Category: News & Events

Brothers and Sisters:

When I was a helper I would occasionally be sent to work with Ray Bowles at Landmark Office Tower to assist him with two-man maintenance tasks on his 1960’s Otis equipment.  One of those days, I was cleaning governors in a secondary when Ray got a call from the building.  

“Come on, we’re going to take a look at a problem.” he told me as I gratefully hauled myself out of the hole.  We made our way through the building and into one of the machine rooms.  The controllers were the Otis UCLs with dozens of relays all picking and dropping in a particular cadence, a whirling pie-plate selector gave visual reference to what the car was doing in direct relation to the large gearless machine and roaring MG unit supplying the muscle to haul the cars and weights up and down the hatch.  

After a few minutes of watching the car run, Ray pulled the knife switch, took out an orange peeler and flex, cleaned a contact and put the knife back in.  The entire rhythm of the relays changed and Ray looked very pleased.  I stopped him and asked “OK, what exactly did you do?”  He pulled out a set of prints, turned to a page and began to explain how this one dirty contact affected how the rest of the controller worked.  At that point of my career I was not as fluent in relay logic as I am now and only slightly grasped what he told me.  Later on I watched Jerry Reitz do the same on the old Haughton controllers at Renaissance and Mark Carollo tune a valve entirely by ear.  

These were the guys I wanted to be.  The real journey in this trade began. 

After getting elected to this position and later to be the correspondent to the Cleveland Citizen, I contacted Jon Henson at NEIEP and volunteered my services to write for Lift Magazine.  Since then, I am very proud to say, I have been a part of getting good information into the hands of IUEC members who can use it to be better at their jobs or understand a little bit more about the systems they encounter everyday.

In-between issues of Lift I got bored.  When I get bored I get restless and when I get restless I need a project.  I was working with Josh Mitchell at Burke Lakefront Airport installing a soft start on a Taylor hydro.  Over the years I’ve done dozens of soft starts and knew what to look for on an installation.  This time I took my camera and documented the process, wrote captions for each photo, and tied them together in a way that told the story of a soft start installation.  I emailed the package to Jon and waited.  About two months later I got an email from Lester White and in a couple of hours I was a NEIEP instructor and on the other side of the podium.

Through being an officer and fill-in instructor I’ve come to realize just how many different directions a person can go once they are in the trade.  On the inside of this magazine is a list of the officers of the International as well as our associated organizations (NEIEP, CEIEP, EIWPF and Benefits).  Each one of them started their career stacking rails, setting machines, pulling generators and miles upon miles of rope.  At some point they took an opportunity to become active in their Local and advanced to the positions they hold.  My guess is that few of them realized where their career could take them.  

This is a trade full of infinite possibilities.  Make your journey a good one.  

Until next month,

Work smart, work safe and slow down for safety.

Don

DKnapik@windstream.net

Brothers and Sisters:

The Cleveland Building Trades Softball Tournament will be held Labor Day weekend with the first games played Thursday, September 1 at James Day Field next to Tri-C West in Parma.

The IUEC Local 17 Golf Outing will be held September 24th at Mallard Creek Golf Club,
34500 Royalton Rd, Columbia Station. The cost is $100 per person for the four-man scramble format. Fees must be paid to Entertainment Chairman Brian Chambers by September 1 to his PayPal account, brianchambers.cle@gmail.com.

Congratulations to the twelve apprentices sworn in at the July meeting: Jarrett Adams, Mike Bowles, Jay Carlson, Tom Holian, Adam Klein, Simon Lieb, Mike Piela, Dan Quigley, Eric Schaffran, Luke Schnitler, Brendan Teets and Joe Walters.

As of this month Local 17 has 32 apprentices in the NEIEP program with 24 enrolled in classes and 8 in the New Hire courses. Two apprentices are test eligible. On August 11 there was a mandatory orientation class for all apprentices at the school located at 5145 Engle Road. NEIEP Area Coordinator Jordan Miller attended to answer any questions about the program.

All members should have received an email from John about the practice of blocking open doors for other trades. Local 17 signatories have been informed that “…that under no circumstances will they (members) be… blocking hatch doors open/altering the locking device for hoistway access by other trades while (members) are off site.”

This action comes after another tradesman working in a pit area, was struck by a counterweight from an adjoining hoistway during a mod job. Fortunately, the injury was not life threatening. This prompted the IUEC Safety Committee to take the action. If any members are approached to block doors for another trade, call John at the hall to report the circumstances.

Work is still strong in the area. Schindler is claiming supply chain issues on delivery of parts while Otis is starting several mod and construction jobs soon as well as having a three month backlog of service work. Kone currently has four mod jobs going and 3Phase is keeping four mod crews working while TKElevator has two mod crews working in Akron.

John reported that at the July Tri-State Meeting, the Michigan Elevator Safety Board is requiring that Schindler install the locking bar on the 383 3300 MRL units in the state lacking the device. The locking bar is used to immobilize the car for service to the governor, brakes, machine or other overhead equipment and is part of the safety circuit. This is a required check by Schindlers SAIS inspector in order for the unit to be accepted by maintenance from construction. Schindler has approximately 20,000 such units across the country.

The portability agreement between Locals 17, 45 (Akron) and Gable/3Phase has lapsed with the current contract. The agreement allowed Gable to move workers as needed between the two locals during its duration. As a result, 3Phase has transferred Richard Burton and Jim Rohwer from Akron to Cleveland.

The IRS milage rate has been increased four cents to 62.5 cents per mile for use of personal vehicles during work hours. Milage is charged after your first stop of the day and for any driving done during the day.

As of this writing there are four mechanics on the bench.

Until next month…

Work smart, work safe and slow down for safety.

