JUNE/JULY 07 Newsletter Articles

Business Manager/ Financial Secretary-Treasurer

Nico Ferraro

Dear Brothers and Sisters, 

Local 230 experienced unprecedented nominations for officers at the meeting on May 11, 2007. The entire group of nominated officers was unopposed. My sincere thanks to the membership for their confidence and support.

We are in the early beginnings of the 2008 Presidential elections. The good news is that affordable health care is finally getting the attention it deserves. As I have mentioned many times, the answer is single payer universal health care for everyone. 

Single Payer is the Best System for Workers 

      ·    Eliminates health insurance premiums and high deductibles.

·    It’s universal. Everyone is covered, even when changing or losing a job.

·    Provides comprehensive benefits including prescription drugs, dental, vision and doctor visits.

·    Allows workers complete freedom to choose their own doctor and other healthcare providers.

·    Eliminates “cost-shifting’ from employer to employer.

·    Stops healthcare takeaways.

·    Maintains health benefits for workers who strike or suffer on the job injuries or long-term illness.

·    With health insurance no longer tied to employment, union negotiations can focus on improving wages, pensions, and working conditions.

·    Secures health benefit levels for union trust funds.

·    Ends the competitive disadvantage American businesses face competing in a global market with countries that have Single Payer or national health systems. 

How Single Payer Works

·    One, publicly administered pool pays for all medical bills – an expanded and improved Medicare for All.

·    Eliminates the administrative waste of insurance companies – one third of every healthcare dollar.

·    Healthcare providers remain as they are – mostly private.

·    Hospitals receive a global budget that covers their annual costs.

·    Providers are paid according to a fee schedule – they do not bill patients.      Employers and employees pay a payroll fee, like the one for Medicare, to fund the system – 95% of people and businesses will pay substantially less than their current health care costs. 

Various forms of legislation will be presented in the coming year. Organized Labor will actively support those goals as a means to achieving affordable, quality healthcare for all. 

“Eternal Vigilance is the price of Freedom.”

Fraternally yours, 

Nico Ferraro

Business Manager

Financial Secretary-Treasurer

 Plumber Representative    

David Otterstein   

Dear Brothers and Sisters,  

I would like to start off by thanking the membership for the vote of approval your officers received at the May 11, 2007 nomination meeting. This uncontested showing of support is one of the greatest honors a union official can receive. Thank you Nico, Kirk, Jim and Gary for your support and team attitude. Working together allows the officers the flexibility to represent the membership to the highest of standards. We will continue to work diligently keeping the business of Local 230 and the representation of its members moving in a positive direction. 

Starting this September, Local 230 in conjunction with Local 250 Cold Side Training Coordinators, will start the first two training classes for our service members. Electrical Theory and Mechanical Systems are the classes scheduled to start the Fall 2007 semester. The Electrical Theory class will meet once a week for 14 weeks, and the Mechanical Systems class will meet two times a week for 14 weeks. After completion of the classes, the classes and students will be reversed for the Spring 2007 semester. Local 230, our contractor partners, and the training committee are meeting on an ongoing basis to schedule and provide legitimate training for our service members.   

The Officers of Local 230 have asked the membership to set up and volunteer their time throughout the last several months. We wish to recognize these members and thank them for giving of their time.

Political Activities: Jim Raschdorf, John Bennett, Rafael Navarro, Ray Salazar, Emery Montag, Lewis Fleming, Pete Vargas, J.D. Hall, and Bud Venzor.

California State Pipe Trades Convention: Nick Robinson, Don Williams, Mike Bennett, Steve Laskey, Roy Libby, Reid Sappington, Danny Cornejo, John Bennett, Victor Osorio, John Barrios, Robert Ates, Pam Burke, and Caryn Bateman.

Local 230 Golf Tournament: John Marsden, Victor Osorio, Clay Hortt, Cory Lees, Lucio Medina Jr., Art Demshar, Reid Sappington, and the Local 230 office girls.

Fraternally yours,

David Otterstein

Business Representative

Pipefitter Representative

    

Kirk Crosswhite

Dear Brothers and Sisters, 

I would like to take this time to thank the membership for their trust and confidence in me to serve you for the next term as your Pipefitter Business Representative. 

Otay Mesa Power Plant 

Otay Mesa Power Plant is finally getting back to being constructed. Barton Malow Company in a joint venture with ARB Inc. came together to form the Otay Mesa Power Partners. The pre-job work assignments have been issued and are in the final acceptance stage by the individual crafts. Work for us should start with completing the underground piping. There is approximately 38,000 feet remaining on the underground. The project consists of two combustion turbines and two steam turbines with two heat recovery steam generators.

Another point of interest on this project is that it has a large air condenser. The exhaust steam duct from the turbine to the condenser is 17 foot in diameter. This will require a lot more work for us in constructing and welding the duct. This is much different than the use of a conventional water cooling tower.

The contractor maintains that the whole project will take “18 months to construct, and the U.A. will collectively perform more man hours than any other Building Trades Craft on the project”. We look forward working with all those involved in making this a successful project. 

Niland Peaker Project 

This project will be ready for Pipefitters to start the underground piping in September and should finish with commercial operation in May 2008. The contractor is ARB Inc.

The project consists of two General Electric LM6000 Dry Low-Nox combustion turbine generators, fired with natural gas. Together they would have the capacity to generate an average of 93 megawatts of electric power.

El Centro Generating

Station Unit 3

No word yet on the start date for the re-power project at unit 3. This project will be replacing a steam boiler, steam turbine and all the associating piping that goes with the project. 

