Episode Transcript
[00:00:08] Welcome to on the Fringe. This show was recorded live at the IBEW 4th District progress meeting in Cleveland in July. We hope you enjoy the voices from the show.
[00:00:18] My name is Michael Powers. I am president and safety coordinator of IBEW Local Union 70, great heart of Washington, D.C.
[00:00:28] and yeah, the best part of my job is we change people's lives and we kind of do it on a daily basis. It's amazing how we're able to, you know, in our capacity, touch people at their core and provide an opportunity for them that is substantial, long term, build communities with great benefits. That's the best part of my job, is changing people's lives. And, well, I want to tell you, you know, we've had that opportunity almost on a daily basis, so it's very rewarding.
[00:01:00] So. And I guess, oh, the biggest challenge facing our area today, you know, our biggest challenge is, you know, keeping the work union so we can provide those opportunities to people build communities. And the word local and local 70 means something to us. You know, we. It's people working locally, you know, for the municipalities and the utilities.
[00:01:23] That's what the politicians want. That's what we want, and that's what we provide. You know, there's opportunities to do that locally with homegrown labor.
[00:01:31] And the lesson I've learned the hard way, you know, just try to stay within yourself, do the best you can, not overthink it, and, you know, try not to get out of my lane and do things that I can't do, because sometimes you want to do too much good sometimes, and you have to kind of stay within yourself and the capacities that you have, you know, so that's probably the hardest lesson. Do you have any stories to illustrate that?
[00:01:58] Yeah, I guess, you know, we. We had a, you know, sort of a frustrating grievance issue, you know, where we feel like, you know, we represented the member really well, wanted to do everything possible that we could, and we feel like, you know, he went outside the box and tried to take advantage of a situation that became very frustrating, you know, so, I mean, I was on the phone Today, you know, 20 minutes with the lawyers. So, yeah, that. That's kind of frustrating and it's. Sometimes less is more. Can't try too hard and try to do too much.
[00:02:32] My name is Mike McHale, and I'm the business manager of IBEW Local 24 in Baltimore, Maryland, the site of next year's progress meeting.
[00:02:42] The best part of my job is working for men and women to try to increase their quality of life, helping people learn the Apprenticeship. Learn a trade through apprenticeship and everything that comes with that. It's tough, but it's rewarding work.
[00:02:58] The biggest challenge facing our area today is massive growth in the technology sector.
[00:03:05] We have more jobs than we have people, and potentially those jobs will pay more.
[00:03:11] And your traditional markets may suffer if you're not able to get people to backfill those jobs. So I suspect we'll grow by about 25% in the next year and a half, maybe 50% in the next two years.
[00:03:25] One lesson I've learned the hard way. Everybody's not your friend.
[00:03:30] Sometimes. If you're genuine and you say what's on your mind and, and you joke and cut up with people, it can be misinterpreted. And not everybody, not everybody's your friend.
[00:03:39] But, I mean, I think I've been talking to you guys for the last 45 minutes, right? And now you and I have a relationship that we certainly didn't have before our conversation. And John knows all kind of stuff about me.
[00:03:51] He didn't ask to know that. But what you find out over time is that humans are humans, no matter what the kind of work you do. And everybody has got something going on in their life that if you can connect with them, they can be helpful to you later and you can be helpful to them.
[00:04:09] So that's kind of what I've learned. Well, I was curious, we were starting to talk about earlier about your heart election.
[00:04:17] So I am curious about the difference between IBEW and NECA. One difference. There's many differences. But one difference is that the NECA business managers are hired and the IBEW leadership is elected. And I'm curious, from your perspective, what are the benefits of elections and what are the challenges with elections?
[00:04:39] Well, I mean, I think it's fair to say that the IBEW is an intensely democratic organization. Our membership nationwide get to choose our leadership every three years.
[00:04:51] You know, leadership, especially modern leadership, has to be able to adapt and listen to your members.
[00:04:58] Not everybody's going to like what you're doing.
[00:05:01] One of the hardest parts really is the business manager very often has information that may or may not work out three years from now or four years from now. And the members, for a bunch of reasons, aren't privy to it. And they think that they know something you don't know.
[00:05:18] So it's important to keep them in the loop as best you can.
[00:05:22] But sometimes you just can't talk about what's going on. It's business.
[00:05:27] I will say this.
