pitch with skepticism.

"He seems to me like a guy with (attention deficit disorder) who's overdosed on caffeine," said Katherine Clark, a past chairman of the Northern Virginia Technology Council and co-founder of a technology company in Reston. "He's a bit fiery. He's a lot of things. I think that people ... might think he's a slick-talking sales guy."

McAuliffe's tendency to exaggerate his successes adds to that perception. Describing the apartments he purchased with the union fund, McAuliffe said he "went through every apartment myself, like 1,600 of them, make sure the toilets worked" — but then added: "Well, I didn't go through 1,600. But I went through every property exhaustively. Sure I did! I owned them!"

McAuliffe then claimed that his home-building company built 1,300 homes at its peak, but an adviser later clarified that the figure was closer to 800. And at a candidates' forum in December, in response to Moran's claim to be the only candidate who had run a business and raised a family in Virginia, McAuliffe boasted of launching five businesses in Virginia.

It turned out that all five of McAuliffe's Virginia businesses are investment partnerships, with no employees, registered to his home address in suburban McLean.

In the end, what voters think of McAuliffe's history of mixing business with politics may prove less important than whether he presents the best vision to pull Virginia out of the recession, said Holsworth, the political scientist.

That's probably why McAuliffe is embracing that history on the campaign trail, rather than running away from it. In front of business leaders in Northern Virginia, McAuliffe practically shouted to the room that his political relationships would only enhance his ability to attract jobs.

"I'm going to call Barack Obama every day!" he yelled, to laughter and a few rolling eyes.

And just imagine, McAuliffe said at a recent forum on Virginia's film industry at George Mason University, if he practiced in the governor's office the same art of the deal that made him rich.

After listening to Ron Newcomb, a young independent filmmaker from Woodbridge, describe the challenges of attracting investors to Virginia, McAuliffe didn't hesitate.

"When I'm governor, I'll be pitching for you. How's that?" he said.

Newcomb liked what he heard.

But will voters feel the same? Somewhere between the rolling eyes and the admiration for McAuliffe's success lies the answer.

— Staff researcher Meg Smith and staff writers Debbie Cenziper and Sandhya Somashekhar contributed to this report. LA TIMES-WASHINGTON POST—05-02-09 2021ET

IBEW Votes on Contract with MidAmerican Energy

2009-04-15T16:12:00.000-04:00

Electrical Workers Union Voting on Contract

By Aaron Hepker

Story Created: Apr 14, 2009 at 2:38 PM CDT

Story Updated: Apr 14, 2009 at 2:39 PM CDT

DES MOINES (AP) - Workers with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union are voting this week on a new contract with MidAmerican Energy. The proposed agreement covers about 1,600 linemen and meter
readers. The current contract expires on April 30.

The union's bargaining committee has recommended against the company's offer but has told its members they may face an indefinite lockout by the company.

Voting began on Monday. It will continue through Thursday with results of the vote being announced on Friday. MidAmerican spokeswoman Ann Thelen says the company has started to assemble a "contingent work force."

Details of the proposed contract haven't been released.

Harry Reid Flips Switch at Local 357 Wind Turbine

2009-04-15T16:09:00.001-04:00

Reid flips switch on state’s first wind turbine

Turbine will be used to train workers to maintain wind farms

By Jeff Pope

Tue, Apr 14, 2009 (2:15 p.m.)

Reid Commissions Wind Turbine

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid flipped the switch and Mother Nature provided ample gusts today, turning the state’s first wind turbine to provide electricity to the power grid.

The 51-foot Skystream 3.7 windmill won’t satisfy the state’s energy needs, it will help train the electrical workers who will build and maintain future wind farms throughout the country.

It’s located at 620 Leigon Way, near Bonanza Road and Lamb Boulevard, at the joint training center of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 357 and the Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee of Southern Nevada.

To tap Nevada’s potential to generate electricity through wind turbines, the industry will need an educated workforce, Reid said.

“Someone wants to have a solar panel put on the roof of their home or a wind turbine in their backyard or some business wants to do it on a larger scale, they need to go where people know how to use the technology,” he said. “Anytime you see something like this, it means jobs.”

The Electrical JATC has trained 300 workers since 2006 on photovoltaic panels and the first class on wind turbines filled up within a week, said Madison Burnett, training director of the Electrical JATC.

Burnett said he receives calls from around the country from electrical workers who want to be trained on the turbines.

“Right now I don’t know of anyone providing training. We’d be the first,” he said. “Our biggest thing is to make sure the worker is well-trained on the system because if they’re not, this will fail. People will become discouraged and this will fail.”

Duke Energy has proposed harnessing Southern Nevada’s winds near Searchlight with a wind farm capable of generating 300 megawatts.

NV Energy offers homeowners rebates of $2.50 per watt for wind turbines, based on the turbine’s electricity production capacity, further creating demand for trained installers.

The demand for “green” jobs could also receive a boost from the federal economic recovery plan, which provides $78.6 billion in clean energy, energy efficiency, environmental and green transportation funding. There are also energy-related tax incentives.

The Nevada Legislature has mandated that 15 percent of power generated in the state come from renewable resources by 2013.

The country needs to diversify its energy resources to become less dependent on foreign oil, Reid said.

“On a national level we need to make sure on a certain day, a certain percentage of all energy produced in the United States comes from renewable resources,” he said. “That’ll be part of what we’ll be working on this year.”

IBEW Local 2067 in talks about Saskatchewan future

2009-04-08T10:24:00.000-04:00

News Release - April 3, 2009

Enterprise and Innovation Minister Lyle Stewart and Crown Corporations Minister Ken Cheveldayoff today officially received and released the report of the Uranium Development Partnership (UDP) on the future of the uranium industry in the province.

The report, Capturing the Full Potential of the Uranium Value Chain in Saskatchewan, contains 20 recommendations on further development of Saskatchewan's uranium resources focused on further exploration and mining, power generation and research and development.

"I want to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Florizone and all members of the UDP for all their hard work and commitment to the people of Saskatchewan," Stewart said. "The UDP report has, for the first time in the province's history, put forward a thoughtful, measured and well-researched strategic plan to revitalize and expand Saskatchewan's uranium industry."

Led by Dr. Richard Florizone, a nuclear physicist and Vice President of Finance at the University of Saskatchewan, the UDP committee included strong representation from communities and organizations across Saskatchewan including the University of Regina, the University of Saskatchewan, the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association, the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities, the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 2067, First Nations, the environmental community and representatives from Canada's nuclear industry.

In accepting the report, Minister Stewart said that international concern over climate change is driving world-wide interest in clean energy generation options creating a window of opportunity for Saskatchewan to pursue valued-added development of its uranium industry.

"The UDP has given the province a lot to think about," Stewart said. "The next step is to engage Saskatchewan citizens in a public consultation process that will facilitate thoughtful discussion and consideration about the 20 recommendations contained in the UDP Report."

"Our Province has benefited from its rich uranium resources for many years, and I am pleased to see the Uranium Development Partnership has concluded there are opportunities to add value to Saskatchewan's uranium," Cheveldayoff said. "I look forward to hearing what the Saskatchewan people have to say about the opportunities outlined in the report."

Stewart said the public consultation process will start immediately and will feature several elements including:

o a major stakeholder conference;
o a series of nine community consultation meetings to be held between May 19 and June 5 in Prince Albert, Buffalo Narrows, The Battlefords, Lloydminster, Yorkton, Estevan, Swift Current, Regina and Saskatoon
o an opportunity for individual stakeholder organizations to provide oral and written submissions over two days with an additional day set aside for presentations from First Nations and Métis groups;
o the launch of a website containing the full report, presentation materials, online input opportunities, and ultimately, the results of the public input: www.saskuranium.ca;
o an opportunity for those who do not want to attend a meeting or do not have internet access to provide written submissions: "The Future of Uranium in Saskatchewan" P.O. Box 7, Regina, SK, S4P 2Z5; and
o a toll free number (1-877-791-4667) for individuals to leave their name and address to receive a print copy of the Executive Summary.

The UDP report calculates that acting on its high priority recommendations could increase in Saskatchewan's Gross Domestic Product by an estimated $50 billion to $55 billion and could create 6,500 construction and 5,500 long-term jobs.

"I can assure you that no decisions have been made," Stewart said. "The input received will be considered by the provincial government as part of the decision making process. As such, I encourage all citizens to get informed and get involved."

-30-

IBEW Local 949 Asks for Parity

2009-04-08T10:20:00.000-04:00

Union Picketers Hit Crosslake

By Paul Boblett, Editor

Union employees from the Crosslake Communications and Union members from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 949 held signs outside City Hall and Crosslake Communications last week to bring attention to the fact that they are still without a labor contract with the City.

The signs held by the union demonstrators stated that the city is treating the workers unfairly. The City of Crosslake employs eight union workers at Crosslake Communications whose wages range from $18.54 per hour to $27.33 per hour.

City Administrator Tom Swenson said that a State of Minnesota mediator is currently handling negotiations between the union and the city, and both sides are still talking.

Swenson said that two meetings between the union and City were held to negotiate a contract, but after the second meeting the union requested mediation because the two sides were too far apart.

The City released a written statement that stated, “We have good employees and we appreciate their right to collectively bargain. We have bargained in good faith, however we believe that bargaining should occur at the bargaining table not in the media. As such we are not going to comment on the proposals which have been exchanged in bargaining.”

“We do believe, however, that our customers and the taxpayers of Crosslake should have accurate facts about our company. We have one of the best, and most costly, wage and benefit packages in the area among comparable employers. We have wage and benefit surveys to document that. During the last labor contract, the wages of our employees increased over 9 percent and the cost of our health insurance benefit has increased 47.54 percent over that same period.”

“If we are irresponsible at the bargaining table, the burden falls on our customers and the taxpayers. The downturn in the economy is affecting Crosslake Communications.”

Swenson said, “In 2009 our homestead tax credit will be reduced by around $33,000 and again in 2010. The phone company is seeing reduced access lines - many people are doing away with the frills. There are probably people that will keep their cell phones and not reconnect their landline when they come up.”

“The economy is having an impact on the company,” said Swenson.

“In December of 2008, the City reduced the management wages by $1,000 for 2009 and all other non union department heads were reduced by $500,” added Swenson. “The City took action immediately with the non union non contract people when we saw this coming and the City and phone company are making every effort with the department heads to reduce wherever we can.”

Rick Oakes is the business manager for Local 949. He was outside City Hall on Monday afternoon and stated, “ We’re here for an informational picket to represent the employees of Crosslake Communications who have still not gotten a contract in place. The only thing we’re looking for is to be treated fairly.”

When asked what is fair, Oakes replied, “To be treated like the non union folks that work here.”

Oakes stated, “In January non union employees received on average, over a of three percent wage increase and they pay nothing for their health insurance. We’re looking for equity.”

IBEW 949 Representative Vince Guerton of Nicollet County was in front of Crosslake Communications last Monday with Ron Schmidt and Bill Gordon, both long time employees of Crosslake Communications.

Gordon said, “If they treated their non union workers like they want to treat us, they would not have a shortfall in their budget. You can see how they treat their non union employees, and if its good enough for them why isn’t it good enough for us?”

The City’s prepared statement closed by saying, “We have to be concerned about how local government will be affected as the legislature deals with the huge projected budget shortfall, and the bills in the legislature to freeze public employee wages dictate caution. The City of Crosslake has already suffered substantial cutbacks in State Aid and in response, the council has cut the budgeted salaries of City managers, but we are not proposing a wage cut or freeze for our employees. We expect the State mediator to convene another meeting, as he deems appropriate.”

Both sides are waiting to hear from the mediator as to when the next meeting will be held.

IBEW Local 98 Sponsors Championship T-Shirt Night

2009-04-08T10:18:00.002-04:00

Ring ceremony set for Wednesday

Posted by PAUL VIGNA, Of The Patriot-News April 06, 2009 15:52PM

Categories: Baseball - Philadelphia Phillies

For those of you headed to Citizens Bank Park on Tuesday or Wednesday, here's a schedule of events, courtesy of the PR department.

Atlanta Braves (April 7-8)

TUESDAY: 7:05 p.m. ... Gate openings: Ashburn Alley - 4:35 p.m. (Alley Hour concession specials until 5:35 p.m.); Other gates - 5:35 p.m. ... Broadcast: myphl17, WPHT 1210 AM, WUBA 1480 AM (Spanish).

IBEW Local 98 World Championship T-Shirt Night : All Fans 15 and over will receive a red t-shirt with "CHAMPS" screen print across the chest and a Phillies "P" at the neck, compliments of IBEW Local 98.

First Ball : Maureen Fiocca, representing IBEW Local 98 will be throwing out the first ball.

Color Guard : Will be presented by Temple University Army ROTC.

Powerade Sampling : Samples of Powerade will be given out at all gates following the game.

WEDNESDAY: 3:05 p.m. ... Gate openings: Ashburn Alley - 12:35 p.m. (Alley Hour concession specials until 1:35 p.m.); Other gates - 1:35 p.m. ... Broadcast: CSN, WPHT 1210 AM, WUBA 1480 AM (Spanish).

World Champions Ring Ceremony : The players and coaches will receive their World Series rings in a pre-game ceremony beginning at approximately 2:15 p.m. In addition to the ring ceremony, the Leap Frogs, the US Navy Parachute Team, will parachute into the ballpark pre-game.

Citizens Bank Business Persons Special ... First Ball : Will be thrown by Richard Schiffrin, Esq. Grant & Eisenhofer, ALS Board Member.

Color Guard : Will be presented by the US Navy Color Guard.

National Anthem : Will be sung by the Millersville University Choir, directed by Dr. Jeffrey Gemmell and conducted by Ashley Walker.

IBEW Local 300 Breaks into Solar Energy

2009-04-08T10:15:00.001-04:00

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Solar Trailer - DAY ONE.

IBEW Local 300 is at the forefront of "green collar" job creation in Vermont. We have the state's only intensive, year-round solar photovoltaic training program for electricians.

Today, we began building our mobile solar trailer. Once finished, the trailer will feature a fully-functional, off-the-grid solar array. We plan to bring it to career fairs, trade shows, rallies and the like to educate folks about green technology.

The following is a brief video clip of IBEW electricians and apprentices mounting solar panels to the side of the trailer. Work continues tomorrow!
Follow this link to the Local 300 Blog for the full story: Local 300

दुके एनर्जी एंड इबेव १३४७ राच अग्रीमेंट

2009-04-08T10:07:00.003-04:00

Duke Energy and IBEW 1347
Reach Tentative Agreement Before Deadline

April 3, 2009

CINCINNATI -

Duke Energy Ohio and Kentucky announced that it has reached a tentative agreement with International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) 1347 union negotiators today. This five year contract represents over 1,000 electric transmission and distribution employees in Ohio and Kentucky. The current contract will be extended through April 24 for purposes of education, explanation and ratification.

"Duke Energy is pleased to have reached this tentative agreement that is good for our employees, our customers and our company," said vice president of Employee & Labor Relations Jim O'Connor of Duke Energy.

The company and union have been negotiating for several months and the contract was scheduled to expire at 11:59 p.m. tonight.

Duke Energy is the third largest electric power holding company in the United States, based on kilowatt-hour sales. Its regulated utility operations serve approximately 4 million customers located in five states – North Carolina, South Carolina, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky - representing a population of approximately 11 million people. Duke Energy's commercial power and international business segments operate diverse power generation assets in North America and Latin America, including a growing portfolio of renewable energy assets in the United States.

Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Duke Energy is a Fortune 500 company traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol DUK. More information about the company is available on the Internet at: www.duke-energy.com.

IBEW Local 617 (San Mateo, CA) Celebrates 100 Years of Service

2008-09-22T10:05:00.000-04:00

Carolyn Livengood column: One hundred years of keeping the lights on!
By Carolyn Livengood
San Mateo County Times
Article Last Updated: 09/19/2008 07:48:07 PM PDT
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 617 celebrated 100 years of brightening San Mateo County on Aug. 16 when more than 900 past and present electricians, dignitaries and guests attended a dinner and dance at the Hyatt Regency in Burlingame.
Local 617's business manager Dominic Nolan and president Mark Leach were co-hosts of the once-in-a-lifetime "A Century of Evolution to Power the Future" gala. The Stewart Tartan Pipes and Drums of San Francisco opened the event and political satirist Will Durst served as emcee.
Speakers included IBEW International president Edwin Hill, of Washington, D.C.; Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Hillsborough; Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco; Burlingame Mayor Rosalie O'Mahoney; and San Mateo Police Chief Susan Manheimer. Workers from many other unions also attended.
"Founded in 1908, Local 617 was granted its charter by IBEW May 1, 1908," said Leach. "It built an apprenticeship program to train workers in San Mateo County for a booming postwar economy and today provides training and resources for thousands of electrical workers. It continues to advocate for workers, always reaching out to unrepresented electrical workers and growing to 1,242 active and retired members."
Dedicated to community involvement in San Mateo County, Local 617 has funded and installed scoreboards on more than 40 sports fields and ball courts in partnership with educational institutions and local parks throughout the county. It has also organized several blood drives, funded and sponsored County Fair projects for 4-H clubs and restored the dome lighting on the old Redwood City Courthouse.

