Brothers and sisters:
My bicycle Murray and I made it to South Bend, Indiana. Along that 242 mile journey I learned a couple of things about heading west: there is a reason the winds are called PREVAILING westerly’s, America is primarily made up of corn and soybeans (with the occasional fruit orchard thrown in for flavor), even on places that on the map look desolate, there are farm houses, every one of those farm houses has a dog and every one of them thinks they are a Rottweiler. Anyway, it was an interesting adventure that I will be sharing soon enough with a much wider audience. Stay tuned for further information.
There is a lot going on so I will get right to it….
IUEC Local 17 currently has nine probationary apprentices added to the local, seven by Otis and two by Schindler. They joined the apprentices waiting for the mechanics exam in classes on Wednesday night. Seven of the fourth –year apprentices that were eligible to sit for the mechanics exam took the test. To those I have to say that the mechanics exam is the only unbiased measure of your knowledge you will ever have on this business. Most of what others perceive we know comes second or third hand and is rarely accurate. I will have the names of those that passed next month.
Sign up is available for an OSHA 10 class. Most people working construction or mod know that often times the general contractor requires at the very least an OSHA 10 card. Soon, many sites will require the advanced OSHA 30 card in order to work on site. The OSHA 10 class is a ten-hour class covering the history of OSHA and touches on all aspects of construction site safety. Please contact Business Agent Tim Moennich for dates and further information.
I am also encouraging everyone to go to the NEIEP website, neiep.org, to participate in the online continuing educational opportunities that NEIEP has available. Classes like rigging and signaling are available as well as interactive labs of all descriptions. I recently had the pleasure of visiting the NEIEP headquarters and can tell you first hand that they are ramping up several new online and lab-oriented offerings.
The continuing education offered is how we keep our work. Get educated and keep working.
The Elevator Industry Work Preservation Fund has a video about its Qualified Elevator Inspector Program (QEI). Work Preservation is the organization that works on safety-related issues for both the IUEC members and its signatory companies. There is an opening for a QEI inspector in Hawaii and the State of Ohio is looking for two inspectors for the Northeast Ohio area. For more information, contact Tim at 431-8088.
Frank Christensen, International Vice-President out of Chicago’s IUEC Local 2, was elected by the General Executive Board to fill the vacancy created by the resignation and retirement of Dana Brigham. Congratulations to Brother Christensen and may he lead in example and wisdom.
The new contract requires that we take 20 vacation days a year. Even though there was a 15-day requirement at the start of this year and through the first half until the new contract took effect in July, the new contracts 20-day requirement takes precedence. Be sure you have all of your time in or be prepared to visit the Executive Board.
The November 9, December 14 and January11 meetings are required mandatory special meetings for all members for the nomination, election and installation of officers. There will be no excuses accepted for non-attendance.
In case you have not noticed, this is a political year. Starting August 1, IUEC members can voluntarily contribute to the National Elevator Constructors Political Action Committee (NEC-PAC). You can contribute as little as five or ten cents per hour or any amount you would like. There is an authorization form in the back of the new contract book. If you have any questions, again, please contact Tim.
IUEC Local 17 sends its most sincere condolences out to the families of Joe Udovic and John Sutter, also known as Santa, both of which passed away in July. Both of them will be missed.
As of this writing there are nine out-of-towners working in IUEC Local 17.
Percentages
Obama-Romney, Brown-Mandel, Rennaci-Sutton… it does not take a lot of insight to realize that this is a political year. The slings and arrows flying back and forth in this carousel of outrageous fortune make even the most ravenous political junkie long for a methadone clinic. All of them are playing a game of percentages. Please read on and I will explain.
What everyone involved in politics knows, and is immediately transferable to your daily life, is there are three types of people you will meet. There are those that will follow you to the Gates of Hell and thank you for taking them there, there are those that would not spit on you if you were on fire and, finally, everyone in between.
Think about this for a moment. If you break it down in simple math, one out of every three people falls into one of those categories, but on a finer examination we discover that instead of the few that may fall into the extremes, most everyone falls closer to the middle. When a political campaign begins, there is an extreme effort to identify those on both ends and tailor the message to maximize those in the first group and enough of the last to counter the influence of the second. This is the struggle every organization faces. A practical and very timely example is Apple and their release of new products. There are people that will sit outside for hours waiting for the doors to open to be the first to buy the iPhone 5, for example, and those that will wait until their current contract is up to upgrade. There are those that are sufficiently upset with Apple’s privacy policies or have a negative view of the company in general to never buy an Apple product ever. Apple does not need to reach these people, their minds are made up. This is why they keep advertising to convince the rest of us to pay $300 for the 32 Gig version.
Throughout the current campaign, Governor Romney has steadfastly refused to release any more tax returns than for the 2010 and 2011 tax years. He recently released his 2011 tax return and claimed an income of $13.7 million and paid $1.9 million in taxes, an effective tax rate of 13.8%. He also claimed $2.25 million in charitable deductions. Had he claimed the full $4.0 million he and his wife donated his effective rate would have been about 9 percent. For 2010 Romney’s income was $21.7 million and he paid an effective rate of 13.9 %. The accounting firm of Pricewaterhouse Coopers, who handle the Romney’s taxes, released a statement that his annual effective tax rate for the past 20 years is 20.2%
I don’t pay more than are legally due and frankly if I had paid more than are legally due I don’t think I’d be qualified to become president. I’d think people would want me to follow the law and pay only what the tax code requires.
–Mitt Romney, interviewed by David Muir of ABC News, 7/29/12
Over the years the Hispanic population of the United States has risen dramatically, particularly in the southwest because of the proximity to Mexico, Central and South America. In 2010 the Pew Research Center did a study of the Latino electorate. They found that nationally they are 16.3% of the population and 10.1% of the eligible voters but only seven percent of the actual voters who come to the polls. Over the years many presidential candidates and presidents have courted the Hispanic vote by promising everything from immigration reform to amnesty for illegals.
In 1986 Ronald Reagan granted amnesty to 2.9 million illegal immigrants provided they entered the country prior to 1982. He even presided over a swearing-in ceremony for several hundred largely Latino illegals. The hoped for result was for these newly minted Americans to vote Republican like the emancipated blacks after the Civil War. This did not stop Hispanics from moving to the Democratic side of the aisle. In a recent Pew study on Hispanic voting trends, 68 percent of registered Hispanic voters preferred Obama over 23 percent for Romney.
“My heritage, my dad, as you probably know, was the governor of Michigan, was the head of a car company, but he was born in Mexico. Had he been born of Mexican parents, I’d have a better shot of winning this. But, he was unfortunately born to Americans living in Mexico; they lived there for a number of years. I say that jokingly, but it would be helpful to be Latino.”
–Mitt Romney to a gathering of Latinos on his Mexican heritage.
So what does this all mean? Well, based on his comments, Governor Romney has a lot of explaining to do to the Americans he hopes to lead as President Romney. First he needs to explain why being Latino would be an advantage for him to those that already are. He then needs to explain why he did not take all the charitable contributions he was allowed to take on his 2011 taxes. Since, by his own words, he is not qualified to be President because he paid more taxes than were legally due.
And when he is done explaining all this to the American people, he can turn to his donors and explain to them why he will only garnered 47 percent of the vote and who those voters were.
There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what…These are people who pay no income tax.— Mitt Romney at a private fund raising gathering.
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International Union of Elevator Constructors Local 17 