March ’20 Labor-Citizen

Brothers and Sisters:

On January 29, new NEIEP Area Coordinator Wally Wuelling attended a mandatory meeting at the hall to introduce himself to the apprentices and instructors as well as answer questions about the program.  The biggest issue was the on going problems with the NEIEP servers and their ability to log the OJT hours required to be reported by the apprentices.  Wuelling’s message was that until the issues at NEIEP were resolved to use the paper tickets to report hours worked.  Business Manager John Driscoll, Jr. added that once the system was running, apprentices should input their time unless the outage continued longer than expected in which case paper tickets would be accepted.

As reported last month, the six apprentices eligible for the Mechanics Exam are fully involved in the review course taught by Rick Myers.  Testing is done through Prometrics, a company specializing in administering standard tests, at their facility.  The review class is six weeks long and it is recommended that apprentices schedule their test as soon as possible after the review.

Retired Brother John Taylor is preparing to teach a class in AC motor starters.  The class covers the three methods of starting and running a motor (across the line, wye-delta and soft start).  While we are seeing the first two options decrease in scope and soft starts take over the industry, it is still very important to understand the underlying principles of their operation.  If you are interested in this or any other continuing education class, contact John at the hall at 216-431-8088 or email him at JEDriscoll@iueclocal17.org.

The IUEC Local 17 Volunteer Organizing Committee (VOC) held a meeting to discuss actions involving LMHA awarding a two-car modernization to Findlay-based non-signatory Davis-Newcomer Elevator.  A variety of options were discussed as well as a coordinated effort with Local 44 (Toledo) similar to the successful campaign with Local 45 (Akron) which brought Gable Elevator into the fold. 

Oracle Elevator, a Florida-based non-signatory, recent purchase of an automatic entrance company specializing in hotel and office building entrances brings them a step closer to Cleveland.  Their announced plan is to use their elevator technicians to install these entrances which gives them a possible toe-hold in markets outside where they currently service.

In the past, members of the Cleveland building trades have been highly cooperative in reporting to the elevator constructors any outside non-signatories seen on jobs.  The list of signatory companies is at the end of this article.  If you see a company that is not listed, please call Business Manager John Driscoll, Jr. at the number above.

The Brothers and Sisters of IUEC Local 17 send condolences to Brothers Dan Varga and Tony Karovich who both lost their fathers in January.

As of this writing there is one mechanic on the bench.