[00:05:29] I'm on CIR as well. As a panelist, I see a lot of NECA folks around.
[00:05:35] It is tough, I think, on the NECA side to be a chapter manager. I got to keep, in theory 2,500 members happy, but three years at a clip, the NECA chapter manager has to try to lead, literally, the people that are paying their salary, and it can be difficult as well. In Baltimore, we have a real good LMCC Labor Management Cooperative Committee. It was part of one of the earlier workshops, and we do a tremendous amount of work together that LMCC.
[00:06:04] I wonder if part of the difference that you're highlighting with the NECA chapter managers is that you have 2,500 members, but they're all one member.
[00:06:13] There's not, presumably, one member that's more important than another member in your mind. Correct. Versus the NECA chapter has to deal with the NECA membership and sometimes other contractors that aren't NECA, that are all various sizes and levels of power. Yeah. For us, what's interesting is fraternal organizations in general aren't doing like, the world's changed. And whether it's the phones, whether it's modern communication, whether it's lack of time, whether it's post Covid. I think, although this happened before COVID people just aren't as involved on our side as they used to be. So one of the hard things to know when you're a business manager is if you have half your membership that do not participate at all, is it because everything's great? Is it because they're satisfied? Is it because they're disenchanted? Like, you want to understand why they don't participate?
[00:07:16] And I think the bigger your local union gets, the harder it is to tell why they're not participating. We have a sister local, great friends with them, Local 307 in Cumberland, Maryland. And Rod's local is about 400 members. And I would say Rod can probably talk to all 400 of his members if he wants in not a lot of time. We have other locals in the IBEW that have, you know, in excess of 12,000 members.
[00:07:42] And how does a person with 12,000 members as a business manager know if they're doing right by their members or not? NECA, you may have a NECA employer that has 2,000 employees, and then that chapter manager's got to balance that against an employer that's got 10 employees.
[00:08:00] And it's the same thing like. And it, it, it's what I'm noticing in our business is on the NECA side, I hope I Don't get myself in trouble. But in Baltimore, traditionally the employers were family owned and it would be from one generation of the family, the next generation of family. A lot of them went through the apprenticeship along the way.
[00:08:20] What I'm seeing more of now is roll ups and private equity buying employers and the relationships then change. Like people who were owners are now general managers. And I think part of it's so that those families can get their money out of the business and retire in a lot of cases. But it's the same issue in healthcare and financial services. It is harder and harder for a labor organization to put stuff out for competition when only three people own everything.
[00:08:51] That is what I notice is on our JATC, on our LMCC, on our negotiating committee, I can see a point in time where what used to be owner management, literally like the folks who started the company or owned it, will eventually wind up being employees of the holding company that owns their business. Now, I don't know how it's going to work out in the long run, but that is an interesting trend.
[00:09:15] So my name is Danny Doss, IBEW Local 317's membership development representative, one of the outside representatives. So again, yep, IBEW317. I'm also a trustee for our apprenticeship program ALBAT.
[00:09:28] So as far as the best part of my job, you know, my dad was organized into the IBEW years ago and got me and my brother both started into it. So my position as membership development really hits home to where I can kind of provide the same opportunities to a bunch of people that don't know basically what the IBEW is or what it's all about, to kind of get them started into this line of work or at least give them the information, then let them take off.
[00:09:56] Biggest challenges facing our industry today when it comes to outside line construction. We kind of joke about it when our office, whenever a storm comes through, a lot of our contractors out there that's working, they lose the local workforce to those storms to chase them. So, you know, a lot of times it's the customer recognizes that it's a pain point when it comes to manning your work, when you don't have your local guys who are really tied to working to the contractors. So it almost seems like there should be something maybe put in the CBAs that if a storm or something comes to maybe some way of helping to keep the local workforce working for those contractors, you know, any way it can, or something that we can do on the IBEW side to kind of help make sure that we don't lose the workforce out there working, which again the customer sees and cost us our work. Yeah, so that's that a little bit with the big projects too, that it'll suck all the people away and then those local contractors sometimes have to go non union. Yeah, exactly. Hate that more than anything even thought of it. You know, we've got a lot of, of people at least on the books from non union side to help backfill those jobs. But between organizing and apprenticeship, there's still a definite need for more and more people as things kind of get rolling. You know, one lesson I've learned the hard way, everything I pretty much do is I learned the hard way.
