WORK SLOWS, BUT OUTLOOK IS STILL PROMISING
Construction work has slowed considerably in the month of November with distribution pole work taking the biggest hit and it is expected to remain that way through the end of the year.
There is still a lot of work going on with solar projects, substation work, some transmission, inspection, compliance and civil work; however, the manpower requests are nowhere near where they were the preceding months.
Work continues on the SWIP project in eastern Nevada both on the transmission line which is being dispatched out of Local 396 and the Robinson Summit Substation which is being dispatched out of Local 1245.
Three new solar projects near Fresno County have started. These will employ some wiremen as well as operators and groundmen. The companies performing the work on those three sites are Cupertino and Q-Cells, with several sub-contractors such as Preferred Power Solutions, Tri-Technics, MJ Avila, Machado and Sons and Contra Costa Electric. Several other subs are also expected.
Compliance inspectors was an option, with Asplundh performing a good portion of this, but as of the last week of November that work has been slowly shutting down with lay-offs taking place. It appears this work may be going away for the construction crews for now.
The work outlook for construction continues to look promising going into next year, not only in California but throughout the industry. Manpower shortages both in the utilities and the construction workforce will be the biggest obstacle. We were recently contacted and asked to help get the word out to workers here that linemen are needed in Connecticut right now working 6-10’s distribution and it is expected to last through March. Anyone interested could obtain the contact information through our dispatch office.
AMI work performed by UPA in Sacramento for SMUD is winding down with that project expected to end soon. We have picked up another AMI project in Reno and Carson City for work on NV Energy property. The contractor that will be performing this work is DeerPath Corporation, from the Philadelphia area with their construction office in the Cleveland, Ohio area. DeerPath won the sub-contracting bid/award to replace the electric meters and gas metering element (no gas flow interruption) on NVE properties. They will add 40-60 meter technician positions and 5-10 journeymen positions for the duration of this project. This project geographically covers most all of Northern Nevada and Ron Cochran just recently signed them to an agreement for that work.
Scott Hudelson, who was brought on staff temporarily to assist through the work increase, completed this temporary assignment on Dec. 2. Scott helped out tremendously with crew visits and shop steward appointments. With the amount of people dispatched this year, we enjoyed the help and may need to do this again if the work picks up again next year. Also during this construction bubble we employed several different temporary workers in the dispatch office to help with the constant flow of people coming into the office. We will be moving the current temp, Eric, out of the dispatch office next month and having him assist elsewhere in the office with hopes of possibly bringing him back to dispatch if the work picks back up.
Our standing request is to ask people coming in to sign the books or to conduct other business through the dispatch office (including general information calls ) to do so between the hours of 7-9 am or 1-4 pm since our scheduled dispatch hours are from 9-noon. This will allow the dispatchers to get through the day’s calls in the time allotted for that work.
We spent most of November visiting crews in the Bay Area and Central Valley with an end of month trip to the SWIP Project in Northern Nevada.
We are still aggressively appointing shop stewards and handing out contract and safety books to all members and requesting that they become well versed with our agreement and safety rules.
The Union clothing being sold in the field is going fast, particularly the hooded pullovers. The hands would like to see this continue and have suggested optional shirt and sticker designs.
We are still having some issues with contractors thinking they can helicopter long line Groundmen and Operators who have been trained. We are enforcing the procedure as being for Lineman and Apprentice Lineman only.
The SWIP Project in Northern Nevada is going strong with Sturgeon running 50-60 men on the 500 KV T-Line. They have set almost 120 miles of structures and are now stringing wire. The North end of the project in our jurisdiction from White Pine County North has shut down until April 2012 due to environmental issues and all crews are now working south in Local 396 jurisdiction. At 30 Mile Substation in Ely, Wilson Construction is still working below grade but is planning to cut back crews and work through the winter.
PG&E work has slowed down. The cutbacks have eliminated a huge number of distribution contract crews, leaving only 2-3 crews in each district. Substation work is still going strong and a few new transmission projects have started in the Bakersfield area.
T&D Power is near completion of a 42-mile 115kv T-Line between Oroville and Olivehurst.
Three Phase Construction is nearly finished with the fiber optic cable install from Eureka to Cottonwood with only a few pulls left around Mad River.