Along with other building trade unions, Local 617 has been and continues to be involved in the creation, funding and success of the Building Futures program at the San Mateo Adult School's SMART Center. It is also involved in and has supported San Mateo County Jobs for Youth.
Local 617's unique and educational Electrical Museum at 1701 Leslie St. in San Mateo welcomes school and community groups to visit between 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays. For large groups, call 650-574-4239 in advance.
The local also works closely with other labor organizations to ensure safe and productive job sites.
"Congratulations on your 100-year history," Edwin Hill said. "You keep us safe and secure at home, at work, and when we're out in the public, because you are highly skilled and outstandingly dedicated to your craft and to the public." Hill thanked county employers for working cooperatively with the union on the job and supporting the apprentice program. On an separate note, Hill pointed out that women played an early role in creating IBEW by forming their own local chapter in 1897 in Cleveland.
"Unions will grow," said Leach. "Prepare to be part of that change. Prepare your heart and open your mind. Honor all labor. Value all workers. Unions with over 100 years of experience and strength will be the standard bearers."
"Tonight we have gathered an incredible collection of electrical workers," said Nolan, as a video was shown of those who started the local. "Here in 2008, it is a safe bet that no one here tonight will be at the 200-year celebration. If we follow the lead of our founders, it is a safe bet that the union will be here in 2108!"

IBEW completes five-year, $100,000 pledge to Tampa General Burn Center

2008-09-22T10:01:00.000-04:00

Tuesday, September 2, 2008
IBEW completes five-year pledge to Tampa General Burn Center
Tampa Bay Business Journal

The local chapter of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers along with Tampa donated a total of $40,000 to Tampa General Hospital’s Regional Burn Center.The IBEW presented a check for $25,000 that was raised at the union’s annual golf tournament earlier this year. It represents the last of five installments in a five-year pledge to donate $100,000 to the Foundation’s capital campaign to help fund TGH’s new Emergency & Trauma Center.

Tampa Electric and TECO (NYSE:TE) followed with a matching contribution of $25,000.

Presentations were made at a gathering at which burn victim Joe Versaggi spoke.

IBEW Local 164 Helps Hackensack High School Comets Rebuild Football Facilities

2008-09-22T09:53:00.000-04:00

IBEW Local 164 Helps Hackensack High School Comets Rebuild Football Facilities

By Mel Fabrikant
Tuesday, September 16 2008, 03:22 PM EDT
From the Greater Paramus News and Lifestyle Magazine

Local 164

Electricians Donate Time and More Than $18,000 to Upgrade Field House

High school football season is in full swing, and the Hackensack High School Comets have been rebuilding this past summer – both their team and their field house at Thomas Della Torre Field. While legendary coach Mike Miello has returned to restore the team to its historical glory, members of IBEW Local 164 donated more than $18,000 in materials and skilled electrical services to update the Field House.

The electrical system has been upgraded in preparation for the team’s upcoming home games against St. Joseph’s, Watchung Hills, Eastside and long-time rival Teaneck.

Pictured with Comet players and head coach Miello (center, kneeling) are (counter clockwise, standing) Richard Dressel, Local 164 business manager; electrician Billy Jones; Barry Hammond, the local’s outreach coordinator; Rick Hammond, an electrical volunteer; David Milazzo, Jr., Local 164’s assistant electrical training director; and Elaine Lampe, an electrical apprentice.

Miello served as Hackensack’s head football coach from 1970 – 75 and as an assistant in 1968 and 1969. He guided the team to the state and league finals. Career highlights also include head or assistant coaching positions at William Paterson University, Rutgers University and Ramapo High School.

IBEW president says member-to-member campaign can lead to Obama victory

2008-09-22T09:49:00.000-04:00

IBEW president says member-to-member campaign can lead to Obama victory
By Barb Kucera, Workday editor
19 September 2008
ROCHESTER - To win support for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers need to talk to co-workers and "take a personal stand," IBEW President Ed Hill said.

Speaking to 300 officers, members and staff from Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin, Hill described how the IBEW will mobilize members across the country in the weeks remaining before the Nov. 4 election.

"We're not leaving anything to chance" with a focus on worksite communication, he said.

"Take the (union) papers, take the handouts, take it to 'em at work," Hill urged the delegates to the union's 6th District Progress Conference held in Rochester, Minn. "Make sure people see them. But don't forget the personal touch.

"Brothers and sisters, don't let your courage fail now!"

Hill praised Obama and condemned Republican presidential candidate John McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin.

"It's like they're running as king and queen of the prom instead of talking about the issues," he said.

"People are falling out of the middle class everyday. Unemployment is killing us . . . Two oil men in the White House took the price of oil from $1.50 to over $4 a gallon . . . It's like we've been governed by Murphy's Law and everything that could go wrong is going wrong."

McCain promises more of the same, while Obama will support working families and rebuild the fractured economy, Hill said.

The IBEW represents workers in construction, utilities, broadcasting, telecommunications, manufacturing, railroads and government – all sectors of the economy that have faced hard times in recent years.

Both Hill and IBEW Secretary-Treasurer Lindell Lee said they don't underestimate the effect on IBEW members of the anti-Obama smear campaign – or potential racism against an African-American candidate. But they believe concern about jobs will trump these other factors.

"I think the issues are too big this year for the lies and distortions to overcome," said Hill.

Lee related a recent conversation he had with an IBEW member from the south.

"He told me, 'Up until now, being prejudiced has been free. You could dislike or even hate people for no other reason than the color of their skin and it wouldn't cost you anything financially – although it might cost you morally or spiritually.' Then he went on to say, 'But if middle-class working Americans take their prejudice into the voting booth on Nov. 4, it will cost them dearly for decades.'"

For more information
Find out more about the IBEW at www.ibew.org

Oglesby (Illinois) City Employees Choose IBEW Local 51 for Quality Representation

2008-08-21T15:17:00.000-04:00

Oglesby employees unionize
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
By Matt Baker
223-3206 ext. 133

Oglesby city workers have gone union, joining the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 51.
All city workers with the exception of the police, who already have their own union, are now IBEW members, according to Oglesby Mayor Tony Torres.
The unionizing plan began roughly in April, according to IBEW representative Tom Peterson, and passed through the state board of elections without protest from the city.
“I don’t have any problems with it,” Torres said.
Many of the city workers, including the city clerk’s assistant, are not necessarily electrical workers but, Peterson said, it is not uncommon for non-electrical workers to be entered into the union.
“We’re a representative bargaining unit,” Peterson said.
Peterson currently is preparing to begin negotiations with the city.

IBEW Local 668 Presents "Dancin in the Streets" In Lafayette, Indiana

2008-07-22T11:45:00.000-04:00

17th Annual Dancing in the Streets to be a “Rockin’ Night of Fun”

Carolyn Shelby, Lafayette Online News
Posted July 16th, 2008 in LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The Lafayette–West Lafayette Development Corporation announced details of the 17th Annual Dancing in the Streets festival today during a press conference on the John T. Myers Pedestrian Bridge. This year’s Dancing in the Streets presented by IBEW Local 668, will be on Saturday, July 19, 2008 from 4:00p–Midnight on the streets of Downtown Lafayette–West Lafayette.

This year’s theme is “Rockin’ Night of Fun” and features a full schedule of entertainment and activities. As part of the festivities, Lafayette’s Main Street will transform into a hot rod paradise when hundreds of classic cars and motorcycles cruise the streets of Downtown. Also back this year by popular demand is the Laser Light Show, sponsored by IBEW Local 668, in West Lafayette’s Tapawingo Park.

Advanced tickets are $5.00 and available at Guaranteed Transmission, IBEW Local 668, First Financial Bank locations, and the Lafayette–West Lafayette Development Corporation office at the Depot. Admission at the gate for adults is $8.00, children ages 5-12 are $1.00 and children under age 5 are free.

Entertainment: Two stages of entertainment will keep Downtown streets rockin’. Jayne Bond and the Pink Martinis will keep the energy elevated with their high-power act immediately after the classic car and motorcycle cruise. Other acts include Roy E. Reynolds’ “Tribute to Elvis” performing one show only from 6-7 pm, The Groove Catz, the Snake Charmers, American Cheese, Soulshine Band and The Late Show. Additional entertainment will be on the John T. Myers Pedestrian Bridge.

Food: Food will be provided by 12 local restaurants in Tapawingo Park and at Riehle Plaza including long time vendors Sgt. Preston’s and Arni’s Pizza and a new vendor this year, Scagnoli’s. Food and beverages will also be served by in-house vendors including Chumley’s, Skylight Coffeehouse, Java Roaster, the Black Sparrow, Red Seven, and The Vault.

Car and Motorcycle Show and Cruise: A classic car show, sponsored by Chase Bank has anchored the festival for years but has now been expanded to include motorcycles and show bikes. The classic car and motorcycle cruise will begin at 7 p.m. and includes a two mile oval on Main and Ferry Streets between 2nd and 10th Streets. This year $1,000 in cash prizes will be awarded to classic cars and motorcycles. Guaranteed Transmission and the Development Corporation are this year’s prize sponsors. All car exhibitors will receive gifts and coupons from our sponsors, vendors and local businesses. Awards will be given in several categories including the Mayors’ Awards. Car registration is available at the McDonald’s Open Cruise on July 18th at the McDonald’s on 510 Sagamore Pkwy N and the Fifth Third Bank branch on 2nd Street, in Downtown Lafayette, from 12 noon – 6:45 p.m. on July 19.

Laser Light Show: A laser light show will light up Tapawingo Park just after dark during the event. Sponsored by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 668.

Advanced Ticket Sales: Advanced tickets are $5 and are available at IBEW Local 668, AAMCO Transmission, Guaranteed Transmission Service, First Financial Bank locations, and at the Lafayette–West Lafayette Development Corporation.

Volunteers: Volunteers are still needed to work two-hour shifts at Admission Gates and Ticket Booths. All volunteers receive free admission and a Dancing in the Streets t-shirt. Please contact the Lafayette-West Lafayette Development Corporation at 742-4044 or by email at jness@lwldc.org for more information or to sign up.

Entertainment schedule:

Riehle Plaza:

4:00-6:00p: The Groove Catz

6:00-7:00p: Roy E. Reynolds - The Tribute to Elvis

7:00-8:00p: Classic Car and Motorcycle Cruise

8:00–10:00p: Jayne Bond & The Pink Martinis

10:00–10:15p: Lo Woods

10:00–12:00 midnight: Snake Charmers

Tapawingo Park:

4:00-5:00p: Lo Woods

4:30–7:30p: Smiles Unlimited providing face painting and balloon art

5:00–7:00p: American Cheese

7:00–9:00p: Soulshine Band

9:00–9:15p: Lo Woods

9:15-10:15p: The Late Show

10:00–10:30p: Laser Light Show

10:30–12 midnight: The Late Show returns

John T. Myers Pedestrian Bridge:

5:30–6:00p: DMG’s StarCity Dancers

6:15–6:45p: Triple S Sassy Snake Stompers

8:00–9:00p: Oasis Dancers

Roving Entertainers

8:00–9:30p: First Class Only Civic Youth Theatre’s Traveling Thespians

IBEW Local 347 Teams up with KCCI TV and Fairplay Scoreboards to provide scoreboards for community groups

2008-07-22T11:36:00.000-04:00

Would your team like to "score" a free Fairplay scoreboard like the one pictured to the right?

Last year KCCI teamed up with IBEW to give away 12 of these for baseball, softball, football and basketball.

And this year, the electrical workers are proud to be buying 12 more scoreboards to give away! ...View Officials Rules

Just print the nomination form, fill it out and return it to KCCI by August 8.

Mail to:
SCORE!
KCCI-TV
888 9th St.
Des Moines, IA 50309

Official Rules and Regulations

June 26, 2008

1. General. By submitting an entry to this contest, sponsored by Internet Broadcasting Systems I.B.E.W. Local 347, and Fairplay Scoreboards the entrant acknowledges and agrees to all of these Official Rules. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Void where prohibited. Contest ends on Friday, August 8, 2008 at 5 pm. All times in this contest refer to Central Daylight Savings Time. By entering the drawing, entrants agree to waive any right to claim any ambiguity or error in these Official Rules, or the drawing itself, and agree to be bound by these Official Rules and by all decisions of the Sponsor, whose decisions are binding and final. Sponsor reserves the right to withdraw the transmission of this sweepstakes and award the prize from among entries received prior to the date of the withdrawal. Failure to comply with these rules may result in disqualification from this contest.

2. Eligibility. The contest is open only to legal U.S. residents who are 18 years of age or older as of June 26, 2008 and reside in central Iowa. Void wherever prohibited or restricted by applicable federal or state laws and regulations. Endorsement of school district and /or field owner of the nominated location/field must accompany submission. Employees of the Sponsor, Suppliers, KCCI, subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, directors, agents, employees, advertising and promotion agencies and members of their immediate families (spouses, parents, children, and siblings and their spouses) are not eligible.

3. How To Enter. To be considered, you must print nomination form, which includes name, address, telephone number, email address along with additional qualifying information and mailing or hand delivering all of the above information and contact information to: SCORE! c/o KCCI 888 Ninth Street, Des Moines, Iowa 50309. You may enter onceduring the sweepstakes period. Multiple entries received from any person will void all such additional entries. Entries that are incomplete, illegible or corrupted are void and will not be accepted. Neither the Sponsor, the television station listed above nor their respective parent companies, subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, directors, agents and employees are responsible for telecommunications, network, electronic, technical or computer failures of any kind, for inaccurate transcription of entry information, errors in any promotional or marketing materials, errors in these rules, for any human or electronic error, or for entries that are stolen, misdirected, garbled, delayed by computer transmissions, lost, late or damaged. All entries become the property of the Sponsor and will not be acknowledged or returned. All entries must be received before 5 PM Central Daylight Savings Time on August 8, 2008 to be eligible for the final decisions.

4. Selection of Winners. Up to 12 winners will be notified for the SCORE! promotion starting the week of August 11, 2008. The odds of winning depend on the number of eligible entries received. Winners will be required to sign and return to the Sponsor an affidavit of eligibility and liability and publicity release within 14 days of notification. If any prize notification is undeliverable, or in the event of non-compliance with any of these requirements, the prize will be forfeited, and an alternate winner will be selected.

5. Prize. The prize is a Scoreboard for athletic field or venue. The total prize package value will be determined by Scoreboard/Venue/Sport awarded. The prizes cannot be exchanged for cash. Transfer of the prize is prohibited. All taxes and all other expenses, costs or fees associated with the acceptance and/or use of the prize are the sole responsibility of the winner. A valid driver’s license and proof of insurance must be shown at time of drawing. The Sponsor reserve(s) the right to substitute a similar prize of equal or greater value at its sole discretion. Winner must complete an affidavit of eligibility and liability release, or the prize will be forfeited and alternate winner selected.

The winning locations / recipient is responsible for all related costs, including shipping and handling; installation and wiring; mounting; and support system. Installation and wiring of each scoreboard must be performed by an electrical contractor who is signatory to the collective bargaining agreement between NECA and I.B.E.W. Local #347.

Scoreboards are pre-designed by FairPlay inclusive of the I.B.E.W. Local #347 and KCCI Sports logos.

