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GC Gas: Copper .10. Replacement 6ÕiÊxnÊ °ÓÊUÊ>ÀV É«ÀÊÓää Dalzell: The $200,000 .2. complaint Retiree Letter: Thanks .2. Missed Meal letters .3. ONE BAD DOG PG&E Medical Primer .4. You work hard. You make a decent wage. You’re looking forward Stewards Conference .8. to a comfortable retirement. Advisory Council: .13. Better look again. Escalating medical costs are taking a huge bite Injuries Temper Spirits out of the pension checks that IBEW retirees receive from PG&E. In Gas Stewards .14. fact, retirees pick up the full cost of every increase because the amount Meet on Safety PG&E pays has been capped since the year 2000. Outside Report: .15. Crane Class Medical costs are one bad dog. That bad dog is getting bigger every year, and he’s going to make it very diffi cult for you to retire in the kind of com- Retirees Elect Offi cers .17. fort you were hoping for. He might even make it diffi cult for you to retire Safety Matters: .18. at all. Confi ned Space Corporate Pickpocket: .20. IBEW and PG&E have chosen to confront this problem at the bargaining table. Wal-Mart Talks are starting now. IBEW members will vote on any package that is negoti- ated. That’s why the union has prepared this primer – so that you can learn the News briefs Bossnapping: facts, and make an informed decision when the time comes. Terminated workers angry at their severance package detained the CEO of Sony France, Serge Foucher, on March That bad dog is getting badder. Turn to page 4 to fi nd out just how 12. Foucher dropped by to say a last bad he really is. farewell, but workers detained him and blocked access to the plant with branch- es and tree trunks for 24 hours. A local \UPVUVMÄJPHSL_WSHPULK[OLHJ[PVUI`ZH` ing that Foucher “won’t listen to us,” add- ing that the atmosphere inside the plant was “good-natured.” It was not known if Foucher felt the same way. The Employee Free Choice Act, introduced in Congress on March 10, was immediately endorsed by a broad coalition of civil rights, religious, envi- ronmental and human rights groups. The Act will make it easier for workers to form unions and avoid retaliation for pro-union activities. Corpora- tions, with Wal-Mart leading the charge, HYL ÄNO[PUN [OL IPSS tooth and nail. AIG Rewarded its L_LJ\[P]LZ ^P[O ZVTL $165 million in bonuses H[ [H_WH`LY L_WLUZL prompting President Obama to declare he MEETINGS would “pursue every /iÊvÀÊ«À«Ã>ÃÊ>ÌÊ 6 iÀ}Þ legal avenue to block ,i > «ÀÊ£ÊJÊÈÊ« «ÀÊ£{ÊJÊx\ÎäÊ« these bonuses.” his is a reminder that proposals You can fi nd a link on the Local 9iÀ}Ì ÀÌ Ê>iÊ/> i New Sheriff in for upcoming bargaining with 1245 home page (www.ibew1245. «ÀÊÇÊJÊÈÊ« «ÀÊ£xÊJÊx\ÎäÊ« Town: That would T NV Energy (formerly Sierra Pa- com) to a blank proposal form which be Hilda Solis, who cifi c) will be taken only in Unit Meetings you can print out and use for submit- 7iÕVV> >ÀÃÊ ÌÞ promised to champion listed below. Proposals must be second- ting your proposal. «ÀÊnÊJÇÊ« «ÀÊ£ÈÊJÊx\ÎäÊ« workers rights as ed and carried by a majority vote of the Please be prepared as these meet- -ÕÌ Ê>iÊ/> i the new Secretary of members present to be forwarded to the ing may run long due to the business «ÀÊÊJÊx\ÎäÊ« >ÞÊÇÊJÊx\ÎäÊ« Labor. Bargaining Committee. at hand. backbone” to fight for him. Before I issue arose that was not to their liking. answer him, I will point out that this That union was the Industrial Workers Eureka unit particular individual made slightly of the World, better known as the Wob- more than $200,000 in 2008. blies. The Wobblies are an important change What PG&E is doing with Trouble- part of labor history, but that’s it—his- Unit 3111, Eureka, has a new loca- men has been permitted by our contract tory. They were crushed by employers tion: Babe’s Pizza & Pasta, 4015 Walnut for at least 40 years. When we agree to and their members gravitated towards Dr. in Eureka. The meeting time is still 6 the terms of a contract, we donít p ick more traditional trade unions in the CIO pm. and choose which agreements we will and AFL. The Wobblies make good leg- Roy Runnings, Business Rep. honor and which we will not honor. In end, but are not a role model for suc- return for what the employer agrees to cessful 21st century labor relations. The $200,000 do, we agree to do certain things and to I suspect that in his heart my corre- CALENDAR allow the employer to do certain things spondent is someone who believes that Complaint under certain conditions. When we if