Episode Transcript
[00:00:07] Anne Larson: Welcome back to on the Fringe. I'm your host, Ann Larson. We're here at the IBEW 5th District progress meeting in New Orleans. And if you've never been to one of these, which most of you probably have, it's worth explaining why they matter. A progress meeting is a conference where leadership and business managers and representatives from locals across the district come together. And you've got people like International President Kenny Cooper and International Secretary Treasurer Paul Noble here. I've seen them at every progress meeting we've been to, along with the district and regional leadership and business managers, leaderships from every local in the area. And they're really talking about what's working, what's going well in the industry, what's not working, some of the hard conversations. I've heard some hard political conversations today and where the industry is headed. There's a lot of relationship building, a lot of strategy going on in these rooms. And what's powerful about it is that the decisions and conversations that are happening in rooms like this don't just affect the contractors or the union leadership. They affect real people. They affect people who are working in this industry every day. The apprentices who are just getting started, families who are moving maybe from non union to union to build better wages and get better benefits.
And they affect the retirees who are counting on the promises that were made to them. So we are here often because of employee benefits, because EPR Live is a benefit reporting platform. And so that's what I listen for when I'm in those rooms. And I hear them talk about, like the new national benefit called neib. I hear them talking about FMCP and I hear people talking about, in general, the benefits of being a union member and getting great benefits. So it can sound, you know, when you talk about benefits, it can sound really administrative. It can sound like forms and boring stuff and, you know, reporting sounds pretty boring.
But then when you listen closely, you realize that it's very human. It's about making sure that people have medical coverage when they need it. It's about making sure that retirement funds are managed responsibly. And it's about protecting the trust and the promises that have been made.
So in my opinion, that's why these meetings matter, because progress in the industry doesn't just happen by accident. It happens because we get together and we talk about this stuff and we align with priorities. So we're excited to capture a few voices from the District today and to share what progress looks like from the people actually living it.
[00:02:40] Tony Johnson: My name is Tony Johnson. I am the assistant business manager of Local 852 out of Corinth, Mississippi, Mississippi. I'm also assistant apprenticeship director and the president of our local. The part of my work that has the biggest impact on people is being able to actually change someone's life by being becoming an IBEW member. I got out of the military. It was very tough for me to be able to find employment. The IBEW was the only person or organization that would give me an opportunity to be able to show what I have. I'm very blessed on that portion of it to be able to be an IBEW member. One issue around employee benefits that deserves more attention is the retirement. I feel as it would be the retirement for our people that are preparing to retire having that information, the correct information, to be able to make that transition a little bit easier. Because I know it's kind of hard sometimes because us at the local level, we're not unable to be able to get that information to be able to pass on to them. But we have some older, the older generation that are just not computer savvy as some of as we are. If anything that we could do to help them with that, I think that it would be better than what we got going on right now. One belief about work or life that's changed me over the years.
Traveling, meeting new people, learning new tactics and procedures of electrical application. I really enjoy that because what you get in California, you're not going to get and it's going to be different in Florida. That's one of the greatest things that I truly feel that has changed me is being able to meet other wiremen from other areas and be able to share ideas and be able to add more tools in my bag of tricks.
[00:04:26] Anne: Are we ready, Ray? When you are.
[00:04:27] Chris Murrah: All right. Chris Murrah Business Manager IBEW Local Union 852 the part of my work that has the biggest impact on people is trying to better the conditions for the work site for people to make sure they have the proper work tire, make sure they have the proper safety in place and job site conditions are acceptable. One issue around employee benefits that deserves more attention is the ability for the employee to see where their contributions are being made into their retirement and into their insurance, which has now become more digital through the medical care plans that we utilize and our reciprocating through erts and all. And the contractors using the EPR live to submit it so you can actually see what they've submitted. One belief about work, our life that's changed for me over the years is I'm definitely getting older and I'm not in as good shape as I used to be. So some of the entrances to our work sites have become exceptionally long, which that's to be expected by the nature of our work. The main belief I have that's changed for me is the fact that we all want to be treated equally, but we can't all be treated equally because unfortunately we're human and we're going to try to take advantage of everything that's given to us. So that's one of my beliefs, is that not everybody's as good as they seem to be.
[00:05:47] Terry Clark: Can I back out?
[00:05:49] Anne Larson: No.