Disclaimer. Winner assumes all liability for any injury or damages caused or claimed to be caused by his or her participation in the sweepstakes and/or the acceptance and/or use of any prize, and releases the Sponsor,the station’s listed above and their respective parent companies, subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, directors, agents, and employees, from any such liability. The Sponsor, the station listed above and their respective parent companies, subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, directors, agents and employees are not responsible for technical, hardware, software, or telephone malfunctions of any kind, lost or unavailable network connections, or failed incorrect, incomplete, inaccurate, garbled or delayed electronic communications caused by the user or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilized in this sweepstakes or by any human error which may occur in the processing of the entries in this sweepstakes. Entry constitutes permission (except where prohibited by law) to use winner's name, city, state, likeness and/or voice for purposes of advertising, promotion and publicity without additional compensation. The winner’s name and city of residence will be posted online and mailed to those who request it.

6. Internet. If for any reason, the contest is not capable of running as planned for any reason, including infection by computer virus, bugs, tampering, and unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures, or any other causes beyond the control of the Sponsor which corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity of the game or sweepstakes, the Sponsor reserves its right in its discretion to disqualify any individual it believes has tampered with the entry process, and/or cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the contest/sweepstakes/game. The Sponsor, the station listed above and their respective parent companies, subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, directors, agents and employees (i) assume no responsibility for any error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, communications line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to, or alternation of, entries: (ii) are not responsible for any problems or technical malfunction of any telephone network or lines, computer on-line systems, servers, or provider, computer equipment, software, failure of any email to be received by the Sponsor on account of technical problems, human error or traffic congestion on the Internet or at any website, or any combination thereof, including any injury or damage to the participant’s or any other person’s computer related to or resulting from participation or downloading any materials in this sweepstakes/game.

7. Winner Announcement. For the name of the winners, available after September 1, 2008 send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to be received by September 15, 2008 to: SCORE!, c/o KCCI 888 Ninth Street Des Moines, Iowa 50309.

IBEW Local 6 (San Francisco) Organizes Solar Installers

2008-07-22T11:34:00.000-04:00

Friday, June 22, 2007

IBEW hopes to unionize solar installers

San Francisco Business Times - by Ron Leuty

Local 6 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers is making another attempt to plug into the growth of solar power.

The union will try to organize solar panel installation companies in the Bay Area, said Tim Donovan, Local 6 assistant business manager. Getting more contractors to use electricians only makes sense, he said, because those solar systems must plug in to traditional electricial systems before winning approval from Pacific Gas and Electric Co. for a state rebate.

The IBEW, as much as any business, wants to capitalize on the rebate-fed growth of solar panels, Donovan said. For the union, that means creating more card-carrying IBEW members.

"We're interested in organizing any contractor that needs a skilled workforce," Donovan said. "One of the issues coming up now is that there are a lot of mom-and-pop solar companies that don't have the qualified, trained electricians to do solar. We're trying to educate those contractors to their responsibilities."

Many standard residential projects cost less than $25,000 to install, with rebates of $5,000 or more.

"There's a growing curve of installations in the next few years," he said. "There's a lot of work to be done, and we want our contractors to go after that work."

Several solar power system installation companies contacted for this story, including Los Gatos-based Akeena Solar, one of the nation's largest solar system installers, said they have not yet been the focus of union-organizing attempts or heard of any attempt to organize.

David Hochschild, executive director of PV Now, a coalition of photovoltaic companies aimed at increasing the U.S. market for solar electricity, said the IBEW effort is the latest of several efforts by the union to generate more work for its members.

IBEW tried unsuccessfully to mandate that all solar installations be completed by licensed electricians rather than licensed solar installers, Hochschild said. The roughly 300 "C-46" solar licensees in the state are limited to solar photovoltaic cells.

What's more, when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced his rebate plan to encourage 1 million homes and businesses in the state to install solar systems, the union opposed it. Donovan said that opposition was based on the union's belief that payment of prevailing wages to installers -- which usually means union scale -- should be required to be eligible for rebates.

Ultimately, the California Public Utilities Commission launched a solar initiative without a prevailing wage provision. Its rebates are funded by utility rates.

Still, Hochschild agreed that more schooling for installers is needed. "It's a good thing that more people are trained for it."

New Mexico Contractors work with IBEW to Build the Future

2008-07-22T11:31:00.000-04:00

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

NM's uranium enrichment facility featured on Web TV

New Mexico Business Weekly

ElectricTV.net is featuring the uranium enrichment facility under construction Eunice, New Mexico, in its latest edition of the Web TV program.

ElectricTV.net is a joint production of the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) and is the only Web TV program dedicated to reporting the latest developments in the electrical construction and information systems industries.

Louisiana Energy Services is constructing the $1.5 billion facility -- the first uranium enrichment installation to be built in the U.S. in more than 30 years.

Louisiana Energy CEO Gregory Smith said the feature on the facility reflects the unique partnership between the three NECA contractors and hundreds of IBEW workers involved in the project.

"These people are sophisticated, they know what they're doing," Gregory said in a news release. "They're meeting and exceeding not only the schedule but the engineering requirements."

Also on the program is an interview with Greenpeace founding member Patrick Moore about the benefits of nuclear energy.

To view the ElectricTV.net show, visit www.ElectricTV.net/enrich.aspx.

Chatanooga TN IBEW Trains for New VW Porject

2008-07-22T11:30:00.000-04:00

Labor Groups Gear Up for VW Work

Posted: July 16, 2008 09:21 PM

Updated: July 17, 2008 09:11 PM

CHATTANOOGA (WRCB) - Before any cars are manufactured Enterprise South, the plant must first be built. That is going to require skilled workers, because the plant is expected to be state of the art and cutting edge. Local labor unions are preparing for jobs they believe may be coming their way. The local chapter of the IBEW, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, has about 3,000 members who are certified to perform the smallest tasks to installing plc's, electrical programming boards that will be throughout the V-W plant.

Kenny Smith, training director of the IBEW NECA Apprenticeship School, says "this is what we do, what we have been waiting on. This is cutting edge, high-end technology, but we are ready. NECA and the IBEW have been training contractors for over 100 years."

Roger Tuder, the President and CEO of the Associated General Contractors of East Tennessee, says," We are general contractors, we hope to see some activity there. In fact, we are grading right now. We would like to come in and lay the foundation, erect the walls, do the electrical work and the interior finishes." Tuder says his phone lines were ringing off the hook on Wednesday. "Many people are ready to work, I have had people call me today wanting to know if the plans are in, the answer is no they are not."

Local colleges and high schools offer programs that prepare students to work in these jobs, such as Chattanooga State, the IBEW NECA Apprenticeship School and the East Ridge Construction Academy.

IBEW Local 1288 Electrical workers express frustration with Memphis Light Gas & Water

2008-07-13T14:45:00.000-04:00

Electrical workers express grievances over MLGW treatment
Reported by Kontji Anthony

Updated: July 12, 2008 10:02 PM

Electrical workers packed a local union hall Saturday to voice their concerns about their treatment by Memphis Light Gas & Water.

At a highly-charged union meeting, members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1288 said MLGW is holding on by a band-aid.

"They are not going to treat the rate-payers and the employees at this company like this and us sit back and be quiet," said president J.D. Cox. "If you don't believe us, you call the company and ask them how many maintenance requests they have outstanding right now."

According to IBEW members, MLGW is cutting staff so much that they're unable to keep up with regular maintenance, putting workers into emergency mode and forcing them to work overtime.

IBEW Business Manager Rick Thompson says customers are getting a raw deal, too.

"Staff these departments correctly and there will be no overtime...but they know in a lot of cases it's cheaper to work overtime than to hire employees," said Thompson.

The union says MLGW has been ignoring their concerns.

"It's almost like they're trying to make the union irrelevant," said Thompson.

MLGW had no comment, but a utility representative took notes during Saturday's meeting.

But other folks are taking workers' concerns seriously: 11 out of 13 city council members accepted their invitations to Saturday's meeting.

"The session today was to express a wide range of grievances dealing with morale at the company, dealing with overtime, dealing with just simply doing things the right way," said councilman Myron Lowry.

Council members say they look forward to hearing MLGW's response to these complaints.

IBEW Local 145 (Moline, Il) hosts Illinois Treasurer for town hall meeting on flood relief

2008-07-13T14:39:00.000-04:00

Mobile center to help local flood victims

By Dustin Lemmon | Sunday, July 13, 2008

A Mobile Disaster Recovery Center will open in East Moline Monday to answer questions and help fill out disaster loan applications for those who suffered flood damages from a June 1 storm.

Disaster recovery specialists from the Illinois and federal emergency management agencies and the U.S. Small Business Administration will be stationed at the center, which will be at East Moline Fire Department Station 22, 1523 Morton Drive.

The center, which will be open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. each day from Monday until July 19, will be for those in Rock Island County who suffered losses or damages from severe storms on June 1.

Rock Island County Board Chairman Jim Bohnsack said the center is opening in East Moline because that’s where most of the damage occurred, particularly in the Watertown neighborhood.

“That’s where it should be,” he said. “There wasn’t much damage elsewhere in the county.”

State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias will visit the center Monday and will attend a town hall meeting on flood relief at 6 p.m. at the IBEW Local 145 hall, 1700 52nd Ave.

Bohnsack hopes the center, which is moving from one county to the next, will help answer questions that local officials have been unable to resolve.

“You can talk to a human being rather than going through some other form of communication,” he said. “In person is so much better.”

East Moline Mayor John Thodos said he and Alderman Gary Westbrook, Ward 7, met with FEMA officials Friday morning about the center. He said many low-income residents won’t qualify for the SBA loans, but submitting an application will help the government decide whether they’re eligible for grants.

“From there we can go ahead and enter all the claims of all the people affected by the flooding,” he said. “They can get questions answered there that I can’t answer.”

Thodos said about 150 homes in the Watertown and Cottage Grove areas suffered damages. There are some residents, mostly renters, who have not been able to move back home.

Thodos said those who lost their jobs because their vehicles were damaged by flooding and they couldn’t get to work can also apply for unemployment benefits.

More information on disaster recovery is available at rockislandcounty.org, fema.gov, floodsmart.gov and ready.illinois.gov.

Dustin Lemmon can be contacted at (563) 383-2493 or dlemmon@qctimes.com.

Solar Panels to power IBEW Local 305 in Fort Wayne, Indiana

2008-07-13T14:37:00.000-04:00

Solar panels to power FW's IBEW

Updated: July 7, 2008 08:13 AM

Green Power Initiative Growing in Fort Wayne Solar Panels to Power IBEW Local Union 305

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE Channel 15 News) - After receiving entry level provider certification from the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners, eight electrical apprentices and seven local electrical contractors successfully installed 28 solar panels inside Fort Wayne's International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 305.

The panels will power the IBEW building and produce 5,236 kilowatt hours of electricity, enough energy to eventually sell back to the city's electrical grid.

The panels and certification were made possible through a $25,000 grant from the Indiana Office of Energy and Defense. Members of the Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee (JATC) anticipate growth in the Fort Wayne photovoltaic market from the recent installation of the solar panels.

"The panels represent both a symbolic and practical step into shifting the way our city thinks about energy production and usage," said Joe Langmeyer, business representative for the JATC. "There is no reason why these panels can't be on every roof in the city."

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) represents approximately 750,000 members who work in a wide variety of fields, including utilities, construction, telecommunications, broadcasting, manufacturing, railroads and government.

IBEW Local 305 (Fort Wayne In) Members and Contractors Certify to install Solar Panels

2008-07-13T14:32:00.000-04:00

From the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette
July 13, 2008

Business at a glance

After receiving entry level provider-certification from the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners, eight electrical apprentices and seven local electrical contractors installed 28 solar panels inside Fort Wayne’s IBEW Local 305.

Local 364 (Rockford) Brother Daniel Yost (RIP) honored in ceremony

2008-05-04T13:39:00.000-04:00

From the Northwest Herald (Rockford Illinois)

By JIM BUTTS - jbutts@nwherald.com

ROCKFORD – A Crystal Lake man electrocuted in August was remembered at a ceremony Monday recognizing union workers killed on the job.

Daniel J. Yost, 24, a 2001 graduate of Crystal Lake South High School, was killed in August while working as a ComEd lineman in Lombard.

Each year, more than 5,000 workers die from injuries suffered in on-the-job accidents, and thousands more suffer permanent injuries, according to the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations. More than 30 years ago, the AFL-CIO set aside April 28 as “Workers Memorial Day” to remember those who died on the job.

Since 1990, the Rockford United Labor organization has held a ceremony to honor local union members who have died from industrial accidents, according to a union news release.

The ceremony was held in Yost’s honor Monday along the banks of the Rock River behind the E.J. “Zeke” Giorgi State of Illinois building in Rockford, one of two Workers Memorial Day monuments in Illinois, according to the union.

During the ceremony, Yost’s name was to be added to the Workers Memorial Day plaque displayed year-round at the Local 364 IBEW hall in Rockford, according to the union.

IBEW Locals 1362 and 1364 gain 21% in new Rockwell-Collins contract

2008-05-04T13:32:00.000-04:00

From the Gazette Online:
Article published: May 3, 2008
Rockwell Collins workers OK new contract

CEDAR RAPIDS The unions representing Rockwell Collins hourly employees in Cedar Rapids, Coralville and Dallas, Texas, on Saturday approved a new five-year contract providing 4 percent annual wage increases — a 21.6 percent increase over the life of the contract.

Members of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1362 ratified the contract with the aviation electronics company Saturday at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Cedar Rapids. The other unions voting for the contract were IBEW Local 1364 in Coralville and IUE-CWA Local 787 in Dallas.

In addition to the wage increases, the contract enhances retirement benefits, changes vacation accrual from an annual basis to a monthly basis, upgrades employees in five job codes and creates three new job codes, said Local 1362 Business Manager Jerry Vuichard.

Rockwell Collins spokeswoman Pam Tvrdy said. "We're very pleased that we were able to come up with a package that everyone could accept."

The contracts also address the possible disruptive effect of a large number of retirements following ratification. In Local 1362, 450 members are eligible for retirement, and many had postponed their retirements until after the contract to have greater certainty about the health insurance benefits they'll receive.

A new "retirement window" program will enable many of those 450 union members to receive a $10,000 bonus by scheduling their retirements in cooperation with the company, Vuichard said. The program is set up for people with at least 30 years of service who retire between this Oct 1 and March 31, 2010, and is structured to minimize disruption to the company's operations, Vuichard said.

Other improvements include an increase of 6 percent in the portion of the company's traditional defined benefit pension plan accrued before 1992, and an increase in the company's match on the 401(k) defined contribution pension plan. The company will match 50 percent of the first 6 percent of wages and overtime that an employee contributes to his 401(k) plan.

The company's 401(k) contribution was previously capped at $750 per year.

Health insurance premiums increase in the package, but benefits are left intact, Vuichard said.

Rockwell Collins and Local 1362 will establish a labor-management committee under the contract. Vuichard said the committee will focus on boosting prosperity for both the company and bargaining unit employees, on keeping work in Cedar Rapids and on "creating a well-valued work force."

Rockwell Collins' profits and sales have shown strong growth, with profits up 20 percent in the three months that ended March 31. The company recently boosted its stock dividend by 50 percent, to 24 cents per share, and has spent $190 million to repurchase 3 million of its shares.

The union locals in Dallas, Coralville and Cedar Rapids negotiate their economic contract terms jointly with Rockwell Collins, while other contract provisions are negotiated separately.

IBEW Local 124 (Chicago) trains the future electricians

2006-12-07T14:52:00.000-05:00

llinois School Board Journal
September/October 2006

Collaboration builds vo-tech charter idea

by Eileen Quinn Knight, Patrick M. Knight and Terry Stirling

Eileen Quinn Knight is a professor of education at St. Xavier University, Chicago; Patrick M. Knight is a doctoral candidate in anthropology at the University of Illinois-Chicago; Terry Stirling is associate dean of education at Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago.

Sometimes you need to break the mold in order to build something different. That's the premise behind a 2-year-old charter school in Chicago that was forged with a unique collaboration between higher education and local trade unions.

ACE Tech High School, which opened to students in August 2004, represents a model of innovative relationships and recognizes the importance of both academic education and the needs of industry. In addition to providing an excellent academic program for urban students, it also hopes to fulfill a growing need for a well-trained labor force by teaching students the skills required by construction trades, engineers and architects.

According to a Construction Industry Institute survey, 75 percent of contractors in the United States are experiencing a shortage of skilled labor, a situation surveys say will only get worse. The U.S. Department of Labor predicts the construction industry will need to attract 240,000 workers each year just to replace those leaving the workforce or retiring.

Exacerbating the situation is a shift in the culture from a workforce that is attracted to manual labor to one that is attracted more to technology. ACE Tech wants to teach both skill sets while also involving stakeholders in all aspects of school support.