[00:11:19] So, you know, it seems like when it comes to every organization that I've gotten into, there's no training at all. It seems like to at least when you first get started on everything, there's no person that you can talk to that's done some of the same stuff. Everybody kind of has their own spin when they get into it. So I guess one thing I've learned the hard way is, you know, when we do have somebody come in, at least I've got my knowledge. You know, Jason here, he's brand new. I worked with him in the field when he was a groundman, you know, so he's came in. I try to at least take that as what I've seen in my history working for the apprenticeship, the IBEW317 and train that. So it almost needs to seem like there is a class for maybe brand new officers of the local. Heck they may be, but it's a, it's even titles sometimes cross. So like I'm membership development but I also will help sometimes fill in job calls. You know, I'm right there with those guys all the way through their apprenticeship program. You know, there's. I don't think there's any kind of that broad a spectrum of training that we could kind of do that would alleviate that problem. But that's a, that's a hard lesson that you kind of got to be. This is as many years that you've got in this, these positions. And then it's kind of scary when you have some of your elections come up that if you don't have those same representatives back in there or they vote everybody out, you're starting back over. And it kind of sets some things back, you know, so we've been lucky enough, our members seem to be happy enough to allow us the opportunity to continually represent them for a long period of time, which has Moved us way on further as far as just progressing our local. Can I ask you a question about elections? Because this is a huge difference between IBEW and NECA yeah. NECA hires chapter managers and chapter staff and all of that stuff. And IBEW is elected, primarily elected. Right. Exactly where the leadership is. So what are the benefits of having those elections? And then you already pointed out one challenge, but are there other challenges that you see with that? I guess, you know, it kind of does give you a pulse on how well you're doing when you. When you do see those votes come in from members on, okay, well, it seems like they're happy with what we're doing. It's rewarding to kind of see that everybody's kind of happy. You don't hear anybody else running against you. So, you know, that's. Like I said, that's a benefit to it at least to know that, okay, well, I'm doing what I'm supposed to do and I'm being recognized by our members who are, you know, continually to vote us back in, you know, so I'd say that's probably at least a piece of it, you know. Yeah. Trying to think. Anything else I might add to it.
[00:13:58] Is it stressful? Yeah, there's so many stresses when it comes to this job.
[00:14:03] That's the least of the stresses. Yeah, it is. I really don't worry about it. I don't even think about elections personally. When they come up. I just kind of keep my nose to the grindstone, try to make sure everybody gets their phone calls answered. If they call and leave a voicemail call, call them back. You know what I mean? Because everybody's got their own set of issues that if you don't address it, it could get wildly out of control. Not to talk about EPR, but at least in EPR we have.
[00:14:26] We have traffic signal, we have commercial line, we have got on the outside, we've also got telecommunications. And each of those different agreements have different benefits that's listed in there. And if you don't go in and change to make sure that if somebody comes from a traffic side, but they want to be a lineman and they flip over on the line side, if you don't make sure that they're switched in the system appropriately, heck, they'll have Lineco insurance for a long period of time and miss out on all the local benefits that we have underneath the particular 400A agreement. So it's almost like something if there was a. And that's a pain point I've brought up to other people. But it'd be helpful if members could kind of look over what they've got on a, maybe a yearly basis to make sure that they're in the right benefits, you know what I mean? Because we get flooded with people, you know, sometimes we don't keep track of everything because again, they'll jump from the traffic signal side over to the power side. And again, it can cost some benefits if you don't catch it and make sure it's changing the system, you know, again, that's a pain point. We're trying to get the system moved in the right direction. I brought up a couple people, but ultimately it's like if we have a staff meeting after we have union meetings will make sure that, okay, well, so and so's changing his classification from a traffic signal technician to an apprentice lineman. Let's make sure we change them in a system off of the line co and put him into the proper benefit funds, you know? Yeah. So I think, oh my gosh, yeah, for sure. Or heck, some of them, if they get into membership and they don't switch it, they don't get the mini card, you know, that HRA account, it's a huge part. I mean, I've used it myself so many times, you know, it's, it's, it's a huge benefit to have. So if they don't switch it in the system, they continue being line code. They're almost looked at as a traveler in their own home local, you know, by not switching it, they don't get all the benefits of being the member at the local union's level. You know, it's confusing some of the process is. But that's where we've been in so long. We've seen these issues happen over the past and kind of gotten addressed moving things forward. You know, it's almost like I have to tell the person on the other end of the phone, be sure you remind me when this time comes, remind me.