there were no union at PG&E he get dozens of e-mails a day from believe that the employer does not live would still make $200,000 a year, have members. They are evenly divided up to their end of the agreement, we file top-notch medical and fringe benefits, a April 2: Retirees Club, San Jose, CA I between questions, criticism, and grievances. On the other hand, when pension plan that is on the top of the April 2: Steward Mtg. on Medical, SLO, the employer is doing something that heap among investor-owned utilities, positive comments on someone in the CA union doing their job well or something the contract allows them to do, we don’t and a grievance procedure that is seen that we have done. whine and say that our union has no as a model for others on the west coast. April 2: Steward Mtg. on Medical, I answer almost every e-mail, what- backbone. To the contrary—standing up I have a list of several non-union utili- DCPP, CA ever its content or tone. I was so struck for what you have agreed to sometimes ties in the mountain states and the April 7: Retirees Club, Merced, CA by a recent e-mail that I have chosen to demands backbone and requires that southeastern U.S. If my correspondent answer it publicly. we avoid the easy out of complaining would like to see that list and go talk to April 7: Retirees Club, Santa Rosa, CA The e-mail came from a Troubleman about everything that we don’t like. his non-union brothers and sisters and April 8: Retirees Club, Vacaville, CA who has recently experienced PG&E’s If my correspondent is a student of ask them how their wages, fringes, and decision to place Troublemen in many labor history, he will know that there working conditions compare to his, I’ll April 9: Retirees Club, Dublin, CA headquarters onto 24-hour schedules. once was a union that explicitly rejected happily send him the list. May 5: Retirees Club, Merced, CA Slightly paraphrasing him, he asked me the notion of collective bargaining with I fully understand that Troublemen how he could remove himself “from this employers, using the strike and, it is at PG&E who are being placed on 24- May 5: Retirees Club, Santa Rosa, CA chicken (not salad) union that has no said, industrial sabotage each time an hour shifts are facing a difficult adjust- May 7: Retirees Club, San Jose, CA ment, and I don’t mean to minimize the May 12: Retirees Club, Vacaville, CA challenges that they are facing. And we earn extra money for his family. He are not simply sitting on the sidelines. May 14: Retirees Club, Dublin, CA would be happy to know that this latest Assistant Business Manager Bob Choate increase included Surviving Spouses. May 16: Service Awards, San Luis has been appointed to serve as our first Many of us were “full time” wives and Obispo, CA point of contact on Troubleman sched- mothers. We did not have jobs that ule issues. Bob is a former T-man, knows May 29: Service Awards, Bakersfield, included retirement benefits. This was the schedules well, and understands the CA our career and we and our husbands problems that T-men are facing. And thought his work benefits would take care May 30: Service Awards, Merced, CA there is also the possibility of proposed of us later in life. For this he paid union changes to the contract language in June 6: Service Awards, Fresno, CA dues and company insurance plans. three years when general negotiations Got something to share with your fellow Some of the younger Union members resume. union members? Send signed letters to: Util- do not realize how quickly times passes Still, I think it is important to remind ity Reporter Letters, IBEW 1245, POB 2547, and how quickly most of us and our APPOINTMENTS Vacaville, CA 95696. Please note that we can- my correspondent—and all of our loved ones age. It is important that they not print personal attacks or letters dealing members—that when we make a deal, with union politics. Opinions expressed in look ahead to the benefits needed when we stick with it. That is a keystone of they are no longer working. “Letters” are those of the individual authors labor relations and collective bargain- CONFERENCES and do not necessarily reflect the views of Again, many thanks to the members ing, and unions that ignore this princi- IBEW Local 1245. of IBEW 1245. ple do not last. No union is perfect, but & CONVENTIONS 2009 Heli-Expo Sincerely, working under a union contract is a far Joe Ferreira Thanks Audrey Meyers sight better than working non-union.
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