[00:05:51]Terry Clark: Good morning. My name is Terry Clark, President of the 985 Union IBEW. Part of my work that has the biggest impact on people is during hard times when the lights are out like ice storms and hurricanes and things, we're able to get out there, get to work. And I have a great wife that takes care of home. So I could be out there making an impact on people in my community.
One issue around employee benefits that deserves more attention, education on the 401k and how it works and how to maneuver your money throughout the 401k to make a bigger impact in your latter years that you can't work.
Number three, one belief about work or life that has changed more over years.
I used to believe that you can only so many days or hours a year you can work, make money that, you know, don't worry about being off because you can be off when it ain't work to be. But I do, I believe more now there's only so many hours of life that you can spend with your family. So be sure not to go to work when there's important things going on because you'll make more money tomorrow. So that's not definitely a thing that you should use, you should do instead
[00:07:03] Selena Hayes: of hello, my name is Selena Hayes. I am the president of IBEW Local 1317 in Long, Mississippi. The part of my work that has the biggest impact on people is the fact that I love to help people and improve their livelihoods. One issue around employee benefit that deserve more attention is just to make sure that they get the best of what they deserve. Within my plant that I'm over. And one belief about work alert that's changed for me over the years is I've learned a lot of patience dealing with so many different people, so many walks of life. Everyone's journey is not the same.
[00:07:47] Reynold Reoslen: My name is Reynold Reoslen. I'm the vice president and Louisiana state organizer and coordinator. Part of the work that's the biggest impact on the people with me is I'm able to help those that have a little bit of the knowledge that I can bring to the table for them as for being in the field for 39 years, I can bring some information, a little bit of light to what they need to ask. I understand what they're talking about. A lot of people are confused about the difference between the union and non union and what we present and what we offer as a union, as a non union. And I feel that more education that they get when a union member actually takes the time to sit down and educate, we find that we bring more non union hands into the union and they experience a job and their life actually does change for the better they feel. I've had a good response since I've been in a union and I try to promote that when I talk to the young men and women of the new generation of the ibew.
Dedication, loyalty is the fact of which benefited my life and what helped change it. It's actually made me a better person than what I was when I was younger. My children see it, my peers see it. It's fun to play with. You know, there's ups and downs. But as I say one particular thing, I got not. I can't tell you one particular thing because it's a roller coaster that I would never want to start over. I enjoy it.
[00:09:20] Anne Larson: Hey everyone. Here are my answers to these questions. The part of my work that has the biggest impact on people is that I lead my team.
So I hire and fire and work with and hopefully grow all the people at Corelion Software. And I take that responsibility very seriously. One issue around employee benefits that deserves more attention is probably in our world anyway, it's traveling in reciprocity. It's such a painful part of the process when people move from their home local and they're working in a on a different local. How is that information reported to the home local, to the working local? It gets very messy. Nobody does it the same way. It's really complicated. It's a hard nut to crack. And I would really like to see, you know, figure out a way to solve that problem, ideally with EPR life. One belief about work or life that's changed for me over the years is my children were quite hard to raise and I had to learn about how, you know, we all are doing our best. Everybody's doing their best at any given time with the skills and the circumstances that, that they have in that moment that's helped me assume positive intent, which is a very hard mind shift sometimes. I think a lot of us go through the world and we assume negative intent from people in a lot of situations. So we see somebody doing something and we're like, oh, like what? What an idiot. But that's probably not true. They probably had a good reason for doing that, whether we agree with them or not. And I. What I've learned over the years is that if I assume positive intent, if I assume they were trying their best, at the very least, then I'm right more often than I'm wrong. And that's been a big help to me over the years. Sitting here at the 5th District progress meeting, one thing I keep coming back to is just a sense of appreciation. Every time we come to one of these meetings, we're reminded that this industry runs on more than infrastructure. It runs on commitment, on trust, on people who care deeply about doing things well and shoulder that responsibility. People who care about doing things the right way and have a lot of pride in their work. We're really grateful to the people who stopped by the table, and we're grateful to everybody. No matter if they sat down and stepped in from a microphone, I know that could be very intimidating. So thanks to everyone in the NECAIBW world for everything that you do. And we'll see you at the next progress meeting. This has been on the Fringe, brought to you by EPR Live. Thanks for listening.