Background

In 1997, the School of Education at St. Xavier University was asked to assist the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 134 in improving instruction for that trade. As the university and the union collaborated on more effective teaching strategies and enrolled instructors in college courses so that they could obtain certificates in vocational education, a bigger issue emerged: a lack of minorities from the urban section of the city were applying to the IBEW apprenticeship program.

John Donahue, director of the IBEW-NECA Technical Institute, approached the university with this concern, which ultimately resulted in the application for a charter school that would specifically teach construction trades classes to minority urban students.

At the same time, as a response to closing 60 urban schools, Mayor Richard Daley proposed his Renaissance 2010 program for Chicago Public Schools. Renaissance 2010 will create 100 new schools over a six-year period. Of three elementary schools closed in 2002 (Dodge, Williams and Terrell), two reopened in 2003 as contract schools with national partners and local business leaders as part of new transition advisory councils (TACs). TACs, which serve as liaisons between the public school system and the community, are meant to ensure that the new schools offer high-quality educational options that reflect the community's needs and interests.

In 2004, Terrell reopened as the Architectural, Construction and Engineering Technical Charter High School, or ACE Tech. Its mission: to provide students the highest levels of instruction and academic achievement combined with exemplary character development that will prepare them for post-secondary and apprenticeship education and lifelong learning success.

"This model will generate competition and allow for innovation," Daley said of ACE Tech's opening. "It gives parents more options and will shake up the system."

The inaugural freshman class had 140 students, and classes began with seven teachers, most of whom held masters degrees. The school also had an executive director, a chief education officer and a business manager.

While the school is supported by Chicago Public Schools with $6,000 funding per pupil, it also receives donations from each member of its Board of Directors, who are committed to both the financial as well as educational issues of the school. This atypical school board has full construction industry representation: trade union officials, contractors, construction managers, architects, engineers and a university professor.

In addition to pledging $10,000 each in financial support, the board members each plan and promote a fund-raiser. This is in addition to attending monthly board meetings and holding a position on a standing committee.

While this represents much more involvement than the majority of public school board members in Illinois, this board has a vested interest in the information that the students are learning. The students who come out of the school are being prepared for jobs in their industries.

The hope is that this commitment of resources and time by these individuals, their organizations and their companies will sustain ACE Tech and provide students with the mentoring that will prepare them for success in subsequent training programs and colleges.

Unions at odds

While the need for a well-skilled workforce and more minority representation is easy to document, formation of ACE Tech was not without controversy. Part of the dissention, however, came from opposition to the Renaissance 2010 plan as a whole, not the specifics of this school.

The Chicago Teachers Union and Chicagoans United for Education, a coalition of 20 different labor, community and parent organizations, led a labor rally against the Renaissance 2010 plan. Their disapproval of top-down reform included concerns about privatization of Chicago Public Schools and charter schools in general, the displacement of union workers and the closing of 60 public schools.

The IBEW, along with other trade unions that share a vested interest in ACE Tech, is caught between support for a school it sees as beneficial to union interests and support for members of the teachers union.

While there is currently not enough research to show whether such a charter school will promise better laborers in the workforce, the ongoing tension may resolve itself as students and more minority workers are prepared for skilled labor positions.

Goals and promises

Ultimately, the desire of the board is to create and sustain a faculty that is excited and enthusiastic about teaching. In addition to participating in inclusive interviews, all teachers participate in a retreat at the beginning of the year.

During the retreat, issues of learning theories as well as a character-building program for the students were studied. The teachers took the time to create the beginnings of a learning community with similar ideas, theories and philosophies, even though the makeup of the faculty is as diverse as the city itself.

Students benefit from small class size, more opportunities to engage with teachers and the possibility of knowing everyone else at school — a real community of learners.

Each week, students participate in "Friday Alive!" — a presentation that features the history of one of the trades and how those workers spend their day. Afternoon projects help students understand the essence of the job of a particular workforce. For example, electricians might teach students how to create both serial and parallel circuits and how to bend pipe.

The activity does not try to coerce students into a particular trade but rather to provide information early enough in their high school career so they can make good choices.

The charter school also provides benefits for parents. Because ACE Tech is smaller and more centralized, parents find bureaucratic procedures much easier to navigate.

Parents commit themselves and their students to ACE Tech through a contract that is signed when the student enrolls. The agreement emphasizes good communication, with teachers available to parents both by e-mail and cell phone on a daily basis. As a result, attendance at parent night, open house and report card pickup has been about 95 percent — a significant difference from some larger counterpart high schools.

What the future holds

Even though demand for construction workers is high, the board plans to keep enrollment at ACE Tech under 600. This will allow for a more personalized, collaborative educational environment, both for students and faculty who enjoy the teaching and learning that takes place in an atmosphere of much less anxiety than a larger school setting.

The university will provide ongoing mentorship for teachers and staff to help them maximize their talents, while the Board of Directors takes a more active role by taking pride in their own particular aspect of the construction industry. All of this allows students to observe a plethora of adults who are happy and dedicated to their everyday work.

Plans for the future also include establishment of grant programs to assist with school expenses, as well as encouraging students to enter local and state competitions in writing, architecture, engineering and other aspects of construction work.

But most of all, ACE Tech wants to "break the mold" in making a good education accessible to economically challenged urban students.

IBEW Local 60 (San Antonio TX) Fills Need for Voice/Data/Video Technicians

2006-11-27T11:51:00.000-05:00

Jobs: 'It's almost artistic'
Web Posted: 11/18/2006 12:00 PM CST
AÃ¯ssatou Sidimé
Express-News Business Writer A rumble fills the dusty unfinished office as Hector Rosales shoves fistfuls of white data cables into a metal tube near the ceiling.

Rosales and four other cable installers with CDI Technology Services have just started running the wires that will transmit computer information and phone service to rows of cubicles in new TETCO offices on Northeast Loop 410. Then they must attach them to outlets and the company's computer server room.

They will carefully number and letter each cable and note which colored wires are attached at each outlet to avoid any problems later. In the end, 900 cables filled with four different-colored wires will fill three floors.

"It's not a job for someone who's colorblind," Rosales said.

Rosales, 33, began his career as a cable installer in 1997 when he couldn't find work as an electrical apprentice. It proved a good switch.

Cable Instalers

Job description: Calculate, diagram and install the cables needed to meet voice and data traffic and telephone usage.
Education requirements: None, although many employers require manufacturers' certifications.
Average Texas pay: $22,420 to $34,535 a year, according to the Texas Workforce Commission.
Web Links: www.ibew.org, www.necanet.org, and www.bicsi.org

"I enjoyed it," he said. "It's almost artistic in how you present the cables. They must be nice and neat. And I thought it was a lot safer than dealing with high voltage as an electrical apprentice."

Cable installers attach copper wires, fiber optics, computer outlets, telephone jacks and voice over Internet connections based on the amount of power desired and the distance the information will travel. They test the cables and provide customers diagrams that show the outlet attached to each cable.

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 60 and the National Electrical Contractors Association offer a three-year apprenticeship focusing on wiring for voice, data and video.

Still, most installers learn on the job. The lack of training and certification requirements has attracted unskilled workers to the field, depressing wages, Rosales said.

But that may be changing since the local IBEW just began requiring all unionized cable installers, called telecommunications technicians and installers, to be certified by one of the major cable manufacturers.

Many clients now require installers to present certificates showing they were trained by manufacturers to use their products, said John Gray, training director of the South Texas joint apprenticeship program.

New construction and rehab projects have put cable installers in growing demand, said Hal Flechtner, operations manager at Fisk Technologies, which employs 25 cable installers.

"There's got to be people to take care of it as needed and as companies move in and out of offices or change configurations," Flechtner said.

The remodels can be tricky when they involve partially occupied buildings. "You have to take care not to disturb existing tenants," said Chris Wayne, 32, who began installing cable in 1994.

Wayne, a project supervisor for Fisk Technologies installers at Lackland AFB and the Toyota plant, has undergone random drug tests and mandatory safety classes to get approval to work for some clients.

Cable installers increasingly must pass background checks since they work in the telecommunications nerve centers of most companies, and many clients won't let installers carry camera phones on their premises.

asidime@express-news.net

IBEW Local 1245 Helps Lodi Fill Need for Linemen

2006-11-27T11:50:00.000-05:00

This community is not wireless

Linemen in short supply at Lodi Electric Utility

By Matt Brown
News-Sentinel Staff Writer

Last updated: Friday, Nov 24, 2006 - 06:17:41 am PST
Comments(3)

A freshly inked deal between the Lodi Electric Utility and a local union will attract and retain electric linemen, city officials hope.

Since June, the utility has been trying to fill two vacancies for linemen, workers who perform the dangerous task of maintaining the electric lines. City Manager Blair King recently signed an agreement with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1245 to increase the so-called rubber glove premium from five to 10 percent, beginning on Jan. 1. The rubber glove premium is paid to workers who wear heavy-duty rubber gloves to handle live wires.

Foreman Rich Willet removes a cable from a new telephone pole after it is loaded onto a trailer on Monday afternoon at the City of Lodi Electric Utility yard. (Brian Feulner/News-Sentinel)

"We want to recruit and retain more linemen," King said. "We wouldn't be doing it unless we thought it would help."

The shortage of linemen is not limited to Lodi, which only has eight of its required 11 journeyman positions filled. Electric utilities everywhere are struggling to attract skilled workers, according to IBEW Communications Director Eric Wolfe. He said as baby boomer linemen reach retirement age, not enough younger workers are going into the industry.

"Lodi is not the only place," he said. "It's an industry-wide problem."

Wolfe said young workers are not lining up to become linemen because the work is demanding and risky.

"Good linemen don't grow on trees," he said. "It involves an apprenticeship of four to five years. It is extremely physical work and it involves risk to life and limb on a daily basis."

About 40 linemen in the United States were killed in 2005, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, giving the job a higher fatality rate than police officers or firefighters. The Lodi utility has not had a fatality in the 17 years Barry Fisher, construction and maintenance supervisor, has worked for it.

Fisher said Lodi has lost four workers in the last five months to other utilities. He said the increase in rubber glove premium will help retain the workers the utility has and attract new ones.

"We're getting pretty short," he said. "(The rubber glove premium increase) brings us up to match other utilities. They were way ahead of us in that."

Pacific Gas and Electric, which became the first utility to offer the premium 15 years ago, has a 12 percent rubber glove premium, according to Wolfe.

King said, because of the dangerous nature of the work, linemen should be compensated accordingly.

Tim Bogetti, left, and Rich Willet load a telephone pole onto a trailer Monday afternoon at the City of Lodi Electric Utility. (Brian Feulner/News-Sentinel)

"If you are willing to walk up and touch that buzz in the line, you should be paid more," he said.

The city's job advertisement Web site states the salary range for a lineman is $5,000 to $6,000 per month.

Wolfe said linemen work with so-called hot sticks to grab wires, but a separate skill is required to don the rubber gloves and grab live wires with one's hands.

"It's a little nervous making because you are working in close proximity with live conductors," he said. "It can be fatal."

Wolfe said the rubber glove premium increase could make it more attractive for linemen to come to Lodi.

"In today's environment where there is a shortage of skilled linemen, anything to increase benefits is a plus," he said. "Whether that's going to be enough, only time will tell."

Contact reporter Matt Brown at mattb@lodinews.com.

Rubber gloves at a glance

Lodi Electric Utility linemen who are willing to don thick insulated rubber gloves to wrangle with live electric wires receive a 10 percent premium.
Workers use Class 2 Salisbury rubber gloves rated to 20,000 volts. The gloves must be inspected before each use for cracks or tears.
Source: Lodi Electric Utility

IBEW Local 280 (Salem OR) Solicits Gifts and Funds for Needy Kids

2006-11-27T11:47:00.000-05:00

Unions set out Christmas boxes

TANGENT — Electrical and contracting unions are setting up dollection boxes for toys, food and clothing for people in need this holiday season.

The campaign, “POWER to the Children,” is taking place in Linn, Lane, Benton, Marion and Deschutes counties

Locally, boxes were being set up this week at:

• Central Electrical Training Center, 33309 Highway 99E, Tangent

• IBEW 280, 32969 Highway 99E, Tangent

• Albany PLATT, 191 34th Ave. S.W., Albany

• Corvallis PLATT, 133 S.W. Hopkins Ave., Corvallis.

The National Electrical Contractors Association also will have a donation box at its Eugene office.

Donations of food (canned and dry) and new, unwrapped clothing and toys will be accepted and donated to the Association of Foster Parents, for foster children in our area.

Checks and money orders should be made out to the Oregon Foster Parents Association and can be mailed to POWER to the Children, c/o IBEW LU 280, P.O. Box 404, Tangent, OR 97389.

IBEW Local 176 (Joliet IL) Hosts Fundraiser for Abused Children

2006-11-27T11:45:00.000-05:00

October 26, 2006

FROM STAFF REPORTS

Event raises money to help abused children

JOLIET -- WJOL morning man Scott Slocum will emcee an evening of to raise money for an important cause: The Will County Children's Advocacy Center.

Tickets are on sale for the center's annual fundraiser slated from 6 to 9 p.m. Nov. 15, at IBEW Local 176's hall, 1100 N.E. Frontage Road. The event includes a dinner and a cash bar at a cost of $100 per person.

The nonprofit center's professionally trained staff interviews children who are the victims of sexual abuse. The children's statements, which are recorded in a nonsuggestive, nonthreatening environment, have been used in the successful prosecutions of literally hundreds of sexual predators in Will, Grundy and Kendall counties over the past decade.

"The Children's Advocacy Center helps protect our children by bringing dangerous sex abusers to justice," said Slocum, who also serves on the center's board of directors. "The team there does important work, but it costs money to provide these services. That's why we're hoping to see a big turnout during the annual fundraiser on Nov. 15."

The center depends on grants, private donations, and fundraising to operate. It costs an average of $705 to interview each child brought to the center.

Raffle tickets that offer exciting prizes are being sold in conjunction with the fundraiser. Those tickets cost $20 each and are available by calling (815) 727-0710.

First prize is a sports package consisting of Chicago Bulls floor seats, NASCAR and IRL racing tickets and more. Second prize is a two-night stay in vacation home in Galena. Third prize is a 32-inch, high-definition LCD television. Fourth prize is an overnight stay and dinner for two at Resorts East Chicago. Fifth prize includes four Rialto Square Theatre tickets to "Clifford, the Big Red Dog." Sixth and seventh prizes are 90-day unlimited memberships at Cardinal Fitness Center. The drawing will be held the night of the event.

Organizers also are seeking sponsorships. Gold sponsorships are available for $1,000 and Silver sponsorships are available for $500.

Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow established The Children's Advocacy Center in 1995. His goal was to assist law enforcement in obtaining statements from sexually abused children that will hold up in court and enable prosecutors to convict sexual predators.

"The Children's Advocacy Center provides services that are critical to the investigation and prosecution of these extremely sensitive cases," said Sue Bloch, the center's executive director. "Financial support from the community is essential if we are to continue providing these services," she said.

To reserve tickets or to become a sponsor, call The Will County Children's Advocacy Center at (815) 727-0710.

Representative John Murtha Speaks at IBEW Local 212 (Cincinnati) Union Hall for Vic Wulsin

2006-10-26T13:10:00.001-04:00

BY HOWARD WILKINSON | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER

U.S. Rep. John Murtha, the Pennsylvania Democrat and decorated war hero whom U.S. Rep. Jean Schmidt called a "coward" on the floor of the U.S. House last year, campaigned in Cincinnati Saturday to help make sure Schmidt's career in Congress is a brief one.

More than 200 supporters of Democratic congressional candidate Victoria Wulsin - union members, military veterans and campaign volunteers - packed the basement of the IBEW Union Hall in East Walnut Hills to hear Murtha, a 32-year veteran of Congress and critic of the Bush administration's Iraq policy, call for a "return to civility" in a Democrat-controlled Congress.

Murtha, a Marine Corps veteran of Vietnam, dismissed Schmidt's remark on the House floor last year that "cowards cut and run, Marines never do."

"She didn't know me from Adam," Murtha told the crowd. "It was embarrassing that she would say those things about me."

But Murtha, who has called for U.S. troops to withdraw to the "periphery" in Iraq and allow Iraqis to settle their own differences, said he is accustomed to having his patriotism questioned by Republicans.

The Bush administration, Murtha said, "refuses to recognize reality."