[00:16:39] I kind of put it on them because I can't remember everything. Yeah, it is their job. I think from our perspective it's the contractor should know. And ideally the local is also there as a, as a stopgap to make sure that everything's matching and the classifications in particular. Oh yeah. Seen pain points in the past to where members would get in and their classification from the apprenticeship wouldn't get changed. So they'd almost hop out of the apprenticeship and still be a Grauman ticket. But heck, they should have been an apprentice substation technician months, years ago. You know, their ticket doesn't match what they're actually doing on the job. So again, we've kind of got that issue solved just some by kind of putting people in certain parameters in the program that we use lpxp. So it's at a blink of an eye you can see who all is in the apprenticeship. And if their classifications don't show a certain code, we know, okay, that person needs to be figured out on did they quit or what's the situation with them. Pull them out of there because they're still listed under the apprenticeship as their employer. Or it's just a. It's a whole bunch of issues. But everybody in our office is really picked up at 3:17. You know, we all take notes in the system.
[00:17:47] We just continually look at the process and see what we can do better. Whenever you know, a glitch or something comes up. We're still doing paper applications.
[00:17:57] One thing I'm trying to tinker with on moving something forward is and I didn't even know about it was Microsoft forms. You know, you all probably hear about this every day. But when someone comes to 317 we have one girl who takes care of this. And if she doesn't get to the paperwork cause she gets swamped, you know what I mean? And the person signs the out of work list.
[00:18:17] It holds up a lot of processes on making job calls if the books aren't up to date. So if we had Microsoft forms using that instead of the paper application, anyone in the office could register the person into the system so that they can be registered to the out of work list whenever that time comes. So I'm tinkering with it. I'm using it for some organizing things too. Like if there's somebody who comes in who's got.
[00:18:41] They'll give you your W2s but you can't look at that and see what their work history was. Was it on distribution? Transmission, you know, was. Was it just all on the groundwork?
[00:18:50] So a lot of times I. I've taken that form and kind of edited it to where shows. Where have you worked at in Substation Transmission? Distribution. We kind of share it through the fourth district a little bit. That form. It's been no means accepted across the fourth district. But a lot of locals are kind of just tinkering with Microsoft forms. You know, I find new things in Microsoft all the time. Yeah, I didn't know how to. I've just been playing with Planner. I didn't know they had that.
[00:19:17] Nope. I dumbed across it myself. Because I was trying to reach out to one of the senators to invite them to come to our apprenticeship program and filled out a whole form. And I seen Microsoft form. I'm like, I'm gonna look into this.
[00:19:32] I'm Charlie Kenzer. I'm a training director for IBEW Local Unit 212 in Cincinnati, Ohio.
[00:19:37] I would say the best part about my job is we get to help people.
[00:19:41] Apprentices start out young. They don't really have a whole lot. And then by the time they graduate, usually they get marriage. They have houses and cars and stuff. It's pretty cool watching them progress and mature.
[00:19:53] One of the biggest challenges that we have is people basically understanding what the trades do, mechanical ability. When you ask young kids today what their hobbies are, number one hobby is probably video games. Doesn't mean they can't be a good electrician, but it doesn't mean they can't either, right? So it's just a little difference from when I grew up to now. It's a generational thing that the way we learn, right? I learned through books. Paper. I had paper atlases in my car, phone books.
[00:20:21] Now everything's YouTube and phones and stuff. So they learn differently, they speak differently, and they think differently. But I guess that's always been the case.
[00:20:30] Yeah. The lesson I learned the hard way is just that, you know, teaching classes. These young, young guys, we do electrical code classes. So it's a book. National Electrical Code is a book, right? So these young kids don't like reading books. They don't understand why they have to open a book.
[00:20:46] So I would give. I gave a class to some high schoolers once.
[00:20:49] And at the class I was talking about, if you're electrician now, you may get asked to do side work a little bit. So let's say your grandma gets changes in her gas range for electric range, and now you. She calls you to hook the electric up. Now you got to figure out what size your wires are and everything. Where do you find it? I want everyone to find it. So they're all going through their code book looking for the section. I got one kid in the back not doing anything. And so I tell him, hey, this is adult education. If you don't want to participate, you don't have to. You can just leave. He said, but I already have the answer.
