Substation Technician books and testing

By Ron Cochran

There have been several questions asked pertaining to the new classification of Substation Technician in Outside Line. This classification was intended to fill the gap within the OSL agreement that is left when a journeyman, utility substation electrician or out of class lineman who has performed nothing but substation work has found themselves unemployed and using the OSL out of work books.

This new classification will require an individual to know all aspects of the substation and work inside the fence. This includes control wiring as well as all the other disciplines that go into working in a substation. The JATC is allowing everyone to test; however, there are no guarantees that if a member tests he will get into the program. Due to some of the disciplines required preference will be given to the classifications listed above based on their previous training and work experience in the field.

The new Substation Technician classification books are now in place. This is a result of the Memorandum of Understanding that was implemented late 2012 but has been discussed and in the works for over 5 years. The books will be run similar to the other books, with Book1 being for members who have 2000 hours of work in our jurisdiction and residency. Book 2 is for travelers who possess the Substation Tech classification. Book 3 will be for Journeymen who want to sign these books out of class, and Book 4 will be for anyone who is in the Substation Technician training program.

Helicopter Long Lining

On March 12, 2013 the core group (IBEW and NECA) met in Riverside, Ca. to go over the draft training outline that was approved for mandatory training for all long lining operations within Local 1245’s and Local 47’s jurisdiction for Outside Line Construction. This training will be 8 hours of classroom type training and is designed to make sure all members working as an external human load will have the same level of training before starting a short haul project. This will not take the place of the site specific training that will be performed with each crew and whichever helicopter company is chosen by the contractor.

The program will be overseen by the Cal-Nev JATC who will provide training for the contractors who perform this work in the form of a “train the trainer” program. The JATC will also be responsible to perform audits of these training programs to make sure they are performing them as outlined in the curriculum.

Now that the training outline has been determined, the training materials are being put together with a rough draft of that program expected to be completed in 60 – 90 days where the committee can review following the next Joint IBEW/ NECA Safety Committee meeting to be held in Vacaville on June 13, 2013.

Organizing

The following contractors were recently organized:

• BHI Energy – DCPP outage agreement
• Premier West Coast Services – Gas Inspector agreement
• Diversified Field Services – Gas Inspector agreement
• Baulfor Beatty Rail, Inc CA OSL Construction and SF Trolley agreement
• Construction & Utilities Inc. CA OSL Construction agreement

Bargaining

Opening letters have been sent to Siemens Intelligent Transportation Solutions –California (formerly Republic ITS). We currently are in the process of gathering proposals from the members and setting up dates with the company to meet.

Solar Projects

The three solar projects are in full swing in Huron and Hanford, CA. There are roughly 250 members currently working between the 3 projects.

Grievances

This month is much like the last couple, with several grievances being worked on and most resolved in the very early stages. 85-90% of them involve payroll issues. We strongly encourage the members to read their agreements and get a full understanding of what is expected of them when they are not paid correctly. We have had more than a handful of cases over the last couple of years where we are not even notified of a member not being paid correctly until after they receive their pay and want us to go retro. We need to know as soon as possible to put everyone on notice and on the clock to get the issues resolved. The language in the agreement is a useful tool to make sure the members are paid as agreed to in the agreement and all too often we are finding members not saying anything to us to get the issue resolved in an effort to get more penalty pay. We all need to be good stewards of our working conditions and work together to get the issues resolved as soon as possible.

11 cases of wrongful termination are scheduled for arbitration after Labor Management was unsuccessful in coming to an equitable resolution.

• 10 cases are with one contractor with arbitration scheduled over 4 days. Half of the cases will be heard in Reno, where the work is being performed on March 9 & 10 and the other half are scheduled for July. All 10 cases involve wrongful terminations.
• 1 case involves wrongful termination in California with a pole testing contractor. Arbitration date still needs to be determined.

We are currently working through certified payroll records for a Gas Inspector contractor who failed to pay the correct OT rates and subsistence. Through this process we halve found numerous other errors. The contractor is cooperating but it will take some time to complete as we have to go back to day one of the project to verify.

2013 Training Schedule and Special Events

 

• First Aid & CPR is the 2nd Saturday of every month at our Riverside and Sacramento facilities.
• Soccer Tournament South – April 13, 2013, Merced
• Soccer Tournament North – May 4, 2013, Fairfield
• IBEW Nor-Cal Clay Shoot May 11, 2013 in Dunnigan. Registration can be found on our website.
• Motorcycle Rally – May 18, starting in Vacaville. Registration can be found on our website.
• IBEW 9th District Softball Tournament, August 17 & 18, 2013, Orange, CA
• IBEW Golf Tournament , October-TBA, Vacaville
• International Linemen Rodeo, October, TBA- Bonner Springs, KS

Apprentice Report

The California-Nevada JATC will open the application process for Outside Lineman Apprenticeship program from April 1-30, 2013. You will find information relevant to this process and application at: //www.calnevjatc.org/

We currently have 315 outside line apprentices registered in our JATC program. We have 19 traveling apprentice working in our jurisdiction.

• 91 apprentices are working out of Local 1245
• 210 are working out of Local 47
• 6 – working out of Local 396
• 27 are off of work (8 are on disability – 9 are on leave of absence- 8 are suspended)
• 5 apprentices have graduated to journeyman lineman this year.
• 0 outside line apprentices have been indentured this year. We do have a climbing class in progress and anticipate all 19 individuals attending will complete the class and be indentured.

We have 2 traffic signal maintenance apprentices registered.

• 1 is working for Republic Electric in Local 1245’s jurisdiction.
• 1 is unemployed
• 0 are working for Republic Electric in Local 47’s jurisdiction.
• 18 traffic signal apprentices have graduated

Dispatch

	March 2013	Year to Date
Lineman	177	466
Apprentice Lineman	13	63
Equipment Man	30	84
Groundman	130	130
Fabricator Tech	11	11
Cable Splicer	18	18
Total	379	991