Around 1960, PG&E began contracting out the work of its line clearance tree trimmers. Contracting created pressure on contractors to hold down wages when competing for PG&E contracts. IBEW 1245 now needed to re-organize that work.
Conditions were abysmal for the tree trimmers in the early 1960s. Many had to provide their own trucks to do the work, or drive their own cars to far-flung work sites. Wage rates ranged from $2.05 to $2.40 an hour, with a five-year progression.
In October of 1960, employees of Utility Tree Service voted 15-6 to be represented by IBEW 1245. By 1966 the union had organized at least a half-dozen tree contractors, including employees of Davey Tree Surgery and Pacific Tree Expert, later known as Asplundh.
With union representation, tree trimmers’ wage rates became more standardized—and higher. The union bargained more paid holidays. Subsistence pay (for working away from home overnight) was doubled. Contractors began providing the tools needed to do the work instead of requiring employees to provide them.
Negotiating for the union at USBR in 1964 are, on the left side of the table: Ray Spence, Business
Representative Mark Cook, Max Paris, Assistant Business Manager Mert Walters, Bill Peitz, Ralph Henderson, George Thompson, and Gordon Sewell. IBEW 1245 Archive
Ron Weakley was organizing other work under PG&E’s control. In 1962 workers at Pacific Gas Transmission voted 35-9 to be represented by IBEW 1245. Ownership of the pipeline later passed to TransCanada, but the work still belonged to members of IBEW 1245.
When President John F. Kennedy, by executive order in 1962, recognized the right of federal employees to bargain collectively, IBEW 1245 began negotiating wage increases, equity adjustments and other improvements for U.S. Bureau of Reclamation employees working on California’s Central Valley Project.