"These guys are sitting on their fat backsides and sending our young people into harm's way with 70-pound packs on their back and they're saying Iraq is an open-ended process, with no end in sight," Murtha said. "Our young men and women in the military deserve better.''

Saturday morning, Schmidt held her own rally at her Kenwood campaign headquarters with her predecessor, Rob Portman, now the White House budget director.

Several Schmidt supporters - military veterans who served in Vietnam and Iraq - held a small rally of their own across the street from the IBEW Hall, where Wulsin and Murtha were rallying the Democratic troops.

Steve Griffith of Sycamore Township, who was in the first wave of Marines to enter Iraq in April 2003, said the group gathered to show their "disappointment" with Murtha's criticism of the Iraq war.

"What Jean Schmidt said might not have been the nice way to say it, but it needed to be said," Griffith said.

Usually when candidates make speeches before friendly audiences, they end up talking about themselves.

But Saturday, at a Republican rally in Butler County, Betty Montgomery, the Republican candidate for Ohio attorney general, spent much of her time talking about Mike DeWine.

DeWine is in a difficult re-election battle with U.S. Rep. Sherrod Brown, the Lorain Democrat, and there is fear in the Republican party that many of the party's most conservative voters will skip the senate race because they are unhappy with DeWine.

Some of their displeasure comes from the fact that DeWine joined with 13 other Democratic and Republican senators this year to work out a deal that would allow Democrats to filibuster judicial nominations under special circumstances.

DeWine was at the rally and spoke after Montgomery touted his candidacy in her speech.

In effect, Montgomery told Republicans to get over it.

"If you don't vote for Mike DeWine, you are really voting for Sherrod Brown, one of the most liberal congressmen in Washington," Montgomery said.

The Butler County rally was the kickoff for a day-long get-out-the-vote effort, with about 100 volunteers fanning out after the rally to key Republican precincts to knock on doors and distribute campaign literature and yard signs.

"Republicans were somewhat down, but we see the energy coming back," said Scott Owens, executive director of the Butler County Republican Party. "This election is going to be won by the side which is better at getting its voters out."

E-mail hwilkinson@enquirer.com

IBEW Local 103 (Boston, MA) Volunteers prepare for Municipal WI-FI at Quincy Market

2006-10-26T13:10:00.000-04:00

Menino Announces City's First WiFi Pilot Project

Grove Hall, Dudley Square Area to Host First Demonstration;

Mayor Also Lights Two Downtown WiFi Hot Spots as

City's Wireless Initiative Takes Off

Mayor Thomas Menino today announced that the city's wireless initiative will begin work immediately on its first demonstration program, a square-mile network in Roxbury's Grove Hall and Dudley Square neighborhoods. The mayor also today lit two wireless hot spots in Quincy Market and in the North End's Columbus Park, making it possible for business people, tourists, and residents who visit the areas to access the Internet anytime.

"We said we would move quickly and we have," Mayor Menino said. "The Boston Wireless Initiative is up and running."

The Quincy Market hot spot will provide service throughout the marketplace area and will also cover the area around City Hall Plaza. Two companies, Galaxy Internet Services and SkyPilot, donated the service and equipment. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 103 (IBEW) donated time and labor for the radio installation. The Columbus Park hot spot is the result of a collaboration among Verizon, Cisco, Inc., the Boston Redevelopment Authority, and the Boston Parks Department.

"The downtown locations will help boost economic growth by making the city an even more attractive place to work and visit," Mayor Menino said. "But the Grove Hall and Dudley Square initiative - which is really a network, not just a hot spot - sends a clear message to the neighborhoods that bringing service to everyone is our number one priority."

In its report last summer, the mayor's Wireless Task Force found that only 43 percent of Boston residents have high-speed Internet service and city officials estimate that access in less affluent areas like Grove Hall is far below that percentage. What's more, as many as 80 percent of Boston Public Schools students do not have access at home.

In order to bridge this so-called "digital divide" while at the same time jump-starting economic growth, the task force recommended a unique model that relies on a non-profit entity to build the citywide wireless system. The non-profit will build a wholesale network open to any Internet Service Provider, thus creating a hotbed for competition and innovation. Prices for the service are expected to be as low as $10 - $15 a month.

According to Menino, the Roxbury demonstration project will cover about one square mile and will reach about 5000 households. The service, which will be 25 times faster than dial-up, will initially be offered free but eventually will move to the fee-based structure envisioned by the task force.

Four companies have agreed to donate time and service to the Grove Hall and Dudley Square project: BelAir Networks will provide Wi-Fi mesh radio nodes, antennae and other equipment; MetroNext, Inc. will provide the network's Internet backhaul connection; GigaBeam Corp. will provide ultra high-speed radio equipment to facilitate the transmittal of the Internet backhaul; and Charys will install and operate the network. In addition, Galaxy and US Internet have agreed to be retail ISPs for the demonstration project.

"Building an actual neighborhood network so quickly would not have been possible without the support of these companies and Local 103," said Pam Reeve, a former software executive who was tapped by Menino in July to serve as interim chief executive of the wireless initiative. Reeve said installation of the equipment is expected to begin later this year.

Menino was joined at the formal ceremony at Quincy Market by Reeve, City officials, representatives of the companies working on both projects, community representatives from the Grove Hall Dudley Square areas, and students from TechBoston Academy and the Trotter Elementary School in Grove Hall.

Among the Grove Hall area community members leaders who joined Mayor Menino were Reverend Greg Groover from Charles AME Church; Darnell William, from the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts; Sister Virginia Morrison, Executive Director of the Grove Hall Neighborhood Development Corporation; Jeanne Pinado, Executive Director of Madison Park Development Corporation; Frederica Williams, Executive Director of the Whittier Health Center; Jeanne DuBois, Executive Director of the Dorchester Bay Economic Development Corporation; Jose Duran, Executive Director of the Hispanic Office for Planning and Evaluation (HOPE); Ricardo Neal, Executive Director of Freedom House; Claudia Smith-Reid, Executive Director of the Roxbury Multi Service Center; Vanessa Calderon, Executive Director of Inquilinos Boriquas en Accion (IBA); and Curtis Henderson, President of the Timothy Smith Network.

For more information about Boston's Wireless Initiative, visit www.cityofboston.gov/wireless.

Contact: Mayor's Press Office, 617-635-4461

IBEW Local 103 (Boston, MA) Volunteers prepare for Municipal WI-FI at Quincy Market

2006-10-26T13:03:00.000-04:00

Menino Announces City's First WiFi Pilot Project

Grove Hall, Dudley Square Area to Host First Demonstration;

Mayor Also Lights Two Downtown WiFi Hot Spots as

City's Wireless Initiative Takes Off

"We said we would move quickly and we have," Mayor Menino said. "The Boston Wireless Initiative is up and running."

For more information about Boston's Wireless Initiative, visit www.cityofboston.gov/wireless.

Contact: Mayor's Press Office, 617-635-4461

IBEW Local 164 (Jersey City NJ) Gives Hope to 9th Ward (New Orleans) Homeowners

2006-10-26T12:58:00.000-04:00

IBEW Local 164 gives hope to 9th Ward homeowners
From The Louisiana Weekly
October 16, 2006
talkback

The images from New Orleans, one year after Hurricane Katrina's devastation, are familiar - houses remain uninhabitable, residents are living in trailers, and many families are separated. The lack of recovery in this region, and the historic 9th Ward in particular, prompted the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 164, based in Paramus, N.J. to partner with Rebuilding Together Bergen County to support REBUILD 1000!, a national effort to rehabilitate 1,000 Gulf Coast houses affected by last year's storms.

Rebuilding Together Bergen County dispatched a total of 19 volunteers, including five fully certified Local 164 electricians, to the area. During the six-day period, the skilled craftsmen and women, as well as lay workers, worked on four homes. Local 164's electrical workers completed a comprehensive rewiring of two homes, corrective wiring in one home, as well as the restoration of complete electrical service to all four residences.

"Pictures of the devastation that remains in the 9th Ward do not represent the dire reality these people are facing on a daily basis," said Carl Fry of Wyckoff, N.J., an electrical project manager and member of the Board of Directors of Rebuilding Bergen County, who volunteered. "From the odor of mold and water damage, to the lack of industry and jobs, it seems dismal. But there is hope. And where there is hope, there is a strong desire to move forward."

For Major Lawrence T. Weathersby, Sr., of the New Orleans Police Department, the Rebuilding Together team turned hope into reality. Weathersby wanted to help his father, whose home in the lower 9th Ward was completely devastated by Hurricane Katrina, restore the home for occupancy.

"This house is where I grew up, and it holds a lot of memories," he explained. "I am very grateful to our new friends from New Jersey for all they did to help us and our neighbors."

Added Barry Hammond, who spearheads Local 164's community outreach projects at home in Bergen, Hudson and Essex counties, "There is still so much that needs to be done to help make life better for our southern neighbors. This rebuilding effort requires a long-term commitment by everyone - from every level of government to the citizens throughout the United States. I am glad I am able to make a difference through my craft."

In addition to donating skills and materials to the rebuilding effort, Local 164 donated $10,000 to the Brotherhood's Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund immediately following the storm. Funds provided short-and long-term assistance to union members and other residents who lost homes and jobs as a result of the storm.

"Our hearts continue to go out to those who have suffered so much in this calamity," said Richard Dressel, business manager for IBEW Local 164. "I am so proud of our member volunteers for generously giving of themselves to provide vital services to those who are still in need of safe, functional electricity."

REBUILD 1000! was launched through a cooperative partnership between Rebuilding Together, America's largest volunteer-based organization committed to improving homes and lives for low-income homeowners, and lead sponsor Countrywide Financial Corporation. Additional sponsors of the effort include The Home Depot, American Petroleum Institute, Fannie Mae and the New Orleans Saints.

"Together with our national organization, Rebuilding Together Bergen County has an opportunity, along with supporting organizations like IBEW Local 164, to reach out and restore Gulf region homes to safe, warm and familiar surroundings," said Gretchen Viggiano, executive director. "It is our mission to serve low-income, elderly homeowners and individuals with disabilities, and families with children right here in Bergen County and wherever we are needed."

IBEW Local 134 (Chicago) Business Manager Retires

2006-10-26T12:52:00.000-04:00

Letter from Business Manager/Financial Secretary Tim Fol
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
As you probably heard, on Wednesday, October 11th, our Business Manager, Mike Fitzgerald submitted his resignation to the Local 134 Executive Board, effective immediately. His letter, which the Board reluctantly accepted, read "...because of personal reasons and family matters that require my full attention, I will be resigning my position of Business Manager/Financial Secretary..." I know that this was a very difficult thing for Mike to do, knowing how much he cares for each and every member of this union and for the union's welfare and future. But after dedicating himself for the past eleven years to those ends, he felt that he could not fulfill his family responsibilities and do proper justice to the needs of the membership. It was a courageous decision and one that all of us should give the respect it deserves. I am glad to tell you that Mike will be staying on as General Counsel/Senior Administrative Assistant so that we can continue to draw upon his expertise and commitment.

As per the Constitution of the IBEW, the Executive Board is required to select a replacement. On Wednesday, they fulfilled that requirement. I will be serving the remainder of Mike’s term which expires in June of 2007. Rich Rioux was selected to finish my term as President, and Frank Cunningham will be filling Rich’s position as Recording Secretary. Combined, we have more than a century as members of Local 134.

We are dedicated to following the high standards of leadership that Mike Fitzgerald set during his tenure at the helm of this local. While the names on the doors may have changed, the priorities of the officers of Local 134 have not. Our goal, and that of Vice-President Russ Ponder and Treasurer Gary Niederkorn, remains doing the very best job that can be done for our members and their families. Working together, all of us can make that happen and Local 134 will continue to be an example and inspiration for IBEW locals everywhere. I pledge to do everything in my power to keep this union strong and moving forward.
In Brotherhood,Tim Foley
Business Manager/Financial Secretary

RIP, LU 510 (Houghton, MI) Brother Ron Norkal (72)

2006-10-26T12:43:00.001-04:00

Ronald R. ‘Ron’ Norkol
HANCOCK CANAL — Ronald R. “Ron” Norkol, 72, a resident of the Hancock Canal area, died on Saturday, October 21, 2006, at his home following a courageous battle with cancer.

He was born in Hancock on January 19, 1934, a son of Raymond and Amelia (Mattila) Norkol. He attended the Hancock schools and was a 1952 graduate of the Hancock Central High School.

Ron was employed as a journeyman electrician and foreman. He started work as an electrician in 1956, and in 1958 joined the IBEW Local 510. He was also a member of Local 19 and Local 219. He retired in 1994, after over 48 years of employment with various companies including West Side Electric of Houghton, MJ Electric of Iron Mountain and Paul Electric of Iron Mountain. Ron loved his trade and looked forward to going to work. He missed his work friends after his retirement.

Ron was first married to Ann Marie Pernaski. He later married Mary C. Amato Townsend.

Ron attended Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Hancock.

He was a member of the former Hillside Athletic Club. Ron had a love for hockey and was active for many years with various organizations including playing hockey with the Portage Lake Pioneers and coaching Copper Country Jr. Hockey. He also played hockey with the Copper Country Oldtimers until the age of 53, and later looked forward to skating with the Wednesday afternoon Oldtimers at the Houghton County Arena.

Ron was an avid Detroit Red Wings fan. He also loved to fish and enjoyed both stream and lake fishing.

He was a well-known and respected person in the community and will be missed dearly by his family and many, many friends.

Ron was preceded in death by his parents.

Surviving are his wife, Mary; his children and grandchildren, John and Jennifer Norkol of Hancock and their sons, Justin and Brandon, Steve and Kathy Norkol of Hancock and their son, Jacob, Steve and Mary Townsend of Cottage Gtove, Minn. and their daughters, Stephanie and Teresa, Frank and Barbara Townsend of Hancock and their children, Ryan, Jacob and Haley, Brian Townsend and his fiancee, Christine Koivu of Dollar Bay and their children, Breanne, David, Daniel, Nicholas, Caleb and Shayla, and Daniel Townsend of Spread Eagle, Wis; two brothers, Robert and Violet Norkol and Alden “Hank” and Dorothy Norkol of Hancock Township; and his very loved nieces, nephews and cousins.

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. on Thursday, October 26, 2006 at the Jukuri-Antila Funeral Home in Hancock with Rev. Susan Odegard and Rev. Jimalee Jones to officiate. Visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m. on Wednesday at the funeral home.

Because of Ron’s passion for hockey and his many years of involvement with the Houghton County Arena, his family suggests memorial tributes to be designated in his memory to the Houghton County Arena Building Improvement Fund, 1331 Anthony Street, Hancock, MI 49930.

Arrangements are being handled by Antila Funeral Service, Inc. Online condolences may be expressed to the family at antilafuneral.com.

The boys from the shack will never forget Van Zant. “Thanks for the memories.”

Sam Folds Takes IBEW Bass Tournament at Lake George

2006-10-26T12:43:00.000-04:00

From Jim Sutton's Fishing Report on Jacksonville.com
In the IBEW bass tournament on Lake George, Sam Folds took first place with 24.4 pounds. David and Mitch Green took second with 11.4 pounds and the big fish at 7.4 pounds. Ken and Steve Hilyard finished in third place with 10.1 pounds.

Sam Folds Takes IBEW Bass Tournament at Lake George

2006-10-26T12:40:00.000-04:00

Hillary Clinton Addresses IBEW Local 164 Crowd

2006-10-23T16:44:00.000-04:00

Posted on Mon, Oct. 23, 2006

Bergen County: Battle zone

By Cynthia Burton
Inquirer Trenton Bureau

PARAMUS, N.J. - Sen. Hillary Clinton took the stage to hoots and applause yesterday at a union hall here in Bergen County - the ultimate battleground in New Jersey's ferocious race for U.S. Senate and the one contest in the country where a Democratic incumbent is in trouble.

Speaking to a crowd of 650 Democratic activists at IBEW Local 164, Clinton said Washington "has a dangerous combination of arrogance and incompetence" and urged them to help get out the vote on Election Day.

"Will you work for the next two weeks, for the next two days, to elect Bob Menendez senator?" she asked. "A lot of people only vote in the presidential election. This is a midterm election. We need them to vote in this election."

Clinton was speaking in Bergen County - the bellwether county of New Jersey.

It's particularly important for Republicans in a close race. Christie Whitman, the last Republican to win statewide office, took the county by 30,000 votes in her narrow reelection victory in 1997.

