Construction Lineworkers Unite!

[gator]

Why cant every state have a all lineman local? It works for Fl with 222.

wille and bill singned up every rat they could for assesmants (some who cant hook wye open delta burn up every three phase motor in th buildong)now theres no work people who went through SELCAT , SWLCAT CANT cant get a job cause the raTS THE SIGNED IN ARE WORKING FOR PIKE and still on the books choose a side SCAB it didnt work in florida suck this mike and willie

[west coast hand]

This slow down started well before 1/20/2009. He's trying to fix the mess "W" left behind.

First off he bailed out gm 22 billion,you know how many jobs that could have created with that money he's a joke this county in going down hill fast.....

[Daddyof2]

wille and bill singned up every rat they could for assesmants (some who cant hook wye open delta burn up every three phase motor in th buildong)now theres no work people who went through SELCAT , SWLCAT CANT cant get a job cause the raTS THE SIGNED IN ARE WORKING FOR PIKE and still on the books choose a side SCAB it didnt work in florida suck this mike and willie

Anyway back to the point of the discussion. Construction Lineworkers Unite. I still ask the question, why not lineman only locals. 222 was the first to come to mind. I am also hoping you were referrring to someone else as being a SCAB. Never crossed a picket line and never will, go back to farming first.

[wudwoker51]

You will probably never see an effort to form lineman only locals, sounds good but the IBEW believes that strength in numbers and solidarity (no matter what your classification ) will lead to success. I believe we need to start a petition to the I.O. that would request the formation of an Outside Power Construction Department at the International level, administrated by men that know our work and our culture. Every local with outside jurisdiction would need to be on the petition and at least 70% of the active line constuction hands would need to put their John Hancock's on the petition. Quite an undertaking indeed but possible. Let's hear some feedback!

[koca]

I think that an outside construction dept. is something that should have been put in place long ago instead of several groups being lumped together in the construction and maintenance dept.(inside wireman, residential wireman, telecommunications techs and outside lineman). I assume that this new group would handle all things that pertain to outside line consturction like contracts, apprentice issues, organizing, and jurisdiction disputes with other trades. This would be a major undertaking, but if successfull it would give the outside line members a level of representation far beyond what it is now.

[Edge]

You will probably never see an effort to form lineman only locals, sounds good but the IBEW believes that strength in numbers and solidarity (no matter what your classification ) will lead to success. I believe we need to start a petition to the I.O. that would request the formation of an Outside Power Construction Department at the International level, administrated by men that know our work and our culture. Every local with outside jurisdiction would need to be on the petition and at least 70% of the active line constuction hands would need to put their John Hancock's on the petition. Quite an undertaking indeed but possible. Let's hear some feedback!

you're prolly right on man... but the fuggin narrow backs have done it I remember when 666 here in Va was i/o but went all inside all the outside (lineman) had to transfer their tickets to lu 70 can't remember when late 80's early 90's may have been earlier than that....
it would be unreal to see an all linemans divsion... not just construction but ALL lineman ut pukes and construction...

until then there is nothing but the IBEW for me... and I will continue to trash all the fuggers in my ut local that have a voice and a vote on my contract when they can't do MY work... yeah I'm bitter about that.... fuggin plant guys....meter readers... and all the rest of the pukes... But I WILL remain loyal to them because they are IBEW....

United we stand divided we beg..

Edge

[Highplains Drifter]

You will probably never see an effort to form lineman only locals, sounds good but the IBEW believes that strength in numbers and solidarity (no matter what your classification ) will lead to success. I believe we need to start a petition to the I.O. that would request the formation of an Outside Power Construction Department at the International level, administrated by men that know our work and our culture. Every local with outside jurisdiction would need to be on the petition and at least 70% of the active line constuction hands would need to put their John Hancock's on the petition. Quite an undertaking indeed but possible. Let's hear some feedback!