Don
DKnapik@windstream.net

Brothers and Sisters:

It isn’t very often I come across something that stops me dead in my tracks. This is a story about something that did just that.

The following email was sent June 20, 2022 to Schindler Area North by Territory Vice President Jennifer Bowen. It is reproduced here with permission of Schindler and the technician referenced.

Team, 

Last Thursday night at 5:42pm one of our Cleveland technicians took a call from University Hospital in Cleveland with a very urgent request.  The only elevator that serves Angie’s Garden, a rooftop garden at the hospital, was down.  Unfortunately at the time, there was a family of a child with a terminal illness who wanted to spend their last evening together watching the sunset from the garden.  Understanding the situation, the technician rushed to the hospital and was able to support getting the family up to the roof to spend their last moments together. 

The next morning, our Cleveland team received the following message from the Executive Director of Facilities at University Hospital:

“I would like to recognize (the Schindler technician) for his exceptional service this evening. Car 69 in Horvitz Tower went down after hours. I received a phone call from Palliative Care that they had a family with a terminal child who wanted to spend their last evening together watching the sun set from Angie’s Garden on the rooftop of Horvitz Tower. Car 69 is the only access to the space. After an effort to expedite emergency response, your technician reached out to me and immediately dropped everything and drove from home to resolve the issue. He arrived within 45 minutes and had the car running in less than 10 minutes. I cannot express enough how appreciative I am of his service and empathy for a family at such a difficult time.”

I’d like to take this moment to personally thank our field technician for his effort in supporting our customer last week. I would also thank all of our mechanics and employees who put the same heart and soul into their work every day.  This is a profound reminder of why what we do is so important.   

Jennifer Bowen | VP, Territory Operations  

I immediately knew the grief of the parents wanting one last moment with their child. My thoughts also went to the mechanic who was involuntarily thrust into sharing the deeply personal moment.

The email made me think for a long time about how what we do can make an impact on those we may never meet and how those we do can impact us. It’s possible, with a slight variation in timing, the on-call mechanic would have gone to the job, fixed the problem and never encountered the family. The progression of the child’s final moments could have played out differently and the players, again, never meet.

Instead, the encounter happened and lives were altered.

After September 11 the nation began to honor first responders, a practice which continued strong for 20 years into and through the darkest days of the pandemic. For everyone who went to work on that fateful day it was just Tuesday until history intersected their lives and thrust them into the roles they never asked to play. The world calls them heroes but, to a person, everyone I have ever heard interviewed says they were just doing their job.

They made a difference by doing what they do best, so do we.

Perhaps this email is the thank you to all of us who, knowingly or unknowingly, make a positive impact on the world around us and allow the boundless joy and agonizing sorrow necessary to temper our souls to take place, without our knowledge, by just doing our jobs.

Until next month,
Work safe, work smart and slow down for safety.

Don
DKnapik@windstream.net

Brothers and Sisters:

On Friday, May 20, IUEC Local 17 honored its retirees at the annual Retiree’s Dinner at Harry’s Steak House in Independence.  The last dinner was held in 2019.  A large part of the evening was spent catching up on awards for service pins and Gold Cards awarded since the last dinner.  For photos of the event, go to the Local 17 website, iueclocal17.org.

The golf outing originally scheduled for June 11 has been cancelled.  Refunds of greens fees paid are being sent out.  If you have not received your refund, contact Business Manager John Driscoll Jr at the hall at 216-431-8088 or email him at JEDriscoll@iueclocal17.org.

At the time of writing Local 17 has 32 apprentices in the NEIEP program with two in their final semester.  Six apprentices are finishing their new hire course.  The apprentices will be split between RC200 and RC700 for the fall semester starting the second week of August.

On the second week of May, the Local 17 JATC was in Providence, Rhode Island at the new NEIEP training center.  Their training was on the apprentice application process.  Some of the conversation also covered possible changes which help younger applicants score better.

NEIEP is in the middle of a total rewrite of the curriculum.  Each RC unit takes approximately two years of effort by a team of constructors and trainers from across the country to complete.  The largest part of the effort is to determine the extent of the rewrite:  whether a simple update is needed or the entire RC needs to be redone.  Photos and graphics illustrating the concepts covered in the courses are the single hardest elements to source as many of the conventions, especially in electrical units, have changed from the original source text.  

For example, NEIEP emphasizes the electron current flow theory (current flows from negative to positive) over the conventional current flow theory (current flows positive to negative) even though the majority of graphics used to explain electrical concepts are pulled from sources where conventional flow is used.  This creates confusion in the mind of the apprentice as they have to first wrestle with the concepts presented in the text and then flip the graphic to meet what the text teaches.  It also makes for some interesting conversations in class as the inconsistencies are pointed out by the students.

In a practical application, the first major to use the electron current flow theory for its prints was Dover in its early solid state units which later progressed into the DMC.  In time each major followed suit until today the conventional flow theory in elevator prints is rarely, if ever, used.  Now that systems being installed today are solid state and CPU oriented with LON, LAN and CAN communication protocols between car, controller and components, the switch to a consistent teaching system across the curriculum and within the different disciplines makes a lot of sense.

With the new contract taking effect this month, the International members are in a good position to benefit for the next five years.  On a practical matter, with all the financial and international upheaval, members need to be smart about their money especially those coming close to retirement.  Live well but within your means will be the mantra for at least the foreseeable future. 

The Brothers and Sisters of IUEC Local 17 send their condolences to Brothers Mike Hogan and retiree Mike Moennich whose mother-in-law Madonna McTaggart passed away May 2.  She is also the mother of former Local 17 President Brian McTaggart.  Condolences also go out to Business Manager John Driscoll Jr whose father-in-law passed away May 1.

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

Until next month…

Work smart, work safe and slow down for safety.

Don

DKnapik@windstream.net