Since the earliest days of his campaign to unseat Bob Menendez, Republican nominee Thomas H. Kean Jr. has had his eyes on Bergen County. It's the site of his North Jersey headquarters, the place where cable-television viewers have been watching Kean ads for months - well before he began running ads on broadcast television on Oct. 3 - and where he took his first shot at Menendez.

The numbers explain the attention.

Bergen County, the most populous county in New Jersey, is a "microcosm of the state. It has incredible affluence, racial diversity and poverty. It really is the bellwether of the state," said the county Democratic chairman, Joe Ferriero.

It rings up a high volume of votes for both parties, and although it has been handing victory to Democrats lately, it's where any major-party candidate can rely on running 30,000 to 50,000 votes ahead of the loser. The margin of victory alone is close to the total number of voters who turned out for both parties in Cumberland and Salem Counties for last year's governor's race.

So as Democrats were setting up the Hillary Clinton visit, Kean operatives were poring over spreadsheets laden with voter turnout and contact data until 3 a.m. on a regular basis.

"Kean's operation in Bergen County is by far the most impressive ground operation I've seen from a Republican campaign in New Jersey," said Kevin Collins, Bergen County Republican director.

Republicans plan to march out their 72-hour operation - where likely Republican voters are contacted with telephone calls, mail and door knocks in the 72-hour period before the Nov. 7 election. That operation helped President Bush win in several states other than New Jersey in 2004.

Still, Democrats have a polished field operation, which a senior party strategist calls one of the best in the United States.

That machine pulled out voters from the cities and suburbs for a long winning streak that included Gov. Jim McGreevey, U.S. Sen. Robert Torricelli, U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine, and Corzine, a second time, for governor. In each instance, though, the Democratic base of minorities and people of European ethnicity was asked to vote for a candidate with an Irish or Italian surname or in Corzine's case, a candidate whose last name appeared Italian.

In this race, for the first time in state history, Democrats are asking their base to support a Hispanic candidate. Menendez is playing that advantage and has ads running on Spanish-language television and radio stations.

Because a minority candidate has never run statewide, analysts suggest that Menendez is going to need to offset potentially lower turnouts in the suburbs.

So, Democrats are pounding hard on the richest areas, Hudson and Essex Counties, for them. Historically, they've pulled out a combined 200,000 votes for statewide candidates in recent elections in those counties and trounced the GOP by as much as 3-1. Some Democrats worry about growing internal conflicts in Menendez's home base of Hudson County, where insurgents plan to go after old-guard stalwarts State Sens. Bernard Kenny and Joseph Doria, who also is the mayor of Bayonne.

Middlesex County, where Democrats beat Republicans by between 30,000 and 60,000 votes in the last four statewide races, is a Democratic stronghold under stress. Its most powerful political figure, former Senate President John A. Lynch, pleaded guilty to corruption and tax-evasion charges last month, leaving the party organization wounded.

Edison, in Middlesex County, was the site of yesterday's Kean campaign rally with Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.).

And some worry about history: The Democratic base areas gave big votes to Kean's father, the former governor. In 1985, the elder Kean won every town in New Jersey except for tiny Roosevelt in Monmouth County. He even won Newark's central ward. He did well with African American and Jewish voters, generally reliable Democrats. The former governor has taken to the campaign trail on his son's behalf with an event in North Jersey last week and one scheduled for South Jersey this week.

Republicans are banking on Morris, Monmouth and Ocean Counties - where they have historically pulled a combined 200,000 votes.

Split counties such as Union, Passaic and Bergen are battlegrounds. Union County Democrats rely on turnouts from Elizabeth, Linden and Rahway and hold their breath as votes come in from the "ridge" communities of Westfield, Kean's hometown, and Summit.

In those split areas, like the rest of the state, both parties are struggling with a lack of enthusiasm among voters. Some Republicans aren't happy with the war in Iraq and Bush; some Democrats don't know Menendez or are worried about the barrage of attacks against him over ethics issues. So while they're fighting over Bergen, they're trying hard to stir up their base votes.

Democrats in Camden County are sending out crews every day to drop literature. On weekends, unions take over. Robo calls from Hillary Clinton will have a Burlington County specific message to the growing number of voters who are choosing Democratic candidates. In a pitch to voters who are most likely to pull the party lever on Election Day, signs line main thoroughfares in Newark, Jersey City, Camden and other urban communities saying "Stop Bush, Vote Nov. 7."

To find more news and information about New Jersey politics, go to http://philly.com/njvoters

Contact staff writer Cynthia Burton at 856-779-3858 or cburton@phillynews.com.

RIP, LU 551 Brother Hershel "Sonny" Sheffield, Sr @ age 76

2006-10-23T16:41:00.000-04:00

Hershel Bray (Sonny) Sheffield Sr., 76, of Valdosta died Thursday, Oct. 19, 2006, at South Georgia Medical Center after a lengthy battle with cancer.

He was born on March 10, 1930, in Clyattville and was the son of the late Frank L. Sheffield and Ruth Hunter Sheffield Irvin. Mr. Sheffield was an electrician and a member of the Local 511 IBEW for more than 40 years. He served three years in the U.S. Air Force and was a member of the Clyattville United Methodist Church.

Survivors include his wife, Tilda Carter Sheffield of Valdosta; two daughters and sons-in-law, Sandra and Richard Futch of Hahira, Robin and Jeff Turner of Lake Park; three sons and two daughters-in-law, Hershel Jr. and Syd Sheffield of Valdosta, Mike and Cheryl Sheffield of Lake Park, Brian Sheffield of Valdosta; sister and brother-in-law, Faye and Jackie Strickland of Clyattville; two brothers and sisters-in- law, Robert and Janie Sheffield of Valdosta, Joe and Dot Irvin of Lake Park; his grandchildren and their spouses, Mandi and Tommy Kirk, Travis Futch, Kelly and John Yawn, Katie Sheffield, Sabrina Mortonson, Erica Mortonson, Michael and Cris Sheffield, Carli Sheffield and Nickie Love; two great-grandchildren, Savannah Fausz and Callie Fausz; sisters-in-law and brothers-in-law, Jenny and Roy Monteith of Stuart, Fla., Ann and Walt Taylor of Quitman, Connie Harkins of Valdosta.

$50 Million a Year Electrical Firm Moves to Madison

2006-08-10T14:02:00.000-04:00

Janesville electrical firm to move to Madison
MON., JUL 31, 2006 - 11:52 PM
JUDY NEWMAN jdnewman@madison.com
A Janesville electrical contracting firm with 300 employees is moving its headquarters to Madison.

Westphal & Co. will build a $3 million, 25,000-square-foot building on Marsh Court, just down the road from a small office it's had in the World Dairy Center on the Southeast Side.

Established in 1931, 75 years ago, the family-owned Westphal & Co. operates in Wisconsin and Iowa, said John Westphal, president and grandson of company founder Fred H. Westphal.

"The majority of our work in the state of Wisconsin is in the Madison area, not the Janesville area," Westphal said. By locating in Madison, "we can be a lot closer to our customers, to our work."

The firm's projects include the new Verona campus for medical records technology developer Epic Systems and the recent renovation at Camp Randall stadium.

About 40 employees will work at the headquarters building. Most will come from Westphal's current locations in Madison and Janesville; only one or two will be new hires.

The bulk of the company's workers are electricians who are members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

Westphal said it's easier to recruit professional staff to work in Madison than in Janesville. He also said the Dane County economy is relatively strong and stable.

"It isn't bulletproof but it does have some things that are built into it that are not built into Stoughton or Janesville or Edgerton or DeForest," Westphal said. "Those are things that we can rely a little bit more on than if General Motors is going to stay open in Janesville."

But the Madison area is also more costly than Janesville; Westphal said a $130,000 tax incremental financing loan from the city of Madison was a critical factor in his decision to move.

"We would not have done this had the city not provided us with the TIF funds," he said. "We looked at properties from Janesville on up along the I-90 corridor, including Edgerton and Stoughton, and Madison is significantly more expensive. We would not have been able to afford this."

The no-interest loan will be paid back to the city in the form of higher property taxes resulting from the improvements.

Westphal & Co. has annual revenues "in the $50 million range," Westphal said, but revenues have been flat for the past couple of years. He said construction has been slow in the Janesville and Dubuque, Iowa, areas, where the company will retain offices.

IBEW Local 1600 Settles with PPL

2006-08-10T14:01:00.000-04:00

Union ratifies four-year contract with PPL Corp.

Posted: 7/29/2006 4:35:45 AM

ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) - Members of Local 1600 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers have ratified a new, four-year labor contract with P-P-L Corporation.

The contract provides wage increases of 3.35% in each of the first two years, and increases of 3.45% and 3.5% in the last two years. Other changes include the ability of union workers to receive annual incentive pay and improvements in retirement benefits. The contract also includes provisions for health care and work rule changes.

Local 1600 represents about 3500 P-P-L employees in Pennsylvania.

The previous four-year labor agreement expired on May 7th. Union workers agreed to continue working until a new agreement was ratified.

---

Information from: Jim Diehl/WGRC-FM, http://www.wgrc.com

©2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

RIP, IBEW Lineman, Brother Edward Fenn

2006-08-10T13:56:00.000-04:00

>Edward Raymond Fenn Sr.
March 26, 1926 — Aug. 2, 2006

Edward Raymond Fenn Sr., 80, of Albany passed away Wednesday at Samaritan Albany General Hospital, surrounded by loved ones.
He was born in Nyssa, the fifth of 10 children to Stanley Warren and Alta Harris Fenn.
He served in the Navy during World War II as a gunner on the U.S.S. Thomas Augustus, which was struck by a kamikaze bomber on Oct. 24, 1944, at San Pedro Bay, Leyte Gulf.

After his service discharge in 1946, he met and wed Lena Thelma Johannessen in Madras on Dec. 11, 1948. The couple moved to Albany in 1951, whereupon he became an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) union member and received his journeyman lineman status soon after. He remained a member in good standing for 55 years.

The couple raised their three children, daughters Mary and Debbie and son Edward, in Albany. After the children were raised, he and his wife followed construction jobs across the western United States until his retirement in 1991.

In addition to his career as a lineman, he invested in, improved, maintained and managed real estate in various locations across Oregon, including houses in Coos Bay and Albany.

He was most well remembered for his incredible work ethic, infectious sense of humor and unlimited capacity for caring and kindness towards others. He has been the patriarch and unfaltering pillar of his immediate family and an involved and active member of his very large extended family, which includes relatives in Idaho, Nevada and North Carolina.

He enjoyed puzzles, restoring old furniture and ornaments and traveling, especially the occasional jaunt to Reno or Las Vegas.

He is survived by his wife of 58 years, Lena; children and their spouses Mary and Fred Gray, Edward and Gladys Fenn, and Debra Fenn-Whipps; brother Ora Fenn of Albany; sister Lara Jensen of Hillsboro; nine grandchildren; and 21 great-grandchildren.

Visitation will be from noon to 3 p.m. Sunday at Fisher Funeral Home. A graveside service will be at 2 p.m. Monday at Waverly Cemetery. Contributions may be made to the American Lung Association in care of Fisher Funeral Home, 306 Washington St. S.W., Albany, OR 97321 (www.fisherfuneralhome.com).

IBEW Member Andy Sanchez to take place of Jim DeHoff at Kansas AFL

2006-08-10T13:52:00.000-04:00

Posted on Tue, Aug. 08, 2006

LABOR SCENE

Longtime Kansas labor chief retiring

By RANDOLPH HEASTER
Columnist

DeHoff

After nearly 20 years as leader of the Kansas AFL-CIO, Jim DeHoff is retiring at the end of the month.

DeHoff will be succeeded as executive secretary-treasurer of Kansas AFL-CIO by Andy Sanchez of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 226 in Topeka.

DeHoff, 61, is concluding a career in the labor movement that began in 1964. Before becoming the state’s top union official in Topeka, he was business manager of Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 441 for 13 years.

In addition to lobbying the state Legislature in Topeka, DeHoff said he has been busy for the last year trying to bring the unions that broke away from the AFL-CIO back into the fold at the state level. Several big unions, including the Service Employees International Union and the Teamsters, left the national AFL-CIO last year to form their own labor organization, called Change to Win.

In Kansas, the SEIU has rejoined the state AFL-CIO, according to DeHoff. He added that the Laborers union, which also joined Change to Win, also works closely with Kansas AFL-CIO.

“He’s carried our water as much as anyone in labor since I’ve been around,” said Rick Greeno of the Construction & General Laborers Local 1290 in Kansas City, Kan., at a recent meeting of union and media representatives in Kansas City.

DeHoff admits he’s departing during a period that has been difficult for organized labor.

“We’ve had our ups and downs, and we’ve had to work harder than before to maintain the benefits we’ve gained,” he said. “There also has been some bad legislation that hurts families in this state. But nevertheless, we’ve maintained a pretty good standard for working people, and we’ve made some pretty good gains through the years.”

DeHoff said Sanchez, his successor, has been a lobbyist for the state employees of Kansas for the last eight years, making him no stranger to the inner workings of the state legislature.

DeHoff said the key for unions in the future is to resolve the differences that created last year’s split.

“I’m sure the labor movement will survive, but right now it’s about getting everybody back together again,” he said.

Labor certificates

The Institute for Labor Studies is offering courses at the University of Missouri-Kansas City in the fall semester.

The following two courses apply as credit toward a labor studies certificate: “Union Leadership and Administration” will take place from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on alternate Saturdays, beginning Sept. 9; and “Labor in Society and Politics” will be offered on Wednesdays from 7 to 10 p.m., beginning Aug. 23.

“Spanish for Union Organizers” also is available as a noncredit course on Thursdays from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. starting Aug. 24.

A new daytime economics class, “Introduction to Labor Studies,” will be offered on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12:30 p.m. to 1:45 p.m., starting Aug. 22.

Fees for undergraduates are $801.05 for one course and $1,572.11 for two courses. The fees for noncredit participants are one-half the undergraduate rate. For more information, call (816) 235-1470.

To reach Randolph Heaster, call (816) 234-4746 or send e-mail to rheaster@kcstar.com.

Lansing To Raise Steam Prices?

2006-08-10T13:45:00.000-04:00

This is a printer friendly version of an article from Lansing State Journal.

Published August 10, 2006
BWL chair opposing 65% steam rate hike
City Council, utility's board to weigh increase
By Tom Lambert
Lansing State Journal
Lansing's Board of Water and Light is struggling with two options to balance its budget this year: Hit downtown businesses with a hefty boost to their steam bill or increase health care costs to employees and retirees.
Neither option is popular, and the Lansing City Council will be seeking answers from the BWL at a meeting today.
The utility's commissioners have proposed to increase steam rates - mostly affecting downtown businesses - by 65 percent. Businesses voiced their displeasure about that option at a hearing earlier this month. A final vote will come at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.
To help solve its financial woes, BWL also looks to increase prices for its 98,000 electricity customers by 1.5 percent. The increases would be effective Sept. 1.
Robin Smith, chairwoman of the utility's board of commissioners, said she doesn't support the 65 percent steam increase.
"But there was no middle ground given to us by management - it was either cut health care costs or increase steam rates," said Smith, who said she probably would recuse herself from Tuesday's vote since she is a trustee at Lansing Community College - one of BWL's largest steam customers. "I don't think we should increase health care premiums for our employees and retirees. We need to come up with another option."
BWL General Manager Sanford Novick, whose contract expires Aug. 18, said he proposed to increase steam rates 35 percent, but health care premiums for retirees and employees would have to be raised.
"We made our recommendations, and they decided against them," Novick said. "The commissioners came up with a different scenario."
BWL management proposed up to a 25 percent increase in health care premiums to employees and a 5 percent boost to retirees.
Retirees are fully covered and employees receive 95 percent of their health care.
BWL management and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers 352, which represents 414 BWL employees, are expected to start contract negotiations soon. The current pact expires Oct. 31.
Many downtown business owners are upset at the proposed steam increase, with several showing up at the BWL's recent public hearing.
Ron Boji, who owns several downtown buildings, would take a severe financial hit if the increase goes through, said John Truscott, a local public relations executive representing Boji. The Boji Tower would see a $120,000 increase in its annual steam bill.
"That would just be passed along to the tenants," he said. "Then you start impacting if people stay downtown or not."

Contact Tom Lambert at 377-1063 or tlambert@lsj.com.