[00:21:20] He got it on his phone. He now had the answer. He had the right answer. So there's a lesson I learned the hard way. The way they learn is not the way I learned.
[00:21:30] My name is Jim Sturgill. I'm an executive board member, and I'm with Local 212 IBEW.
[00:21:37] The best part of my job is the craftsmanship. Part of it, just to see your work, be proud of it, I guess, is just to build something and have it be a nice product.
[00:21:52] Do you go by buildings and say, I helped build that? I did. Yeah, I do. I have three daughters that I always show. I'm like, hey, this is. I worked here. I did this, or whatever. I'm always having stories with them. So the biggest challenge facing our area of the day is I think it's just a fast pace. It seems like jobs are wanting less and less time to get done. Like, the deadlines, I think, is the biggest thing.
[00:22:20] So do you have a lot of work going on in your area? There is a lot of work in Cincinnati. Yeah. And they're pushing you to do it faster? Yeah, they just. Yeah, we want this done so we can open up. Like, there's a convention center going on right now. They want this done by this date so they can move in and then start, you know, start bringing people in. So, yeah, just seems like there's a lot of that going on.
[00:22:45] One lesson I've learned the hard way is mainly trusting your own instinct. And you got a foreman or someone out there, they're telling you what to do, but, you know, you gotta, you know, think for yourself. And sometimes you gotta double check the prince or whatever. It's like you can't always go by what they're saying because everybody. Everybody makes mistakes. So we're all human, you know.
[00:23:11] Do you have a story about that?
[00:23:14] I'm sure I have several stories about that.
[00:23:16] It's like with electric work, you know, it's like they tell you, you know, always check and make sure everything's off.
[00:23:24] And because just because they say it's off doesn't mean, you know, someone else came in and turned a breaker back on. And you don't want to get shocked or anything like that. So it's like you really. You got to look out for yourself, too, as well as looking out for everyone else on the job. So. So it's a tough job. You know, you don't want to get anyone hurt or get hurt yourself. So.
[00:23:47] So trust but verify. Yes, exactly. Yeah. Always check. Always check. That's a good lesson. Yes, it is.
[00:23:54] I think it's a lesson.
[00:23:57] I would say quite a few electricians have learned the hard way on that one. So. Yeah.
[00:24:04] My name is Richard Padilla. I am the executive director for the Atlantic Coast NECA Chapter National Electrical Contractors Association. I would say the best part of my job is just the relationships and connections that I get to build with all the people in my industry. There's a lot of different, you know, stakeholders, and it's very satisfying to bring in a lot of groups of people who might have different objectives to do the same things and advance the industry.
[00:24:32] I say the biggest challenge we have today is just recruitment, workforce development. You know, having enough manpower seems to be. There's plenty of work for everybody, but we always need more people in our. To recruit more people to be electricians.
[00:24:46] And one lesson I've learned the hard way, I guess I would say the importance of just communication, clear communication, and being very intentional with and frequent with communications to be clear. When just transitioning to EPRLive, there is certainly some things that I think I could have done better in my office to get people ready for that process. So making this change definitely brought that out. So you guys were all brand new to that office, too. It must have been pretty hectic there. It was hectic. You. You guys did a great job of helping us, you know, stay organized, which I appreciate. But. Yeah, no, it definitely was just with new staff, you know, a lot of locals. A lot of locals. So it was challenging. We got through it. You know, there's definitely things that I think could have done better to help ourselves out and help you guys out, but overall, you know, went really well, I would say. So. That's great. I think if Atlantic coast chapter NECA can transition to EPRLive, then any NECA chapter can do it.
[00:25:49] You guys had a lot of headwinds. Yeah, we had a lot of agreements. So it's just. It was a long, you know, transition and process, so. But yeah, I think you're. I think you're right. If anybody, if. If we can do it, you know, there's not too many other chapters that have as many locals and agreements, so anybody can, you know.
[00:26:07] My name is Mark Savage. I own a underground training and consulting company called Deadbreak. And we work in all types of the industries, basically utility industry, contracting industry, renewables industry, certain things like that. So, yeah, that's a little bit of the background myself. So I will have to say, honestly, the best part of my job is the seeing a completion of a student or an apprentice.
