| Locked Out Local
702 Members Pitch in for Habitat for Humanity
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| While locked out from their jobs at SIGECO,
IBEW Local 702, West Frankfort, Illinois, members helped
build a Habitat for Humanity home in Evansville. The IBEW
volunteers are pictured with the happy new homeowner,
Nika Johnson, (fourth from right, front row). |
The Evansville Courier & Press
ran a big newspaper story last summer featuring photos of
IBEW members and a headline that read: IBEW Pitching in for
Habitat.
About 20 members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical
Workers Local 702, locked out from their jobs at Southern
Indiana Gas & Electric Co., turned their downtime into
volunteer time Tuesday for Habitat for Humanitys housing
blitz, reported the Indiana newspaper on July 12, 2000.
Local 702 members had heard that one of the 24 homes being
constructed during a week-long Habitat blitz was behind schedule.
The house sponsored by Vectren Corp., SIGECOs parent company,
was the furthest behind when the union workers arrived early
Tuesday morning, reported the Evansville Courier.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the house was almost completely
caught up.
In one day the IBEW volunteers put the roof on the Habitat
home and built the interior walls. The [IBEW] group turned
the day of hard labor into entertainment, flipping burgers
on their own grills and ribbing each other about their carpentry
skills, reported the newspaper. The new homeowner, Nika Johnson,
told reporters she was delighted with the progress the IBEW
members helped achieve. Yesterday we were quite a bit behind,
but these guys came in today and have been hauling tail,
she was quoted as saying. They have been working hard. It
has been unreal.
We decided that since we were locked out, wed come out
and help out, said Local 702 member James Dimmett, chairman
of the Evansville Unit.
Local 702 Business Representative Matt Hemenway said local
union members were locked out at SIGECO for 30 days. They
approved a contract on July 30, and the power plant employees
went back to work on the 31st.
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March 2001
IBEW Journal
Bush Ban on PLAs Snarls Big D.C. Bridge
The
Washington, D.C., area building trades unions negotiated a
Project Labor Agreement on the reconstruction of the Wilson
Bridge across the Potomac River only to be hit by President
Bushs Executive Order banning PLAs on federal projects.
We
believe the presidents executive order is illegal, said
Edward C. Sullivan, president of the AFL-CIO Building and
Construction Trades Department. Sullivan noted that for more
than 50 years, governors from both parties have made highly
successful use of PLAs. The legality of one such project,
the Boston Harbor project known as the Big Dig, was upheld
by the U.S. Supreme Court against a challenge from non-union
contractors.
Regardless
of the outcome of legal actions on the PLAs, the immediate
impact is delayon a project that has already been discussed
for 12 years. Every day that we wait on this project, about
190,000 people are sitting in traffic, said Maryland Transportation
Secretary John D. Porcari. We cant afford another day.
Porcaris
boss, Maryland Democratic Gov. Parris Glendening, negotiated
the agreement as the best way to assure an adequate supply
of skilled labor at fixed wage rates. Glendening called Bushs
action a political payoff to big contributors that takes
a swipe at the working men and women of America. Glendening
signed the agreement before President Clinton left office,
but the Federal Highway Administration had not approved it
before Bush took over.
Like
Sullivan, Glendening cited the success of PLAs as a tool
that
has provided the only way for a bipartisan group of governors
and local officials to get complex projects done on time
and
to protect workers in very dangerous jobs. One Republican
governor, John G. Rowland of Connecticut, had joined Glendening
in urging Bush not to ban Project Labor Agreements.
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