IBEW Member Files Complaint Against "Killer Coke"

2006-08-10T13:27:00.000-04:00

From the Boston Globe August 10, 2006

NEW ENGLAND IN BRIEF

Unions file complaint against Killer Coke

August 10, 2006

Five labor union leaders filed a complaint yesterday against Killer Coke, a group campaigning to highlight gubernatorial candidate Deval Patrick's role as a Coca-Cola executive. In a letter to state campaign finance officials, the unions say Killer Coke violated state campaign finance laws by failing to register as a political action committee or disclose finances. The unions also raised concern that the group could be working in conjunction with or receiving support from other gubernatorial candidates. The letter's cosigners include Richard Stutman of the Boston Teachers Union, Tim Cayton and George Noel of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Michael Grunko of the Service Employees International Union, and Gary Sullivan of the Utility Workers Union of America.

LA Water Employees Seek to do as well as IBEW

2006-08-10T13:26:00.000-04:00

http://www.latimes.com/services/site/premium/access-registered.intercept

From the Los Angeles Times

DWP's Security Officers Press L.A. Mayor for Raises

DWP security officers press Villaraigosa for the same hefty hikes their colleagues got.

By Patrick McGreevy
Times Staff Writer

August 9, 2006

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa faced pressure Tuesday to give security officers at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power the same controversial pay raises given to more than 9,000 other agency workers.

The mayor sidestepped the matter, at least temporarily, by asking the DWP general manager to try to negotiate a resolution.

The mayor did not oppose the City Council's decision in September of last year to approve a contract with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 18, that granted raises to most DWP employees of at least 19% and up to 31% over five years.

He said at the time that he would not have negotiated the same raises, but that he felt it was unfair to block an agreement struck before he became mayor that July.

Now, 171 DWP security officers, who are represented by the Service Employees International Union, Local 347, are demanding the same contract, putting Villaraigosa on the hot seat.

With more than a dozen of the security officers waiting outside, Villaraigosa on Tuesday chaired a closed-door meeting of the city's Executive Employee Relations Committee, which sets negotiating positions.

During the meeting, the union representing security officers was allowed to press its case for parity with other DWP workers.

Union spokesman Jeff Rogers said the committee asked DWP General Manager Ron Deaton to meet with the union and try to work out the differences.

A spokesman for Villaraigosa declined to comment on details of the negotiations, citing confidentiality policies.

"However," mayoral spokesman Joe Ramallo said, "the mayor is committed to reaching an agreement that is fair to both employees and ratepayers, and which reflects the significant fiscal challenges facing the city."

Rogers said the union, which was working under a contract that expired more than a year ago, plans to meet with Deaton in the next week to try to resolve the dispute.

"We are hopeful," Rogers said.

SW Ohio IBEW Members Help Less Fortunate

2006-08-10T13:21:00.000-04:00

ADAMS COUNTY TRAILER RENOVATION...

This past Saturday, the 5th, Vic joined Paul Hackett, the Adams County Democrats, and members of the Carpenters Local 2 and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers to rehabilitate a trailer for a disadvantaged family in Seaman, Adams County. Vic scrubbed the kitchen clean and helped cut dry wall, while a dozen of our Wulsin volunteers lent a helping hand. The skilled workers, including Hackett, provided their construction expertise.

The volunteer effort embodied some of the best qualities that we possess as Americans and Ohioans: hard work, compassion, and the ability to get the job done and deliver real results. We set out to improve the life of a disadvantaged family, and we did. Thanks to all the volunteers who lent their hard work and energy! Check out our blog entry for pictures, video, and more details!!

Distributed as part of the campaign of Dr. Victoria Wulsin who is opposing "Mean Jean" Schmidt for the Second Ohio Congressional Seat

IBEW Local 1985 Looks to Buy Hoover Plant from Maytag

2006-05-01T10:54:00.000-04:00

Posted on Sat, Apr. 22, 2006

EMPLOYEE OWNERSHIP NO LONGER UNUSUAL IDEA
Worker-owners aren't alone
Hundreds at 20th annual conference in Fairlawn
By Jim Mackinnon
Beacon Journal business writer

In the 1970s, getting people to consider converting a company to employee ownership was a hard sell.

No more.

Converting businesses to employee ownership, where employees typically own 30 percent to all of a company, is gaining popularity, said Corey Rosen, executive director and co-founder of the California-based National Center for Employee Ownership.

The vast majority of the employee-owned firms start out as financially healthy businesses, often with aging owners who want to retire and are looking for a buyer, Rosen and others told about 320 people at a conference Friday in Fairlawn.

Employee ownership often includes special tax breaks that make the concept attractive to sellers as well as buyers.

While there were as many as 7,000 employee stock ownership plans, or ESOPs, in the United States in 1986, now there are 11,000 ESOPs and as many as 30 million employee-owners, Rosen said.

``It's no longer a weird idea,'' he said.

Rosen was one of two keynote speakers at the 20th annual Ohio Employee Ownership Conference, held at the Hilton Akron/Fairlawn and sponsored by the Ohio Employee Ownership Center at Kent State University. The other speaker was Steve Sheppard, former chief executive officer of employee-owned furniture company Foldcraft in Minnesota.

``Participation is a universal need,'' said Sheppard, who now heads the Winds of Peace Foundation, which makes grants and micro-loans to the poor in Nicaragua.

But employee-owned companies also need profits, cash flow and the other things that are the lifeblood of any business, he said.

Glenn Leppo, 42-year-old president of Leppo Equipment in Tallmadge, was among the conference attendees researching employee ownership. His family-owned construction and building-related business, founded in 1945 by his grandfather, has expanded from one to six stores in the past 12 years and now has 90 employees, he said.

``At this point, we're still in the investigative stage,'' Leppo said. He came to the conference to speak to people in already established employee-owned companies about how they make it work, he said.

Leppo said he is interested in the possibility of employee ownership mainly because of the philosophical component: ``that the employees share in the success.''

At one panel discussion, Jim Repace, president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1985 at the Hoover Co. in North Canton, said his 800-member local began exploring employee-ownership of Hoover in 2005. That decision came after Hoover's struggling former corporate parent, Maytag Corp., said it could close the plant. Whirlpool Inc., which bought Maytag earlier this year, has said it may retain Hoover or sell it.

If Whirlpool sells Hoover, the union wants to create an ESOP and buy the company to save jobs, Repace said.

``We don't know what Whirlpool's intentions are. We don't feel Whirlpool wants to be in the floor-care business,'' he said. The union's consultants may finish their feasibility study in the next couple of weeks, he said.

While the IBEW is looking to create an ESOP to save jobs, at least 60 percent of ESOPs nationwide are created because the business owner is retiring, said John Logue, director of the Ohio Employee Ownership Center. Fewer than 10 percent of ESOPs are created as a job-saving device, he said.

(The Newspaper Guild, which represents some Knight Ridder Inc.employees, including some at the Beacon Journal, is also researching an ESOP involving the Beacon Journal and up to 11 other of Knight Ridder's newspapers.)

ESOPs aren't the only form of employee ownership.

Conference organizers honored a small Brimfield Township company, Select Machine Inc., for becoming the first employee-owned cooperative in the nation earlier this year. A cooperative is relatively inexpensive, but it has fewer tax advantages than an ESOP.

The firm, which makes machined products and equipment, has nine employees, making it financially impractical to become an ESOP, which is better suited for larger companies. The Kent State employee ownership center said Select Machine is now a new model for employee ownership in companies with fewer than 25 employees.

About 320 people registered for the conference.

The bulk of attendees, about 200, were nonmanagerial employees of employee-owned businesses, Logue said. Others at the conference included representatives of about a dozen companies whose owners are quietly researching employee ownership, he said.

Jim Mackinnon can be reached at 330-996-3544 or jmackinnon@thebeaconjournal.com

West Franfort (IL) IBEW Members Provide Seed Money for Roan Center (Shelter)

2006-05-01T10:50:00.000-04:00

News Monday, May 01, 2006
Sara Bond: Miracles are occurring every day for the new Roan Center
By Mona Sandefur - Staff writer
Published: Monday, April 24, 2006 8:34 AM CDT

WEST FRANKFORT - Positive energy flowed Thursday night, as Roan Center board members met to discuss plans for future fund-raisers. Committee meetings didn't quite get off the ground, as members awaited the arrival of organizers Sara Bond and Shawn Bond, and secretary Sandy Davis.

The board meeting, conducted by Bruce Fasol, began with a report from finance committee chairman Nancy Bundy, who reported recent contributions received for renovation of the Women's Center and Night's Shield emergency shelter for women and children.

“The latest donations total $5,750,” Bundy said. “We received a $5,000 contribution from the First Baptist Church in West Frankfort, a couple of $100 contributions, and $250 from the West Frankfort Chamber of Commerce Board.

“I just now received two more checks, one from the Benton Consolidated High School Art Club for $1,770.16, from a walk-a-thon the students held, plus another $10 check,” Bundy said. “To date, we have received almost $16,000, not to mention the $100,000 in seed money through IBEW. We are getting good donations from a lot of good people.”

Members discussed upcoming fund-raisers, including the Saturday, April 29 multi-family gigantic yard sale being held at 16059 State Route 13 East in Marion. Public relations committee chair Danyel Paige said the yard sale runs from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

“The yard sale is being held at my house, which is the last house between the corn fields before you reach the intersection with Route 166, which leads to Pittsburg and Creal Springs,” Paige said. “It is a old large white farmhouse.”

A day of family fun is planned for Saturday, May 6, at Pheasant Hollow Winery in Whittington. Gates open at noon. Tickets are $10 per person and kids 14 and under get in free. Entertainment includes music by Sister T and the Sinners, bluegrass by Crystal River, and more. Food and soft drinks will be available or bring your own picnic. Wine to taste and purchase will also be available. For information or tickets, call Pheasant Hollow Winery at 629-2302, The Women's Center at 618-549-4807, ext. 228, or West Frankfort Chamber of Commerce at 932-2181. Outside alcoholic beverages are not permitted on the premises.

A benefit dinner and poker run is slated for Saturday, May 13, at 212 Lounge in West Frankfort. Sign-up for the poker run begins at 11 a.m. at 212 Lounge. The price of entry is $10 per hand, which includes the dinner.

The first bike leaves at noon, with the last bike out at 1 p.m. Poker run stops include Donna's Sweetwater Saloon in Benton, Bank of Sesser Lounge, VanZandt's, Lou Dean's in Hurst, The Ranch near Johnston City, with the last stop at 212 Lounge. For more information, call Tom Bernhard at 413-0175 or 212 Lounge at 937-1486.

The benefit dinner begins at 4:30 p.m., at 212 Lounge. Tickets are $5 for adults and $3 for children.

The meal includes pork steaks, potato salad, coleslaw, baked beans and bread. Prizes will be awarded throughout the day, with a raffle and auction starting at approximately 6 p.m. Poker run prizes are $200 for the best hand and $50 for the worst hand. Music, provided by Tom Wallace, will be from 2 until 6 p.m., with Memory Lane beginning at 7 p.m.

Individuals and organizations are invited to adopt a room day, slated for Saturday, May 20, at 1 p.m., at Roan Center, 301 E. Garland in West Frankfort.

A display room will be ready to give an idea of how many of the rooms will look. Fasol said everyday heroes from area police and fire departments, as well as military personnel, will be on hand to distribute information.

Members also discussed the upcoming Rend Lake Water Festival parade, slated for May 13 in Benton. Members are asking for a group of volunteers to walk in the parade and distribute fliers about the Roan Center and its Women's Center and Night's Shield women's and children's emergency shelter programs.

Upon arrival, Sara Bond announced she had tickets available for the CASA Gala, “We Rock for CASA,” being held Friday, April 28, at the Benton Civic Center. Members jumped at the chance to purchase tickets, filling both reserved tables. Board member and Women's Center personnel, Iva Dell Clay, is one of the lip-sync performers for the 1950s and '60s musical event.

Bond announced she had just left the Roan Center, after meeting with a potential project manager, Kelly McCord.

“Kelly knows what she is doing,” Bond said.

“She helped wire the emergency shelter built in Cairo. All I did was show her the blueprints. She pointed to three rooms on the blueprints, said I need to see what is in this room, this room, and this room, and we took it from there.

Having a project manager who knows what to do will be a tremendous cost saving, as well as an excellent supporter of Roan Center and its programs. We found out we need someone who is certified to do plumbing and heating and air conditioning, and we may have people lined up for those tasks, as well.

“There are new and wonderful things happening everyday pertaining to Roan Center,” Bond said. “Miracles are at work and we have God and a lot of wonderful people to thank for that.”

To contribute to Roan Center, make checks payable to The Poshard Foundation and note Roan Center on the memo line of your check. Checks may be mailed to P.O. Box 326, West Frankfort, IL 62896.

Helena IBEW Hosts Debate on "Big Box" Stores

2006-05-01T10:48:00.000-04:00

Big box stores topic of discussion

By The Helena IR - 04/25/06

Montanans for Corporate Accountability (MCA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) are hosting a discussion about the options for managing big box store growth in Helena.

The discussion is set for Wednesday, April 26, at 10:30 a.m. at the Labor Temple at 110 N. Warren. The first meeting will focus on gauging the community’s interest in opposing the back-to-back building plans of two big box giants, Costco and Sam’s Club.

The Independent Record recently reported that Sam’s Club, the warehouse market arm of Wal-Mart, is planning a new store in Helena near the current Wal-Mart. A new Costco store, planned for the site east of Home Depot, was just approved by the zoning board and will be before the city commission on May 8. The Sam’s Club application will come before the zoning board on May 9.

For more information, contact Cedron Jones, MCA volunteer coordinator, at 442-5506

RIP: IBEW Local 2109 (Watkinsville GA) Member Nicholas Jones

2006-05-01T10:35:00.000-04:00

Nicholas Jones

Nicholas Dee Jones, 51, of Colbert, died Monday, April 24, 2006.
A native of Clarke County, he was the son of Dennis Joseph and Reba Brown Jones. He was employed with the South Wire Company and was a member of the Local 2224 [sic 2109] IBEW in Watkinsville.
Survivors include his wife, Donna Jones, Colbert; sons, Brandon Jones, Athens, and Robert Haley, Danielsville; daughter, Tiffany Robinson, Cleveland; his parents; brother, Dennis Gianakakis, Cedartown; sister, Karen Keller, Watkinsville; grandfather, Jim Bercos, Watkinsville; grandchildren, Alayna Nicole Jones, Andrew Robinson, Carter Robinson, Catherine Robinson, and Mason Haley.
Funeral services were to be held today, Thursday, April 27, at Bernstein Funeral Home. Burial was to be in Oconee Hill Cemetery.
Pallbearers were Truman Elder, Marvin Slay, Ricky Kemp, Horace Mallony, Jeff Marshall, Donnie Hicks, Mack Sheets, David Adkins, and Matt Bowen.
Bernstein Funeral Home, Athens, was in charge of arrangements.
The Madison County Journal, April 27, 2006.

IBEW Local 602 (Amarillo TX) Member Joe Mihm to run for Hutchinson County Hospital District Board

2006-05-01T10:32:00.000-04:00

Mihm seeking seat on hospital board

Joe Mihm

From the Borger News-Herald
Nancy Young, Editor

Joe Mihm is seeking a position on the Hutchinson County Hospital District board in the May 13 election.

“As a lifelong resident of Borger I understand the need for a local hospital,” said Mihm. “I have served on various community boards learning the value of diverse opinions and cooperation.”

Mihm is seeking the position on the board which is elected by the residents in Hutchinson County Commissioner Precinct Four.

“I hope to do whatever is necessary to retain and reward the dedicated and qualified staff at GPCH,” said Mihm. “I also want to be an avenue for communication between the citizens of Precinct 4 and the hospital board. I would like to further enhance the openness of the hospital operation and finance.”

Mihm worked for Scel Energy for 30 years, and he received his education from St. John's Elementary School and Borger High School.

He has been involved in many civic endeavors, including United Way, Friends of Lake Meredith, Relay for Life, Knights of Columbas, IBEW Local 602, Borger Independent School District's District Facilities Committee and Boy Scouts.

He and his wife Jeri are parents of Kevin, 22, who is a student at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Okla.