[00:26:37] So seeing them from day one, Some people not even know how to read a ruler.
[00:26:43] To three and a half years, four years later now, you know, their troubleshooting network, you know, they have stuff memorized in their brain they don't need the rulers anymore as a sense of, oh, it's nine and a half, boom, you know, they're looking right down and they already got everything marched matched out. So that's. Mine is very successful. And I will add another additional to that which I'm getting into is being able to bring veterans into our workforce. So I'm a Marine Corps vet myself, so I want to bring Marine Corps vets and. Or not just Marine Corps, but any time event next would be the biggest challenge facing our area today.
[00:27:21] So I have a unique challenge for this. I'm a 24 year cable splicer.
[00:27:27] If you were to probably ask, take a poll in this conference right here, everyone in the room last night and say, how many cable splicers do we have? I probably would have been the only one to raise my hand.
[00:27:39] So that's the reason why I started what I did. So the challenge is, is to show the industry.
[00:27:46] Okay? And this isn't a knock on anyone, but the underground work that goes to the overhead is urd where they build an elbow and a termination.
[00:27:56] I come from 55,000 manholes and I didn't look above my head for 18 years. Okay? We didn't know what any of that was. So the challenge is there's not a lot of me in the industry. There's a ton of overhead guys, guys. So the overhead guys do some underground work. But what they don't know is the difference between how to build a vault and building manhole work. It's totally different. So what they know of that is very small and minute. So the challenge is trying to make it known that it needs to be. You need to have some sort of training in the industry. So the challenge is getting that word out. And now we have someone because it wasn't. There really wasn't anyone like myself in the industry. It's a couple of us out there, but it's more localized. So I'm trying to make this a national thing so we can get that training out. So that's my biggest challenge. So what's the best piece of advice no one ever gave me? It would be learn the whys behind why you are doing what you're doing.
[00:28:56] I have challenges with, with, you know, learning and things like that.
[00:29:00] With the additional challenge of learning is there's never been a curriculum that has been as thorough as something like that. What I'm writing. So to get the information from somebody that says, hey, if I'm off by a half an inch, what's the big deal?
[00:29:17] Just do it right, kid. That's the only explanation you got. Well, I'm changing that.
[00:29:22] I'm teaching the reason why behind what you do. So for the guys and girls that are out there in the industry, don't just take, just do it that way. Learn the reason why behind what you're doing it. Because being a cable splicer, when you come across something that doesn't work so there's no kit to put that together, you have to physically come up with something to put that together.
[00:29:49] So there's voltage ratings that need to be. What are your cutbacks, the all that stuff? As a cable splicer, you would know that as someone that just didn't do it, you just try to guess and go. But if you know the whys behind it, you know what you're, you know, engineering, you can engineer it yourself. If you know the voltage, you know, off of everything else that you ever built. Okay, I need five and a half of semicon, nine and a half, you know, so you can build it yourself. But you would never know that if you didn't know the whys behind it.
[00:30:16] All right, guys, my name is Tom Myers. I'm the president of IBEW Local 26 in Washington D.C. a local of about 12,000 members and a very large jurisdiction. The best part of my job is making the average day of an electrician better, providing the better improvements in benefits and salaries and making sure that they're not mistreated in the field. Arguably, that takes up a large portion of my day and it takes up a big portion of negotiations trying to make sure that the systems are put in place, that a working electrician can contact somebody and make sure that everything is going fine. So they get home in the same condition they left their house to their family.
[00:30:59] The biggest challenge facing our area today in dc, it's just qualified electricians. That's it. That's the same answer you're going to get from every union president, every union business manager and every GC in the country. Qualified labor.
[00:31:15] The biggest kept secret secret in America for the past 50 decades is the trades.
[00:31:20] For years and years and years, all high school graduates were told, go to college, go to college, go to college. Well, I make more money than most college graduates and I'm a tradesman, I'm an electrician.
[00:31:31] My apprentices, they go to school for five years, they earn a lot of money and they leave with no debt. With a skill that is so much in demand that we have people all over this country being paid extra money just because they are qualified as electricians. A five year apprenticeship is the equivalent of a four year college degree. I took 60 tests. I have three licenses. I don't see how I'm any different than a professional doctor, lawyer, or whatever you want to call it. It's just my specialty happens to be electrical construction.
