WORK OUTLOOK
In California, our members have been extremely busy because of multiple storms we’ve had, which have mainly been north of Santa Cruz. During one of the storms, a Lineman was burned due to electrical contact. This incident should serve as a reminder to stay vigilant, make sure of the circuit being worked on, and eliminate electrical sources and potential back by grounding, per our Red Book.
We made quite a few crew and yard visits to our Trailer park contractors as well as Overhead and Underground contractors. Wilson and Intren have most of the crews in that area. We also did crew visits with our civil crews, and found that a large majority of these members do not carry their IBEW dues receipt with them. Please always carry your dues receipt with you, or save an image of it on your phone.
The trailer park contractors are having issues with de watering the trenches, and a few are talking about layoffs due to de watering issues. Hopefully, the weather will dry up soon, as dry weather will also allow contractors to start ramping up with their crews.
We met with Balfour Beatty to discuss the start of the 50-mile CalTrain electrification project from San Francisco to San Jose. All indications point to the work for our members beginning around October 2017, unless some type of Federal funding issue causes a delay in this project. Work is expected to go on for four years, with both daytime and night time work.
In Nevada, work is getting back to normal after a heavier than usual storm season. This year looks to be a good year for line contractors in NV, with Berkshire Hathaway being prone to doing more work with contractors. Work picture continues to improve in eastern NV, with Wasatch putting on people in Elko and Winnemucca for doc work to fill out the shortage of linemen at NV Energy. Wasatch also has a couple of crews doing doc work in various locations around NV Energy’s territory. PAR is working on a 4kv/25kv reconductor and cutover which will last another 3-4 weeks in Reno. Titan is wrapping up a 4kv/25kv cutover, and will be moving on to some small underground projects and some doc work to keep their guys busy in the short term. Rosendin is wrapping up a new substation bay at the Apple data center in Sparks, and PAR will go in behind them and pull the UG distribution cables to the pad mount transformers. Summit will be in Elko doing a small one-week tower job for NV Energy this spring.
CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS
Bargaining began on the Outside Line agreement with both the Western Line Chapter of NECA as well as with Henkel and McCoy on April 13 and 14, with both sides still far apart on proposals. On April 24, 2017, IBEW Local 1245 and Local 47 reached a tentative agreement with Western Line Chapter of NECA. The IBEW negotiating committees made it clear that they wanted to see enhancements in retirement and medical, and we feel the tentative agreement achieved that goal. The total package is worth 15.7% over 5 years with increases in the NEAP over the term of 51% and doubling the popular HRA contribution amount by 2019. Ballots and more detailed information will be sent out soon.
GRIEVANCES
We don’t have any active grievances, right now and this is in part due to the ability to quickly resolve issues as they come up. We are still having issues with contractors using Fab Techs to do Operator and Groundman work. Please note that we can only address issues that are brought to our attention. We did recently participate in a Labor Management meeting in Southern California (they do the same when Local 1245 has issues that that go that far in the grievance process).
JATC
We currently have 320 outside line apprentices registered in our JATC program and one traveling apprentice in our jurisdiction.
- 97 Apprentices are working out of Local 1245
- 181 are working out of Local 47
- 1 is working out of Local 396
- 23 are unemployed (41 are technically unemployed-but 18 can’t work)
- We have graduated 17 apprentices to journeyman lineman.
- We have indentured 0 outside line apprentices.
EVENTS CALENDAR
- First Aid & CPR is the 2nd Saturday of every month at our Riverside and Sacramento.
- May 20, – IBEW Clay Shoot – Hilmar, CA
ORGANIZING
The following contractors have been organized in in the last two months:
California Outside Line Agreement
- Hickman Utility
- Source Power Services, Inc.
- Utility Construction Services, LLC
- Fidelis Green, Inc.
- Jackson Equipment Services, Inc.
We recently signed V. Lopez Jr & Sons General Engineering to a one-time Project Labor Agreement for the Mobile Home Utility Upgrade project with PG&E.
INJURED WORKERS FUND
As of March 31, 2017, the balance of the Injured Workers Fund was $1,068,294.13. In the first quarter of 2017, the fund paid out two (2) claims.
DISPATCH
Please call the Hotline after hours for daily counts related to actual numbers on the Books. All 1245 OSL members are encouraged to sign up and register your own personal account through the Local 1245 website. Once registered, you will be able to check your books status, make changes to personal information, pay union dues and even check on available jobs without having to call the dispatch office for this information. This is a very useful tool for our OSL members.