Brothers and Sisters Happy 4th of July. Summer is here, the heat is on. Please remember you are the only one that knows when you need to take a break and cool off. Stay hydrated and do not get too hot, a heat stroke or heat exhaustion is a very serious matter. Congratulations to Jason Warford at the Waco Service Center and Freddie Rambo at the Odessa Service Center for receiving Distribution Operation Technician positions. Both of these men were Officers of the local union serving on the Executive Board. This means there are openings on the Executive Board of IBEW Local 69. There is an opening for each region on the Executive Board. The regions are Metro East (Director Tim Burk), Metro West (Director Paul Folger), and Southeast (Director Tony Flores). If you are interested in becoming an Officer of IBEW Local 69 by serving on the Executive Board for the remainder of this term that will expire in March 2020, please notify the local union office by email at ibewloc69@aol.com. The Executive Board meets the first Monday of each month by telephone conference.
Our local union has grievances filed regarding non-bargaining unit office personnel performing bargaining unit work by troubleshooting the electric grid after storms. If you become aware of any office personnel performing storm evaluation after a storm notify the union office immediately with any evidence you may have. In the Company denial of the first grievance at the written step Mr. Folger wrote “As you are aware, using Damage Evaluators during storm restorations is a best practice recognized by the American Edison Illuminating Companies (AEIC), and is in no way correlated to the number of Linemen employed by the Company. As you are also aware, the Company added 146 employees to the Linemen ranks last year alone. Over the last five years, the Company has hired 361 Linemen.”
First of all, I am not aware that using office personnel to perform storm evaluation, normally performed by bargaining unit employees is a best practice recognized by the American Edison Illuminating Companies (AEIC). Maybe the AEICS is unaware that in March 2017, a contractor for Oncor and two children lost their lives by electrocution from Oncor wires. Secondly, over the last five years, if the Company has hired 361 Linemen, they have lost 281 bargaining unit employees from the Distribution ranks during the same time frame. I am sure there are more employees that have left the service of the Company that we are not aware of.
Be very careful working after storms. I am getting reports that there are multiple people working on the same work orders and our guys are unaware that there is anybody else assigned to the order.
In July we will be conducting our unit meetings across the system. This is the unit meeting schedule.
July 5 – Wednesday – Salado – Holiday Inn Express – 5 pm
July 6 – Thursday – Athens – Holiday Inn – 5 pm
July 11 – Tuesday - Brownwood – Holiday Inn Express – 5 pm
July 12 – Wednesday – Snyder – Holiday Inn – 5 pm
July 13 – Thursday – Odessa – Elegante Hotel – 6:30 pm
July 18 – Tuesday – Wichita Falls – Oyster Bar – 5 pm
July 19 – Wednesday – Bonham – VFW Hall #4852 – 5 pm
July 20 – Thursday – Lewisville – Select Inn – 5 pm
July 25 – Tuesday – Dallas – Union Hall – 5 pm
July 26 – Wednesday – Waco – Hampton Inn – 5 pm
July 27 – Thursday – Ft. Worth – Oyster Bar – 5 pm
I look forward to seeing everyone that can attend a unit meeting. Until next time may God bless you, your family, and our local union.