RIP: Lineman and IBEW Local 175 ( Chattanooga TN ) Brother Frank Muscarnero

2006-05-01T10:29:00.000-04:00

Frank Muscarnero

April 23, 2006
from the Crossville (Tenn) Chronicle

Frank Muscarnero, 38, of Crossville, passed away April 23, 2006. Services will be held in the Pikeville Funeral Home chapel on Thursday, April 27, at 11 a.m. CST. Officiating will be the Rev. Daniel Thrower. Pikeville Funeral Home is located at the intersection of Hwy. 127 and Hwy. 30 W in Pikeville. Burial will be in Thomas Springs Cemetery in Crossville, followed by a white dove release.

Mr. Muscarnero was of the Catholic faith and was employed by Henkles and McCoy as a journeyman lineman. He was also a member of the local IBEW 175.

Survivors include his wife, Carol; son, Chad; mother, Sylvia (Douglas) Thrower; father, Frank (Diane) Muscarnero; brothers, Joseph (Katrina) Muscarnero and Anthony (Amy) Muscarnero; sisters, Sheila (Fred) DeWan and Dawn Marie Disidoro; mother-in-law, Janice Lewis; brothers-in-law, Jim (Rachel) Hinch, Stephen (Pam) Hinch, Todd Hinch and Barry (Denise) Austin; nieces and nephews, Daniel, Dana, Amy, Christine, Brandie, Brandon, Dominic, Lou, Josh, Amanda, Brian, Dusty, Stephanie, Emily, Chelsie, Mattie, Gracie and Addison; great-nieces and -nephews, Kody, Baylee, Cason, and Brylee; and numerous aunts and uncles.

He was preceded in death by his grandparents, Joseph and Angelina Muscarnero and Flora Mae Steele; and father-in-law, Gene Austin.

Pikeville Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

IBEW Requests Executive Pay Records in BG&E Demand to raise Rates

2006-05-01T10:26:00.000-04:00

From the Baltimore Sun

Consumers decry BGE rate deal

PSC hears dire scenarios; company defends offer

By Andrew A. Green
Sun reporter

April 28, 2006

Consumers and advocates decried BGE's plan to defer part of its average 72 percent rate increase for residential customers at a hearing yesterday before the Public Service Commission, but company officials said it is the strongest offer they can afford.

Protesters carried signs reading, "Honk if 72 percent hurts" outside the commission's downtown Baltimore headquarters yesterday, prompting a cacophony of horns from cars headed down St. Paul Street.

Ratepayers who testified before the commission called the plan "genocide" and "terrorism," and Baltimore's city solicitor said the PSC is not doing enough to protect consumers.

"A lot of people are going to die because they are going to be lighting [candles] because they won't be able to pay their electric bills," said Baltimore resident Denise Lawry, predicting fires. "There are going to be a lot of seniors who are going to die because they're not going to be able to cool their homes."

The debate over the rate deferral plan that Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. negotiated with BGE has played out at the highest levels in Maryland, with legislators and candidates for governor jockeying for position in what has become an explosive election-year issue.

The commission took no action on the plan, but seemed favorably disposed toward it, asking few questions of BGE officials who testified and at times defending its provisions. Four of the five commissioners, including PSC Chairman Kenneth D. Schisler, are Ehrlich appointees, and the fifth is a former BGE executive.

Schisler promised a quick decision.

Yesterday's hearing was the first time that average citizens have had a chance to go toe-to-toe with electric company officials to demand a better deal on the rate plan. Residents, advocates, power company executives and others packed the PSC's 16th-floor hearing room in the state office building in Baltimore for a sometimes tense exchange that lasted nearly four hours.

Mark Case, a BGE vice president, spoke at the outset of the hearing, laying out the terms of the plan and saying that the company's offer "stretches the bounds of the balance sheet." Participating consumers would see their bills increase to market rates in stages over 18 months and would pay a monthly fee averaging $19 to make up for the deferred payments and interest.

"The company recognizes this is a large increase at one time and represents a hardship to many of our customers," Case said. "For some customers, a more gradual transition to market rates may be in their interests. We believe the amended plan ... is a very generous offer on behalf of our company."

Because of the way Schisler structured the hearing, BGE officials were not subject to questioning by any of the others who testified. Instead, the often angry residents and advocates directed their ire at the commission. That left Schisler to explain - and sometimes defend - the plan.

People's Counsel Patricia Smith, an Ehrlich appointee whose office is charged with defending consumers' interests before the PSC, and some of the commissioners joined Schisler in saying that the plan is an improvement over previous efforts to soften the impact of the rate increase because it offers customers a choice in how to budget for their electric costs.

Nearly all of the ratepayers who testified complained that the plan does not offer an actual reduction in cost. They said that an increase of 72 percent, whether it happens overnight or over three years, cannot possibly be considered generous. Whether or not customers choose to participate in the plan, they would pay roughly the same amount over three years.

"Cutting off my hands versus cutting off my feet is not a choice," said Kelly Bigelow, a Baltimore resident.

The rate increase is due this summer as a result of the expiration of rate caps instituted as part of Maryland's deregulation of the electric industry in 1999.

After a rate-deferral plan died in the last minutes of the recent General Assembly session, Ehrlich continued negotiating with the company and announced a new deal a week ago.

BGE has promised that if a merger between its parent company, Constellation Energy Group, and Florida-based FPL Group Inc., is completed, it will commit $600 million to rate relief over 10 years, an average reduction of $4 a month on a customer's bill.

Advocates and ratepayers at the hearing said the plan is confusing. The problem, several said, has been worsened by incomplete or misleading statements by the governor, power company officials and others.

"Only a day or so ago we learned that it included an interest payment, when the governor said there was no interest charge," said Susan Webster-Page of Baltimore. "This is serious business. It should be analyzed and not rubber-stamped."

When Del. Curtis S. Anderson, a Baltimore Democrat, questioned whether the rate increase is necessary, Schisler cut him off, directing him to confine his comments to the rate-deferral plan. Schisler defended the rate-making process as "consistent with statute."

The tensest exchange of the afternoon came when City Solicitor Ralph S. Tyler suggested that the commission look into whether Constellation is making large profits by selling electricity to BGE.

"Do you have any evidence of those charges?" Schisler said. "Those are very serious charges to levy without any evidence."

Tyler won a key concession earlier in the day in a separate hearing. The PSC's chief hearing examiner, Bryan G. Moorhouse, granted a request by the city and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers that Constellation disclose to them the bonuses that company executives would receive if the FPL merger goes through.

Moorhouse granted the request, provided that the city and the union sign confidentiality agreements. The IBEW already had agreed to do so, but the city had not. Moorhouse said that if the city and union believe that the material should be made public after reviewing it, they can come before him again to argue their case.

andy.green@baltsun.com

IBEW Local 617 (San Mateo CA) Business Manager is Keynote Speaker at "Jobs for Youth" Breakfast

2006-05-01T10:21:00.000-04:00

Article Last Updated: 4/28/2006 07:14 AM

Breakfast to feature Meals in benefit for youth jobs

Inside Bay Area
MICHAEL "MIKE" MEALS, business manager for International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local Union 617 in San Mateo, chartered in 1908, will be keynote speaker at the 24th Annual San Mateo County Jobs for Youth Breakfast on May 25 from 7:30 to 9 a.m. The popular, informative fund-raiser will be held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, 1221 Chess Drive, Foster City.

Meals, also president of the San Mateo County Building Trades Association, a member of the State Building & Construction Trades Council of California executive board, and co-chair for IBEW Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee, will talk about "Building Trades Careers, the Best Thing Going!"

Event proceeds benefit JFY, a year-round, nonprofit program that serves youth ages 14 to 21, regardless of background, socio-economic, or risk level. Youths learn to master job applications, prepare for interviews and create resumes. They also will receive job and internship leads. Since September 2005, 1,600 youths have been served. Centers in Daly City (301-8440), Menlo Park (330-6490), Redwood City (367-0190), and San Mateo (301-8434) assist both job- seekers and employers at no cost.

Allied Waste Services, formerly BFI, will be honored as an original funder and a continued 24-year supporter of the San Mateo County JFY program.

Ron Kahn of Financial Advantage, JFY chairman and emcee, will be presented the third annual Mary Louise Paskevich Award for his longtime outstanding leadership and dedication to the program.

Several students will be recognized with scholarships for their commitment and perseverance towards their educational and employment goals.

Jerry Hill, president, San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, and JFY honorary chairman, will conduct a live auction. Drawings for raffle prizes will also highlight the program.

Breakfast cost: $40 or $350 per table of 10. To RSVP, call Al Teglia, JFY founder and facilitator, at 301-8444.

Carolyn Livengood's North County Reports appear every Friday and Saturday. If you have any news tips about North County communities, please call or fax Carolyn at 355-5533.

IBEW Local 2228 (Ottawa ON CAN) Signs Agreement with NAV Canada

2006-05-01T10:18:00.000-04:00

Press Release

Source: NAV CANADA

NAV CANADA announces collective agreement with electronics technologists
Thursday April 27, 3:30 pm ET

OTTAWA, April 27 /CNW Telbec/ - NAV CANADA announced today the successful conclusion of collective bargaining with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, IBEW Local 2228, representing 765 electronics technologists, installation technicians, electronics maintenance specialists, technical operations coordinators, and instructors.

In March 2006 the parties concluded negotiations on several issues and agreed to refer outstanding issues to binding arbitration. Today's settlement is a result of an arbitration award issued by a tri-partite board, chaired by Michel Picher, Arbitrator.

"IBEW is our third largest union and I am pleased that a collective agreement has been concluded" said John Crichton, President and CEO. Crichton also commended the arbitrators and bargaining teams for their hard work.

The resulting four-year collective agreement covers the period from September 1, 2005 to August 31, 2009.

NAV CANADA, the country's civil air navigation services provider, is a

private sector, non-share capital corporation financed through publicly-traded
debt. With operations coast to coast, NAV CANADA provides air traffic control,
flight information, weather briefings, aeronautical information services,
airport advisory services and electronic aids to navigation.

For further information

John Morris, Director, Communications, (613) 563-7032
Louis Garneau, Manager, Media Relations, (613) 563-5972
Ron Singer, Communications Advisor, (613) 563-7303
Media Information Line: 1-888-562-8226
www.navcanada.ca

IBEW Local 265 (Lincoln NE) Helps with "Christmas in April" NW Indiana

2006-05-01T10:14:00.000-04:00

This story ran on nwitimes.com on Sunday, April 30, 2006 12:27 AM CDT

Home improvement elves fashion Christmas in April

BY ROYAL M. HOPPER III
Times Correspondent

MERRILLVILLE | Sixty-five-year-old Eugenia Kirkbride spent much of Saturday fighting back tears and watching strangers walk around her house with paintbrushes in their hands. It was one of the happiest days she has had in many years.

"I can't even begin to say how much this means to me," Kirkbride said about the Christmas in April volunteers who were at her house Saturday replacing gutters, painting walls, installing a handicapped-accessible bathroom and doing other chores that finances, bad knees and Father Time have prevented her from doing for a long time.

Volunteers spent the day making improvements, a few coats of paint and the customary smoke detectors in Kirkbride's modest Lake Station home. The program is designed to help the handicapped and elderly make improvements to their homes they could not otherwise afford.

"Warm, safe and dry is our priority," said John Havel, vice president of the Lake Station Christmas in April efforts. Volunteers also helped out at Hobart residences.There have been cases where a house is simply too far gone or has no roof to speak of, Havel said. To qualify, residents must own the house they live in. The smiles and hugs from the people who benefit from the groups effort make it worth all the work, Havel said.

More than 290 volunteers turned out to various houses in the area. Installing everything from washers and dryers to new floor tiles and carpeting. They were greeted with smiles and sometimes tears of joy.

Volunteers like Bridgette Becker and her husband, Frank, an union painter with IBEW Chicago 265, came from Gary to volunteer for the program. They said what you get back from the people you help is far more than the work you do while you are there.

"When you see someone with no family and no one to help them, when you see the smiles on their faces afterwards it keeps you coming back," Bridgette Becker said.

Kirkbride bought her house in 1987, after her divorce and turned the rundown old homestead in a cozy middle class home.

"I was code enforcement officer in the city then and this house was close to foreclosure before she bought it," said Linda Newton, secretary of the Christmas in April group.

Kirkbride said she put her heart into her new home bring it up to code and make it a nice place to live for her and her now adult children. Then the company she worked for was bought out . Her job was shipped off to China, Kirkbride said. Problems with her back and knees that had plagued her for years began to get worse, making it difficult for her to walk or stand for long periods of time. Time had not been as kind to her as it had to others, she said.

"Everything was breaking down. I just cannot do the things I used to do," she said.

She called Saturday's volunteers a blessing that was a surprise but not totally unexpected.

"I have always felt I was watched over by angels," she said pointing to the collection of ceramic angels on top of her television set and then looking around at the people busily repairing her house.

IBEW News and Views

Montana Electricians Build Training Tower

Following the winds of change

Trinity Workers Vote to Join the IBEW

Trinity workers vote to unionize

IBEW Local 110 Volunteers Replace Flagpole

Project Phoenix to Benefit Loves Park Area

Terra Haute LU 725 Pushes "Responsible Bidder" Law

IBEW LU 317 Credit Union Offers High Interest on Savings

Illinois Representative Lisa Dugan, IBEW Local 176

Union Leader saw World

Local 1600 signs four year contract with PPL

IBEW Local 1 (St. Louis) Helps Holy Name Society Help Mother in Need

IBEW Local 363 (New City, NY) Endorses County Executive Ed Diana

IBEW endorses Diana

IBEW 2009 Membership Conference Roundup

Thanks, IBEW Local 2376!

Thanks, IBEW!

Line Clearance Workers Choose IBEW Local 47

9,000 IBEW Workers, IBEW Local 21, Ratify New Contracts at AT&T

Onorato pledges 'real reform' in race for governor

IBEW Local 2222 Fights to Maintain Decent Jobs

Vallejo Declares Bankruptcy -- Time for a CHANGE!

AT&T reaches tentative agreement with union covering 8,900 core wireline employees

Manitoba Hydro pushes IBEW Local 2034 into first strike in 50 years.

Hydro workers strike tonight

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

Solar Sonoma County - Everything Under the Sun

From the West County Gazette On-Line

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Florida Power & Light Workers Post Informational Picket

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.

IBEW Local 103 (Boston) help Struggling Newspaper

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

Careers Without College can be Profitable Option

June 8Careers without college can be profitable option

On-the-job experience is often necessary.

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

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

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,

Through the Daily Kos, June 9, 2009

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

Aboundu Designates IBEW Local 490 Apprenticeship as Certified Training Facility

IBEW Local 7 Helps Family of Iraq Marine

Students get education in construction from IBEW Local 48

Philadelphia Auditor's Race Draws Support from IBEW Local 98

IBEW Local 611 reaches 11th Hour Agreement with PNM

IBEW Local 2323 Involvement in Rhode Island Training Program

(Virginia Governor candidate) McAuliffe's past could complicate campaign

IBEW Votes on Contract with MidAmerican Energy

Electrical Workers Union Voting on Contract

By Aaron Hepker

Harry Reid Flips Switch at Local 357 Wind Turbine

Turbine will be used to train workers to maintain wind farms

Reid Commissions Wind Turbine

IBEW Local 2067 in talks about Saskatchewan future

IBEW Local 949 Asks for Parity

Union Picketers Hit Crosslake

IBEW Local 98 Sponsors Championship T-Shirt Night

Ring ceremony set for Wednesday

Posted by PAUL VIGNA, Of The Patriot-News April 06, 2009 15:52PM

IBEW Local 300 Breaks into Solar Energy

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Solar Trailer - DAY ONE.

दुके एनर्जी एंड इबेव १३४७ राच अग्रीमेंट

IBEW Local 617 (San Mateo, CA) Celebrates 100 Years of Service

IBEW completes five-year, $100,000 pledge to Tampa General Burn Center

IBEW Local 164 Helps Hackensack High School Comets Rebuild Football Facilities

IBEW Local 164 Helps Hackensack High School Comets Rebuild Football Facilities

IBEW president says member-to-member campaign can lead to Obama victory

Oglesby (Illinois) City Employees Choose IBEW Local 51 for Quality Representation

IBEW Local 668 Presents "Dancin in the Streets" In Lafayette, Indiana

17th Annual Dancing in the Streets to be a “Rockin’ Night of Fun”

IBEW Local 347 Teams up with KCCI TV and Fairplay Scoreboards to provide scoreboards for community groups

Trinity  workers  vote to  unionize

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

June 8
Careers without college can be profitable option