[00:32:01] One lesson I've learned the hard way, that can go in a lot of different directions, boys and girls, and I'm going to try to keep this one clean.
[00:32:11] The single most important thing is when you're dealing with a construction site is if it seems wrong, ask somebody. I've seen too many people end up in the hospital, have been to too many funerals, because somebody said, well, you know what, this must be okay because everybody else is doing it. Luck runs out on everybody. It's just a matter of how bad it gets. I don't like going to funerals, but we do. And it's usually because somebody made a bad decision.
[00:32:40] The rules are in place, guys. I tell all my guys forever, the rules and regulations in the OSHA guides have a body count behind them. They're not arbitrary rules that somebody just threw out there. Somebody died to get that rule in there. And trying to push back against those rules is the equivalent of saying, I don't value your life.
[00:32:59] I need you to produce more money for my company.
[00:33:03] You have the right, and I would argue that you have the responsibility to speak up anytime something is unsafe on the job. The most recent one is going to be these wet bulb temperatures. We're having people fall out on the job site.
[00:33:17] Somebody needs to look and see what's going on. Now I will say that my contractors or the contractors of Local 26 have stepped up for most of the, the wet bulb issues. But across the country, I still hear a whole bunch of stories about that.
[00:33:31] My name is Blaine Boone. I'm a Journeyman Wireman with IBEW Local 24, Baltimore. Best part of my job is, I think personally, is spreading the opportunity that I had that changed my life to other people and trying to train up the next generation to put forth their best effort to make this industry better and stronger so that it can stay around not just for them, but for even their children or their grandchildren thereafter. It really is a great opportunity. It changes lives.
[00:34:01] Biggest challenge facing our area today is ironically, the fact that there isn't enough people, you know, to fill the shoes of those retiring, younger members that are net like myself. I think about it all the time that I'm 14 years in and I was having a conversation with My friend, like, who is the next generation? Like, who are these young folks looking up to? And then we kind of had this realization, like, oh man, it's us. Like we're the guys that we used to look up to. So we got to make sure that we set the right example and bring up the right, you know, young ladies, young men to do the right thing. Which ironically kind of ties into one of the lessons I've learned the hard way. And that's to sometimes keep my mouth shut. Even when I don't agree with something, if it's going to help with the purpose and furthering the common good, even if I don't agree with it, but it's for everybody. I need to just go with it and not let my. My own personal opinions stop me from helping the movement move forward. That's been a hard one to deal with, but that's what you gotta do as you grow and, you know, move forward.
[00:35:13] My name is Devin Myrick. I am a 18 year member of the wonderful IBW Local Junior 24. I am the founding president of EWMC 24. I'm also the founding vice president of the district for EWMC fighting 4th. I serve now currently as the vice president of my local EWMC 24. And that came about because you know how it is with us work slow down, you got to go work somewhere else. I went to Kentucky to work. You know, we strict. We strictly bow bylaws. Bylaws states that the president has to be at the meeting. So I resigned. When I got back, I said, Mike Johnson, that's his name. You stay in that position. I'll just be the vice. Cause I'm about the team. So that's me. The best part of my job. Oh my goodness. I can say I could be here two hours with that question, but I'm gonna try my best to condense it. The best part about my job is primarily who I am today is trying to bring people together based off of or despite rather their race or how they look, sexual orientation preference. As I told them in there, I said I was real, real. I said even people look like me in my local. And I tell my organizers this for years. I even hold them accountable because there's people that look like me will hold y'all to the fire because of how y'all look, but they don't know y'all personally. I said that's not right. That's not so that's one of the things I love to do, is being an advocate just for that nonsense. Another thing I love is the relationships. I'm an extrovert. I love people. People are my purpose. I'm a protector. I love when women are on the job and I go up to them and I pull my safety glasses off, take my hat off. I say, you see what I look like? Yeah. You got any problems, come to me. That's me. I love that about it. In a nutshell, it just allowed me to be who I am. Even the turning of the tools, not just here or in meetings, but even on the job. Biggest challenge facing our area today. If I can be quite, I would say racism. I'm just going to be quite, quite frank, I think, I believe wholeheartedly is racism. Keith Edwards so eloquently mentioned the Constitution, which. That's the first thing I mention when I go to speak at one of my union meetings. Argue with me if you want. You can't because I got this. When you open that first page, it talks about, or second page, it talks about how you're supposed to treat your brother and your sister.