Par is still working a PG&E 115kv tower raising project west of Fresno. The job is scheduled for December completion. Par/UPC are also doing transmission pole replacements throughout the Central Valley and have 10-plus distribution crews working from Fresno to Eureka.
ILB has 10-plus distribution crews working from the South Bay Area to Redding.
Henkels and McCoy shut down all of their distribution crews but started a 115kv T-line in Hollister. The Eastshore T-Line project is going well with north line complete and the reconductor across the bay to San Mateo started.
Organizing
We’ve signed the following contractors in the month of October and organized dozens of new members:
- Deerpath Corporation, removing and installing new meters (AMI) for NV Energy.
- All Veterans Corp, based in southern California, signed the Coordinator/Inspector Agreement.
- Avtech Construction, civil contractor based in Hollister, CA.
- Kindness General Contractors, based in Garden Grove, CA.
JATC
We currently have 307 outside line apprentices registered in our JATC program:
- 20 traveling apprentices working in our jurisdiction.
- 94 are working out of Local 1245.
- 181 are working out of Local 47.
- 33 are working out of Local 396.
- 19 are off of work (2 are on disability – 5 are on leave of absence)
42 apprentices graduated this year to journeyman lineman.
122 outside line apprentices this year have been indentured
We have an outside line orientation/climbing class in progress. The class began on Nov. 7, with 15 individuals invited to the class.
We have 8 traffic signal maintenance apprentices registered. One is working for Republic Electric in Local 1245’s jurisdiction, seven are working for Republic Electric in Local 47’s jurisdiction. Thirteen traffic signal apprentices have graduated this year.
Grievances
We have multiple pay issues which are usually settled in the early steps of the grievance process. A couple of these have progressed a little further with penalty pay being the biggest issue. We have been very successful in resolving these before labor management such as the $26,000 penalty pay grievance we resolved last month. Most are nowhere near that amount, but we are in the process of resolving another one for roughly the same amount with UPA which impacts several members who were not paid as prescribed by the agreement.
We had 3 wrongful termination grievances that were withdrawn in the early stages once an investigation into what took place revealed they were justifiable. One of these was an insubordination issue and two involved rolling a bucket truck and not reporting damage to another vehicle.
- We are currently in the middle of a grievance involving a contractor who has performed work covered under the California Outside Line Construction Agreement and suing the Northern California Underground Agreement. The work involves digging and installing electrical conduit for house services for the utility. This was discovered after the work was performed for several months with restitution in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. This grievance is still in the early stages with Labor Management imminent.
- Labor Management dates are being set for a grievance filed with Republic ITS pertaining to an employee’s lack of insurance coverage. Employee was injured off the job and did not have medical insurance.
2011/2012 Training Schedule
Crane Training has not been scheduled yet. It will be held sometime in the first quarter of 2012. We will post the date as soon as it becomes available.
Shop Steward Grievance Training will be Dec. 10, 2011 at Weakly Hall in Vacaville, This training will be limited to 40 members.
First Aid & CPR is the second Saturday of every month at our Riverside and Sacramento facility.
Special Events
We have a committee formed for next spring’s soccer tournament. We should have the next date and location in the next month or so.
Next year’s 16th Annual 9th District Softball Tournament will be hosted by Local 595/Dublin at Big League Dreams Park in Manteca, CA. It will be held Aug. 11-12, 2012. We should be scouting for teams now.
Injured Workers Fun
The balance as of Oct. 31 was $348,161.62. We paid out one claim in November.
Dispatch
|
November |
Year to Date |
|
| Lineman |
102 |
1806 |
| Apprentice Lineman |
15 |
188 |
| Equipment Man |
17 |
275 |
| Groundman |
76 |
846 |
| Fabricator Tech |
44 |
335 |
| Cable Splicer |
0 |
23 |
|
Total |
254 |
3473 |
Out of Work Books as of Nov. 30:
|
BOOK # |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
L-1 |
24 |
CS-1 |
4 |
F-2 |
11 |
|
L-2 |
65 |
CS-2 |
3 |
|
|
|
L-3 |
3 |
CS-3 |
5 |
|
|
|
L-4 |
153 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
GM-1 |
9 |
|
|
|
ES-1 |
4 |
GM-2 |
4 |
|
|
|
ES-2 |
7 |
GM-3 |
221 |
|
|
|
ES-3 |
5 |
GM-4 |
344 |
|
|