Hello Sisters and Brothers of IBEW Local 1600. The top news is our country is the campaign for the Democratic nomination for President and the coronavirus. With the election coming upon us, it is important that you exercise your right to vote and in order for you to vote you need to be registered. Our International Office sent me a listing of all our members who are not registered to vote, I will be sending these folks a letter encouraging them to get registered and Vote, it’s your right as an American! As for the coronavirus I am not going to be redundant, I know you are all hearing the same thing I am, you can’t turn on a radio or television without hearing about it. All I can offer is exercise good common sense, our companies are all monitoring the situation and have been putting out updates. We will work with our companies if any action needs to take place.
Top news in our Union:
Safety– no matter what company signs our paycheck safety is a common thread. Some sites have Safety Advocates, some have safety teams, whatever the case is the message is the same. We all want to go home safe at the end of our shift. Continue to watch out for each other, if you see something say something.
Talen– I visited Brunner Island along with Business Rep. Mike Mannix, we met with the plant manager John Forbes and other members of management and discussed performance, safety, training and had open general discussions. We also met with Talen HR to discuss legislation forthcoming in Pennsylvania and Maryland that impacts our coal plants and others as well. We looking to help anyway we can.
PPL– Rusty and I attended PPL E.U. update meeting hosted by Stephanie Raymond at the Lehigh Service Center. She covered safety, new work methods with new technology, iphones, trucks, equipment and general work place issues.
The grievances regarding the closure of Marion Heights S.C. and the Carbondale S.C. are close to being resolved if things proceed as expected, some members will get an early enhanced retirement and others will have new rosters and no negative impact to any member! Once a settlement is signed, I will inform everyone.
The parties agreed to sit down and discuss flagging. The company did provide an M.A. for a volunteer pilot program for shift work in Harrisburg for lineman. We need more discussions on that pilot.
Brookfield Holtwood –Is going through a VPP recertification and Local 1600 will commit our support in this effort.
In Solidarity,
President Frank E.G.