[00:37:21] So for me, that's definitely the hugest thing in my opinion is racism and probably some other stuff. But it all falls under that umbrella.
[00:37:28] One lesson I learned the hard way. That's a great question. I would probably say learning to control my temper because I'm 40 years old. I just turned 40 in April, and I've been dealing with racism for 40 years. So when I first got in a local, it was older journeymen. They would talk to you a certain way, and I was like, dude, I don't care what apprentices or how it used to be. You ain't going to talk to me like that. Like that. I learned that the hard way. I almost got thrown off the job. I almost got reprimanded three years after that. That's when I joined Renew. Then they came with EWMC and I locked in with the guys from 26, and they helped me, like, learn this stuff this side of it. And they also was telling me a certain way, you got to move. And I'm serious about integrity and wisdom and maturing just as a man. So that's. That's what I love. So my name is Gary Keels. I'm the Financial Secretary for IBEW Local 1805.
[00:38:22] The best part of my job is the actual getting to help people. A lot of the members don't know what it's like to be in the union because it's their first union job, which it was also mine.
[00:38:33] So giving them the guidance they need. To navigate through the various things they have to do and trying to find the people to replace me because none of us going to live forever so I need a replacement because I replace someone else.
[00:38:46] We have an interesting dynamic where our business manager is allowed to choose the shop stewards but what he does is he gives a committee of us together and we all talk about it and bring the good and bad points maybe we see in people and it makes it so we all have a part in building our future.
[00:39:07] So that's one of you know, best parts of my job. Anyway, the biggest challenge facing the area today is I would say turnout. I'm having a hard time getting people to show up and we try various things and it hasn't quite clicked. Just trying to get the membership more involved because like I said earlier, for the first thing to get new leaders you need people. And if the people aren't there, then how do you get someone to replace you? I mean, you know, eventually you all just fall off. Most of the time my job involves what I'm doing and then because I actually test radar systems so most of the time I'm testing radar systems I don't see the other people working.
[00:39:53] So a lot of my interaction with them is when something happens or something's going wrong other than that it's at the meetings or if they stop me in the hallway for whatever they have.
[00:40:05] So the way I get an interface with all the members is to see them at the meeting. So if they're not there I don't get to see them. So trying to find a way to get them there just to get more participation. Cuz I mean more hands makes work light.
[00:40:21] The one lesson I've heard the hard way is when to speak out.
[00:40:27] There are times I think someone mentioned at last event we were in speaking out in the middle of a meeting can be a problem because people feel like they're being attacked. So if the business manager or someone's up at the D talking and you disagree with them, it can become more of a personal thing as opposed to accomplishing any goals.
[00:40:52] So that's a lesson learned the hard way. Definitely. So do you feel like you had to speak out more or you had to like time it? Better Timing is everything. Sometimes speaking out in front of everyone causes a problem where you can speak out or you can speak to a person later.
[00:41:10] My name is Ansylem Bartholomew, I'm the business manager Local 362 financial secretary.
[00:41:19] I govern guys between Washington D.C. Myrtleville, Virginia we are the sole union governing Amtrak electricians in D.C. and around the country.
[00:41:33] The best part of my job as an electrician, I would say, you know, I'm an ex cop. I decided back in high school I would do electrical. And after I decided I didn't want to be in that risky business, I decided to go in another risky business, which is to be an electrician. My job as an electrician at Amtrak is very, very exciting. It's because you have repaired an equipment in such a way that it is roadworthy and safe for passengers. It's really exciting to me. That's one thing I learned from my trainer who trained me when I came into Amtrak. He said, always give customers a good product, which is what I aim to do every day as a business manager. It's equally as exciting.
[00:42:17] Situations are different, but, you know, we treat them all as somebody who has an issue that needs to be dealt.
[00:42:24] These meetings really teach me a lot. Over the years, I've met some really exciting people, and most of the people here really put their habits in theory, up there to him, just like myself. And the reason why I say that is because we exchange situations, ideas, problem solving and good. I mean, I know my situation seem to be difficult sometimes, but when you hear other stuff, sometimes, yeah, it's rather challenging. These meetings really does a lot to the learning.