WUDWOKER51, I totally disagree with what you are saying! You know how messed up every thing gets when the Federal Government gets involved and it is the same with the IBEW International. They are our biggest enemies, they will steal from you and me to put a rat to work. Look at their policy to tell the locals to have a lineman’s test that anyone can pass. Now look at how filled the books are and it is from that notion that a passable test is organizing and to top that of they made policy for full portability. The folks they organized are yes men for the contractors. The only way to get things going is to start at the Local level and for the hands to stick together there. When this transmission boom starts make sure you’re local hands are on the jobs to police what is happening and to have the balls to hold their ground. When was the last time you took a referral for a job for the Good of the Union? I mean the one that isn’t a time job, poor equipment and management that doesn’t like to abide by the contract. I talking about one that is not drivable from the house and in the long run cost you more than you want. But at least you know you manned it for the Good of the Union.


Electric Squirrel, I like you attitude little brother but be prepared when you stand up for what is a lineman’s work, to be laid off, run off or not getting rehired. But for the Good of the Union keep pointing things out!

[wudwoker51]

Drifter, I would never argue that strength and solidarity at the local level is not important , in fact it is of the upmost importance. Are you disagreeing that we need our own department at the I.O. level or that it doesn't matter either way? Personally I feel a brother with a linework background heading our own department at the international level would help the outside branch immensely. I know the IBEW has it own problems but to compare us to the government, I don't know about that one Brother.

[electric squirrel]

WUDWOKER51, I totally disagree with what you are saying! You know how messed up every thing gets when the Federal Government gets involved and it is the same with the IBEW International. They are our biggest enemies, they will steal from you and me to put a rat to work. Look at their policy to tell the locals to have a lineman’s test that anyone can pass. Now look at how filled the books are and it is from that notion that a passable test is organizing and to top that of they made policy for full portability. The folks they organized are yes men for the contractors. The only way to get things going is to start at the Local level and for the hands to stick together there. When this transmission boom starts make sure you’re local hands are on the jobs to police what is happening and to have the balls to hold their ground. When was the last time you took a referral for a job for the Good of the Union? I mean the one that isn’t a time job, poor equipment and management that doesn’t like to abide by the contract. I talking about one that is not drivable from the house and in the long run cost you more than you want. But at least you know you manned it for the Good of the Union.


Electric Squirrel, I like you attitude little brother but be prepared when you stand up for what is a lineman’s work, to be laid off, run off or not getting rehired. But for the Good of the Union keep pointing things out!

