I would like to bring you up-to-date on important matters concerning our Local.   Our work picture should improve with upcoming projects at Disney, Kaiser Anaheim, the power plant in Anaheim, and several school jobs, but our involvement in the private sector is in need of resuscitation.

Nationally Mandated CE/CW Program
On March 16th, we were privileged to have 9th District Vice President Mike Mowrey hold a special meeting at the Hall explaining a new IO policy that all unions in the IBEW are required to implement.  Mandated by International President Hill, as a result of the overwhelming loss of work to non-signatory contractors, the program is an area-wide Market Advancement MOU that includes new member classifications of Construction Electrician (CE) and Construction Wireman (CW), and allows full portability between Locals in each region.  Vice President Mowrey did a tremendous job of explaining the MOU, answering any and all questions the 100+ brothers in attendance posed to him.  The new program is to be negotiated with NECA and will take effect May 31, 2010.

This program should sound familiar to all of you.  We previously implemented the program ourselves because of the same concerns President Hill has.  Our private market has been taken over by the non-union sector and we need to do something that will put our JWs and Apprentices to work and continue to improve our market share.

Our staff and Executive Board have been working very hard to help me put a stop to the non-union shops that have been taking our jobs here in Orange County.  I have personally spent hours going to our local signatory contractors and meeting with their estimators so that they understand how they can use this new program to recapture work in our jurisdiction.  At this point, we can claim some success; it is not enough by any means, but it’s a start.

As of April 10, 2010, we have 17 shops that have started using our program.  Those shops have 504 JWs, 143 Apprentices, 15 CEs and 31 CWs working for them.  We have been awarded ten major private sector projects for a total of 100,900 man hours.  These projects are employing 68 JWs, 34 Apprentices, 8 CEs and 27 CWs.

One of the biggest concerns some members have expressed about the CE/CW program is the fear that these new classifications will take jobs away from our Journeymen. Because of this program, we’ve been able to capture jobs that would have previously been awarded to non-union shops.  By using a few CEs/CWs, we’ve been able to put 102 JWs and Apprentices back to work.

The details of both the area wide and local MOUs will be finalized by May 31 in conjunction with our Inside Agreement.

2010 Negotiations - Inside Wireman’s Agreement
President Richard Samaniego has appointed the Negotiating Committee and we have a lot of work ahead of us.  The committee has reviewed the responses from our recent mailer survey and will use that data to help with the process.  There will be a meeting on April 28th where we will present NECA’s final offer to you and vote on its ratification or going to CIR for arbitration.

**As a reminder please keep your state certification up-to-date. If you let your certification expire you may be terminated by your employer.