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® www.ibew.org August 2006 TO LETTERSTHEEDITOR Preparing New Leaders At the National Labor College something important is happening. Rank- EXECUTIVE OFFICERS INTERNATIONAL and-file members, upper level and middle management leaders in local, dis- EDWIN D. HILL VICE PRESIDENTS trict and international offices and some of the most respected names in the International President First District 900 Seventh St., N.W. PHILIP J. FLEMMING labor academic community are talking together and finding solutions to the Washington, D.C. 20001 1450 Meyerside Drive, Suite 300 crisis in organized labor. The men and women at the NLC 2006 commence- JON F. WALTERS Mississauga, Ontario, Canada L5T 2N5 ment were making contacts that will serve them well for their rest of their International Secretary-Treasurer career fighting for economic justice. 900 Seventh St., N.W. Second District Washington, D.C. 20001 These labor leaders take the thankless jobs of stewards and elected offi- FRANK J. CARROLL, JR. 4 Armstrong Road, 2nd Floor cers and toil for countless unpaid, unacknowledged hours. Now they are INTERNATIONAL EXECUTIVE COUNCIL Shelton, Connecticut better prepared to fight the fight and win. The NLC experience has a way of 06484 Chairman revitalizing them with new ideas and tactics. They don’t just come home ROBERT W. PIERSON Third District with a diploma, but with a truckload of new ammunition. c/o IBEW Local 9 DONALD C. SIEGEL I feel humbled to be among my brothers and sisters in the NLC Class of High Point Plaza Office Ctr. 500 Cherrington Pkwy. 4415 W. Harrison St. #330 Suite 325 2006. In the words of Ralph Chaplain, “We can bring to earth a new world Hillside, Illinois 60162 Coraopolis, Pennsylvania 15108 from the ashes of the old. For the union makes us strong.” First District Fourth District JOSEPH P. CALABRO Kurt Staudter PAUL J. WITTE c/o IBEW Local 1158 8260 North Creek Drive, Suite 140 Local 486 member, Springfield, Vermont 1149 Bloomfield Avenue Cincinnati, Ohio 45236 (Ed. note — See the article on the NLC graduation on page 5.) Clifton, New Jersey 07012 Second District Fifth District Take to the Streets? MYLES CALVEY JOHN F. SCHANTZEN I believe that the 2000 census recorded about 280 million people in the c/o IBEW Local 2222 100 Concourse Parkway U.S.A. We now have 11 million (4 percent) telling the rest of us how we 122 Quincy Shore Drive Suite 300 Quincy, Massachusetts 02171 Birmingham, Alabama 35244 should handle illegal immigrants. The key word here is illegal. Third District Sixth District They aren’t just picking grapes; they are picking construction jobs and SALVATORE J. CHILIA JOSEPH F. LOHMAN c/o IBEW Local 38 driving down our wages. They are taking our jobs. The question is why 8174 Cass Avenue 1590 E. 23rd Street aren’t we marching in the streets like they are? Darien, Illinois 60561 Cleveland, Ohio 44114 I’ll bet if the union was bringing in millions of union members illegally, Fourth District Seventh District the government would throw us in jail. Why haven’t we stood up and forced LONNIE PLOTT JONATHAN B. GARDNER the government to enforce the law? As unionists and American citizens, it is P.O. Box 181 320 Westway Place, Suite 531 our obligation to go to the streets and tell the United States government Dacula, Georgia 30019 Arlington, Texas 76018 Fifth District what we want. Eighth District STEPHEN SCHOEMEHL TED C. JENSEN c/o IBEW Local 1 Gary Butz 2225 West Broadway, Suite H 5850 Elizabeth Avenue Local 405 member, Cedar Rapids, Iowa Idaho Falls, Idaho 83402 St. Louis, Missouri 63110 Ninth District A Deadly Pest Sixth District MICHAEL S. MOWREY My son-in-law, Jim Becker, is a 35-year member retired from [now- GREGORY LUCERO c/o IBEW Local 66 2500 Venture Oaks Way, Suite 250 defunct] St. Petersburg Local 308. He traveled through 30 states in his long 4345 Allen Genoa Road Sacramento, California career and made many long-lasting IBEW friends. Pasadena, Texas 77504 95833-4221 In July 2005, Jim became very sick and was diagnosed with the flu. The Seventh District Tenth District next day he was hospitalized; he couldn’t walk and remained almost uncon- PATRICK LAVIN ROBERT P. KLEIN c/o IBEW Local 47 scious for three days. After many tests, 10 days later he was diagnosed with 5726 Marlin Road, Suite 500 600 N. Diamond Bar Blvd. Chattanooga, Tennessee West Nile virus. His condition continued to get worse, and he lost control of Diamond Bar, California 91765 37411-4043 vital organs. Jim is still in rehab and on the way to recovery. I just thought Eighth District Eleventh District your readers would be interested in hearing about one of their brothers. JOSEPH FASHION c/o IBEW Local 353 LINDELL K. LEE Keep in mind this is