I'm pushing 4 journeyman and 3 apes right now,the above scenario's happen everyday out on the job! We have two inside contractors on the job, one plays pretty much by the book, the other well,, let's just say they probably buy truckloads of cheese!
I have pretty much single handily pissed off the whole ratty outfit because I call 'em on there BS everyday!
They had a wireman in a 12kv switchgear this last week wiring some CT's, I walked on over to see what was going on, since this cabinet was the feed for the padmount my ape was working in,it had a direct effect on my crew.
I asked the wireman if he knew the buss right in front of him was dead or not?He told me "yeah my foreman told me, he's pretty sure".
So anyway the foreman and GF now come over and tell me (with attitude mind you) absolutlety is there no way the 12 kv is on because the power company says so!
I asked them to if they ever tested anything,"No,we haven't" says the wireman GF.I tell him that they have no @#%& business in that switch gear unless its tested dead,so what does he do?????
HE TELLS HIS WIREMAN TO REACH DOWN AND BACKHAND THE BUSS!!!!!!!!!!
Which he starts to do,now at this point my 6th stepper goes freaking ape shit!! He's yelling STOP,STOP,! The narrowback GF is like "what are you all excited for?" the ape is crawling all over him telling him that you need a "high voltage" tester, not your freaking hand and that if it's hot that it would kill you to touch it.The wireman now tells us it "CAN'T"be hot because the power company hasn't pulled any wire in yet.
Onto the next step.We open up all the doors to the switch gear, and right there plain as the nose on my face is the primary cable feed coming in,terminated and landed!!!!
Now at this point I'm so mad I have to walk off and my ape is just eating the 3 narrowbacks ass's.The excuse was the GF narrowback was on vacation and he didn't know the wire had been pulled in!!!
So my point is THEY ARE NOT QUALIFIED TO DO OUR WORK!!!!!!!!! THEY DONT HAVE THE TRAINING!!!! Someone could have been killed right here,very easily.So what happens next time,your gonna get some ratty inside outfit come in and do the same thing,thinking they know what they are doing,WRONG.
Drifter, I personally have taken jobs for the" good of the Union",one was at a ratty little outfit that I lasted a couple of weeks at,I grieved them and now a year latter they are going out of business,but coming back as a RAT civil outfit, at least the aren't doing linework!Another was on a transmission job for H&M ,I didn't get my pay,so the hall got involved, now I can't work for them(do not rehire).It is what it is! I was looking for a job when I got this one ,right!
I don't know it all , that's for sure ,but when I'm right and I know it , look out! I don't work at the house,so I sure as hell don't mind speaking up,it might ruffle feathers, but who cares.
Mr. Edge is 100% right,the narrow backs and meter readers are IBEW, but they cant do OUR jobs,so why do they have a voice in our contracts?
Out here in California, the light company hands have a strangle hold on the hall,they dictate what the contractors do and HOW they do it. When it comes to MY money or MY safety MY job ,a meter reader or gas guy shouldn't have shit to say about it!
So I'm all for a "Lineman Only" local, where we dictate how the work gets done and how you get a ticket and wages and retirement,,,,, E.S.

[tramp67]

Interesting to read about all the crying and whining about narrowbacks taking our work away, and how we should be separate from the IBEW wiremen, and the bitching about who is running the IO.
Too bad you can't direct some of that energy towards the real issue, and remember about being Union, and what the IBEW is all about, what the real goals of the IBEW are. Maybe you need to talk to a first year ape, and have them explain it to you again.
The real issue is Union vs. non-union. Reading some of the crap in this thread, no wonder so many of the non-union linemen out there have no desire to be Union. For the record, those of you non-union linemen reading this, the majority of the Union linemen out here would probably love to see you working for a union contractor.
You should focus your energy on trying to regain our work from the rats, and give the non union linemen reasons to want to join us. The rat contractors, Pike especially, is getting bigger by the day, and taking more of our work from us. There's the biggest problem. Sure, there needs to be a line drawn between what falls under inside and outside construction. But we don't need to try to separate ourselves from our Inside Brothers. We need to all work together and try to organize non union workers, and to give them reasons to want to be Union members.
When is the last time you've been on a hurricane? Look how many Pike trucks are everywhere. There's our work, why aren't you fighting to get that back from the rats? And when is the last time you've given an honest days' work when you've been on storm? I hear guys bragging all the time about how much they got paid to just sit in the trucks for days on end. I've seen crews hiding on side streets, sitting around doing nothing for days, and telling the bird dog every morning that they have lots of work to keep them busy.
And then you wonder why the contractor you are working for gets cut loose before Pike. Think about it. Our trade pays pretty decent money, and the benefits are good. We all would like more money, better benefits. But how many times do you "go to the bar or home after 6 hours", and then turn around and complain about not getting a bigger raise in your new contract? We are well trained, and we are supposed to be the best. That's being IBEW. We also need to start giving an honest day's work for an honest day's pay. And we need to quit fighting amongst our fellow Brothers, and focus on trying to regain our work from the rat contractors. We need to show the utilities that we are better than the rats, and that we are worth the extra cost, and that they are getting their money's worth by hiring Union contractors, instead of rats. If you really want to turn things around and start getting our work back, we need to do it together, and with the help and solidarity of ALL of our Union Brothers.