The Grievance Committee heard its first grievances on March 23rd. The meeting provided good conversation and resolved one grievance. Future dates for May are being discussed.
The attempt to address some issues with Troublemen, Overtime Opportunities, JTWA’s, and the need to provide a better package to attract and retain people has ceased. A small team and I have been working on this since October, and the company notified us in February they are not interested in agreements outside of contract negotiations. They implied interest in starting negotiations early, if possible. The local is currently involved in Safe Harbor negotiations and will be moving into Ephrata Borough’s negotiations. In my opinion, it is unlikely we can move up our negotiations.
Additional T&D BU trainers have been helping our permanent BU trainers with the new apprentices at Walbert. The current plan is to run one canvass for interest and rotate additional trainers on a pay period cycle to assist with the apprentice classes for the remainer of the year. We appreciate the permanent BU trainers and the temps that are rotating in! At this time, the LTN BU trainer has not been filled. The electrician apprentice timeline is currently being reviewed to see if any updates can be made. A new Electrician class is starting April 13th and hopefully another in late summer or fall. The newest T&D class should be reaching the field on March 30th, please welcome them. I visited the class during their Walbert tour, and they seem eager to learn their trade and learn about Local 1600.
There is a lot of discussion in the field on the Journeyman training that is being developed for T&D and M&E. I don’t feel the initial presentation went as well as it could have. Through discussion and meetings, it was communicated there won’t be a pass or fail associated with this. Article 5, Section 2E states that employees are not required to complete tests to retain job classifications. It has been clarified that this is a refresher and if anyone needs assistance, remediation will be provided until proficient. The company chose members from the craftworker teams to become subject matter experts for the development of the training. Rusty and I have not been invited to the SME meetings; please reach out to an SME for additional information.
I attended the EHS Level 3 meeting in March. The safety advocates and EHS members presented updates on improved tailboards and high energy discussions. If you have any feedback that is safety oriented, please provide it to your EHS committee members and safety advocates. I also attended the IBEW 3rd district progress meeting where I learned that 2025 was a record-breaking year for growth in the IBEW. This amount of growth has not been seen for decades. Hopefully we can soon see some of the growth on the utility side.
The NSUJL Rodeo will be held at City View Park in Hazleton on June 27th. Come out and support our rodeo team if you can. The rodeo has grown; in addition to the competition, multiple food trucks and vendors will be present.
I would recommend paying attention to our neighbors at Local 614 in Philadelphia as they are currently negotiating and have passed their current contracts expiration date. We are less than a year away from being involved in negotiations. Start planning and preparing to be able to support the team in solidifying a fair and deserving contract. Talk to work groups other than your own to see what issues they may be faced with and learn what is important to them so we can all support each other. I have been questioned if the Union will set up meetings to see what is important to the membership for contract time. We offer this monthly; Union meetings are scheduled for each unit for the entire year. That is our platform for honest discussion and to unite to find a positive path forward. Shout out to Susquehanna Region for improved meeting attendance. It’s great to see trainees attending in addition to our seasoned folks. See you at a unit meeting soon; dates and locations are at the bottom of Local 1600’s homepage. Lastly, Thanks to Jason McAllister for temporarily filling in as Lancaster Regions Chief Steward.
