June ’17 Elevator Constructor

Brothers and sisters:

At the April meeting, International Organizer Jim Lowery spoke about the IUEC organizing efforts over the last year and how President Trump’s company stiffed an electrical contractor for $2 million.

Lowery talked about the Union City Daily newspaper report that an IBEW contractor was working at the new Trump International Hotel in DC and had not been paid for their work. “This is not a large company we are talking about that put out a significant amount of money and hasn’t been paid.” This is the former US Post Office the Trump Organization leased from the federal government and turned into a luxury hotel. This is also the same property where the President was under scrutiny for a potential conflict of interest.

Lowery then ticked off a list of successful campaigns and stripped employees, including a contractor doing work at VA hospitals around the country. When talking about other efforts, particularly within the federal government he said “there are several smaller companies that come in from out of town to do government work and then leave a mess behind them for our signatories to clean up.” The efforts to organize these companies continues.

When he turned his attention to Gable, he noted that the Cleveland market share for Local 17 jumped from about 86% to the “high 90 percent” range in commercial work and we are now the third largest organized market for home lifts in the International. Jim noted that Rick Gable has been working with the International to capture the home lift market, a sector on which the organizers have been told to place special emphasis. “There are several companies operating in the area that we would like to see come into the fold.”

Also at the April meeting Brother John Driscoll Jr., reported on the North American Building Trades legislative conference in Washington DC attended by him and Business Manager Tim Moennich. While the conference itself was informative and the two had many opportunities to talk with local legislators the highlight was the address given by President Trump. “The group was, except for one small protest during the speech, respectful of his position as President. He never once talked about Right-to-Work-for-less, Davis-Bacon, prevailing wage or any issues that we were interested in.”

NEIEP has a new online offering cover confined space training. The course is built on scenarios that describe relevant information to create awareness for how to work safely in and around confined spaces. To access the course login at neiep.org.

Congratulations to Brother Lucas Jenke who is the first apprentice to take the Mechanics Exam under the new format at Prometrics. He passed the exam on March 30th.

Where are they working?

Tom Gombar and Matt Hausler doing escalator work at NASA for Kone,

Kenny Jung and Ryan Todd doing safety tests for Schindler,

Drew Williams and Mark Carollo doing a two car mod at Edgewter Landing for Thyssen,

Todd Kemp and Nick Meyer doing and escalator clean down at GM for Thyssen,

Jim Thompson and Brian Siether doing a mod at Trinity Tower for Otis,

Ken Bowles and Shane Huff doing a mod at Metro General for Otis,

John Goggin and Brian Chambers at 1100 Superior doing service work for Schindler,

Jeff Ford and Jean LaFontaine doing escalator clean downs at Browns Stadium for Kone,

Heath Kramer and Todd Ross opening up escalators at Progressive Field for Kone,

Don Knapik and Ernesto Rodriguez doing full load safety tests at Penton Media for Schindler.

 

As of this writing there are three mechanics and one apprentice on the bench.

Until next month…

Work smart, work safe and slow down for safety.

 

Don
DKnapik@windstrem.net