June ’14 Labor Citizen

I hope that all the fathers or fathers-to-be reading this article had a great Father’s Day. While we do not get all the press mothers do, our part in raising a happy and healthy child is very important. Remember, when you are watching the kids you are not a babysitter, babysitters are someone you hire to watch your kids, you are a parent and it is called parenting.

On May16, IUEC Local 17 held its annual Retiree’s Dinner at Frank Sterle’s Slovenian House Restaurant. This is always a great time for past and present members to get together and swap stories about when “men were made of steel and rails were wood.” During the fifty-fifty raffle Al Jerson along with retirees Joe Lijana, Lenny Kessler and John Ward took single honors and the big double winners were Hugh Taylor and retiree Bob Hess.

Taking home service pins were Tim Moore and John Patton for 25 years in the business; Dan Tinner for 30 years; Jack Saunders, Tim Moennich, Dennis Dixon and Rick Myers each took home 35 year pins and the big winner of the night was Pat Culligan who is celebrating 40 years in the elevator business. Congratulations to everyone on reaching these career milestones!

Those of you that have signaling and rigging cards from NEIEP please take note. Your cards are good for three years. In the final year of your certification you must go to the NEIEP website and open a recertification link at the bottom of the screen. This can be done any time in the last twelve months of certification.

If you hold a scaffolding card and need to renew your license there is no refresher course, you must take the course again. It is a 12-hour course and if there is enough interest Local 17 will schedule a class.

NEIEP is also offering OSHA 10 certification through the website. It is a ten hour course that covers all aspects of OSHA and is required on many construction and large modernization jobs.

In May two issues passed that should help out the organized trades. First was state Issue 1 which is set to fund infrastructure projects like roads, bridges and schools. It is expected to help all 88 Ohio counties pay for these important public improvements.

Also passing was county Issue 7, the Sin Tax renewal on cigarettes and alcohol. All three of the major Cleveland sports teams backed this effort to help maintain their venues. The large advantage for the trades is they do all of their work through union contractors and the expected upgrades to the facilities should keep the trades working for some time.

The ACT-Ohio website has added a new link called Campus Safety Information. This was created to address the hiring of non-union contractors at Ohio campuses. The site includes photos of OSHA violations and is setup to prevent dangerous situations from developing on college campuses. There is a link to the ACT-Ohio site through iueclocal17.org on the Links page.

There has been some concern recently about company truck drivers and what they can and cannot do. On a construction site, if IUEC members are not allowed to operate the lift truck, then the truck will be unloaded by hand. If you are on service, the company drivers are not allowed to unload or pickup weights or any job material without a member there to do the work. If you have any questions, call Business Manager Tim Moennich at 216-431-8088 or email him at TMoennich@iueclocal17.org.

The Volunteer Organizing Committee will be hand billing twice in the month of June and once in July. If you would like to be a part of the effort to recapture our work, please give Tim a call so we can show up in force.
The VOC would also like to thank everyone that continues to call the hall with information on non-signatory elevator companies working around town. The signatories to IUEC Local 17 are Kone, Maximum, Otis, Ross, Schindler and Thyssen Elevator.