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IBEW1245

The power is in our hands

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PART-III

Chapter 53: An Industry Out of Joint

Business Manager Perry Zimmerman greets Lineman Marshall Williams in PG&E’s Kern Division in 2002. Zimmerman visited some 200 work places during his first year in office. IBEW 1245 Archive

Business Manager Perry Zimmerman greets Lineman Marshall Williams in PG&E’s Kern Division in 2002. Zimmerman visited some 200 work places during his first year in office. IBEW 1245 Archive

As business manager, Perry Zimmerman visited hundreds of worksites and insisted that his staff be visible as well. He consciously downshifted relations with the top brass at PG&E and focused on strengthening the union’s traditional bargaining relationship with PG&E’s Department of Industrial Relations. He named staff attorney Tom Dalzell, an experienced negotiator, as Senior Assistant Business Manager.

During the first 16 months of Zimmerman’s term, IBEW 1245 beat back three attempts by public power activists to engineer a municipal takeover of PG&E’s assets in San Francisco. IBEW 1245 had no objection in principle to municipal ownership, but opposed needless changes in ownership that threatened members’ livelihoods.

In early 2004, Zimmerman warned that service reliability was again at risk, and told PG&E officers they should prioritize staffing and training. Tom King, PG&E’s new Chief of Utility Operations, ignored this advice and launched a massive restructuring of the company instead. Over the next three years PG&E spent a billion dollars on “Business Transformation,” with a focus on consultant-driven consolidation, automation and downsizing. It was a massive failure, further evidence of an industry knocked out of joint by the long deregulation fiasco.

In 2002, Zimmerman and the Executive Board finalized plans to move the union hall to Vacaville. Ronald T. Weakley Hall was opened in October of 2003 with Weakley himself in attendance.

Zimmerman was re-elected as business manager in 2004 by a comfortable margin, but resigned in mid-2006. The Executive Board appointed Dalzell to finish out Zimmerman’s term.

Next: Chapter 54

  • Introduction to the History of IBEW Local 1245
    • Return to Part I
    • Return to Part II
  • Chapter 40: The Logic of Solidarity
  • Chapter 41: Organizing Sierra Pacific Power
  • Chapter 42: Organizing the Sacramento Municipal Utility District
  • Chapter 43: Organizing Citizens Utilities
  • Chapter 44: Organizing the Work
  • Chapter 45: Organizing Irrigation Districts
  • Chapter 46: Welcoming All Comers
  • Chapter 47: The Mechanic
  • Chapter 48: Season of Strikes
  • Chapter 49: Health, Safety … and Politics
  • Chapter 50: The Asplundh Strike of 1992
  • Chapter 51: The War Over Downsizing
  • Chapter 52: The Enron Debacle
  • Chapter 53: An Industry Out of Joint
  • Chapter 54: All Out Dog Fights
  • Chapter 55: Service and Sacrifice
  • Chapter 56: Mobilizing the Future
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