the result of one little mosquito bite. 1377 Lawrence Avenue, East 6601 Winchester Avenue Suite 150 Robert C. Atkins North York, ON, Canada M3A 3P8 Kansas City, Missouri 64133 Local 682 retiree, Seminole, Florida FOR THE LATEST NEWS VISIT www.ibew.org IBEW®JOURNAL August 2006 Volume 105 Number 7 IBEW JOURNAL 4 FOOTBALL STADIUM Edwin D. Hill, EDITOR C. James Spellane, DIRECTOR 12 Tools of Trade as Art Carol M. Fisher, Erica Harding, Local 43 apprentice SR. EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Malinda R. Brent, wireman, uses tools of the trade in COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST photographs and essays. Len Shindel, R COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST E V ON THE COVER: The following description was composed by Erica Harding to accompany the photo: ARCHIVES O Mike Nugent, C REFLECTIVE SPIRIT INTERNATIONAL REPRESENTATIVE Worn out leather, tattered laces, you can almost smell HOW TO REACH US the sweat. They used to be cherry brown and smell of 8 TECHNICIANS UNITE We welcome letters from our readers. new leather. Now sheetrock dust white and the stench The writer should include his or her name, of the miles lived. Just like my boots—I was new and address and, if applicable, IBEW local union unbroken once. number and card number. Family members should include the local union number of the IBEW member to whom the Journal is mailed. Please keep letters as brief as possi- ble. The Journal reserves the right to select 8 MasTec Workers Score letters for publication and edit all submis- sions for length. Win in Key First Vote Send letters to: 14 NANOTECH CENTER Letters to the Editor, IBEW Journal, 900 Seventh Street, N.W., 10 Fresh Victories Against Washington, D.C. 20001 or send by e-mail to: Assault on Government [email protected] S Unions ©2006 International Brotherhood E of Electrical Workers. R All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. on Union-made paper. U T 11 Members Earn IBEW Journal (ISSN: 0897-2826) Published A monthly, except January/February and Octo- E Telecom Degrees ber/November, which are combined issues, by the International Brotherhood of Electrical F Workers, 900 Seventh Street, N.W., Washing- ton, D.C. 20001. Subscriptions prices in the 14 Smallest Known Material United States and Canada, $4 per year in advance. Periodicals postage paid at Wash- Makes for Big Job in Canada ington, D.C., and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to IBEW Journal, 900 Seventh Street, N.W., 16 IEC Minutes Washington, D.C. 20001. This Journal will not be held responsible for views Meeting of June 5, 2006 expressed by correspondents. Paid adver- IBEW®JOURNAL tising is not accepted. Get Connected! Publications Mail Agreement No. 40011756 S T 2 President’s Message 9 Safety Corner Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to B&M Mailing Services Limited, 35 VanKirk N If you would like to Drive, Unit 15, Brampton, Ontario L7A1A5. E 3 Secretary-Treasurer’s 17 Local Lines E-mail: [email protected] receive your IBEW M Message 26 IBEW Merchandise Journal via e-mail T instead of in your mailbox— R contact us at [email protected]. 4 IBEW Currents A 27 In Memoriam Give us your name, IBEW local union P number, card number and e-mail E 8 Organizing Wire 29 IBEW Cookbook address and we will send you the link 1 D to access the Journal electronically. No Time to Lose ver the past five years, we have worked our number one goal, but for a time as a union we became more concerned about protecting what we had than taking hard together to keep the IBEW risks and reaching out to potential members. Those days are moving forward on all fronts, with over, though the message, even after 20 years, has still not got- growth maintaining its firm position ten through to everybody. Some in the Brotherhood have paid lip service to organiz- as our top priority. ing, but never quite got down to business. We have seen oth- We have made great strides, and have some stirring ers drag their feet because they didn’t want to move beyond Ovictories to our credit, which have their comfort zone, or do the hard work of been reported on the pages of the Journal. representing more members. While these But there is always more to be done. One reactions may be understandable, they are of our major goals has been to change no longer acceptable. The cost of inaction those elements of our structure that stand is stagnation and eventual decay, and that, in the way of organizing. This has been a brothers and sisters, is too high a price to particular problem in our efforts to grow in pay. our utility, telecommunications, manufac- We have taken risks to get our program turing, railroad, broadcasting and govern- where it is today.