Carlsbad Desalination Plant 

This project is waiting on the final approval from the California Costal Commission; when the permit is issued, the construction can begin. This plant will be designed and constructed by an internationally renowned team comprised of American Water, Acciona Agua, J.R. Filanc Construction Company and PBS&J. Poseidon has purchase agreements with Carlsbad, Valley Center, Sweetwater and Rincon water districts for approximately 65 percent of the plant’s projected water output. 

SONGS Outage 

The next planned Unit 2; Cycle 15 Refuel Outage is scheduled for late November 2007. PHQ’s should be available by August or September 2007.

Fraternally yours,

Kirk Crosswhite

Business Representative

Business Representative at Large

Jim Cunningham,

Dear Brothers and Sisters, 

I would like to Thank the members for the vote of confidence by electing me by white ballot. The past two years have been a great learning experience for me and I look forward to serving the membership in the upcoming term. It has been and will always be a great honor to represent Local 230. 

On Tuesday June 5th the city of Vista held a special election with only ONE ballot measure to be decided. This ballot measure, known as Proposition C, was to decide if the City of Vista would remain a “General Law City” or convert its status and become a “Charter City”. Currently four of 18 cities in San Diego County have charter status: Chula Vista, Del Mar, San Marcos and San Diego. The Cities of Santee and Carlsbad are also considering putting together ballot measures to change their status to become Charter Cities as well.

This is a VERY DISTURBING TREND and if this does not concern you it should. When a city becomes a Charter City, it has “greater flexibility” on how it handles public work projects. What does that mean to us and the other Building Trades Unions??? A Charter City is exempt from state and federal prevailing wage laws on jobs that use city taxpayer money. The City of Vista currently has 100 million dollars in future public works construction projects. With Charter City status they can forego the competitive bidding process for these projects and adopt their own rules for contracting construction jobs and avoid paying prevailing wage. Translation, this puts our good Union Contractors at an extreme disadvantage and they will be lucky to get ANY of this work, and some of them won’t even waste their time placing bids!

Local 230 along with the Central Labor Council and the State & Local Building Trades had volunteers out precinct walking and phone banking on Election Day in an effort to get support to defeat Proposition C. Sadly; the ballot measure passed giving Vista Charter City status. The City of Vista has a population of 90,000 people of which only 30,000 are registered to vote. The special election, which could have devastating consequences for union families, was decided by a total of 6,372 people who actually took time to vote.

As more cities obtain charter status, the opportunity for our union contractors to get this work will diminish. When was the last time any of us worked on a large construction job for the City of San Diego? The lion’s share of that work is preformed by non-union contractors due to San Diego’s charter status. 

One of our apprentices’ was talking to a journeyman on the jobsite about being active and Local 230’s involvement in politics. The journeyman told him that it was a waste of time and we do not need to concern ourselves with politics. Why would anyone think that protecting the existing prevailing wage laws is NOT something we want to be involved in!!! Our very livelihood is at stake! We ALL need to be educated on the issues that directly affect our livelihoods and our future! Our Union is constantly under attack by politicians who are dedicated to destroying us. We must keep a constant vigil by supporting the lawmakers who look after our interests. 

We lost the battle in Vista, but there are a number of major elections on the horizon and there are many ways that you can help. Please contact me at 858/554-0586 ext. 5 for details on ways to volunteer and get involved now. We have a handful of dedicated members who are willing to step up and they have my sincere thanks, but we need a larger pool of volunteers to ease the burden of the few. We all have busy lives, but are we too busy to occasionally give up an evening or a Saturday morning to help protect our livelihood? WE ALL NEED TO GET INVOLVED, or we will end up holding an empty bag.

There is no time like the present to get involved. If everyone does a little we can accomplish a lot!

Fraternally yours,

James Cunningham

Business Representative

"ORGANIZING CORNER"

Local 230 Organizer

Gary Sallis 

Dear Brothers and Sisters, 

Not too along ago, I had a conversation with a newly organized member about his thoughts of becoming a union member. I asked him how things were going for him and his family now that he is a union member? His reply was “I have never had it this good”. He said "I love coming to work every day and working with men that get it. The union workers are so much more professional than the people I have been working with. But most of all I now have a chance to purchase my first home for my family". He thought that purchasing a home was just a pipe dream, but now it is possible. 

Over the last four years working as an Organizer for Local 230 and District Council #16, there have been a lot of very good times and a few not so good. Often my job as Organizer is one that deals with the negative; like fighting with the non-union contractors and the rumors that the non-union shop passes on to their employees. I bet you did not know that it costs $10,000.00 to join the union, that your union dues are almost $5,000.00 a year. You are always unemployed and the non-union keep their employees busy and they never have lay-offs. These rumors go on and on.

Our Local is growing every day; it takes everyone in the union to make it grow, not just the officers of the Local, but also all of us as members. You as members are the best sales people this union has to offer. Go out there and tell your friends and family how good things are in the union. Get out there and tell the young people how much you make every year, talk about all the benefits you receive and your retirements, medical health insurance, along with the best training that the U.A. has to offer.

Just about every month someone in the office is doing some kind of outreach to the up and coming trades people in our high schools and our junior highs. 

The UA has a program Helmets to Hardhats. We have been very successful in signing up our veterans getting out of the service as UA members. If you know any young women or young men talk to them about becoming a member of the U.A. We must grow to keep our union alive. 

There is more, I could go on but my little post-it has run out of room. So guys and gals everyone is a recruiter, so talk to your neighbors and friends and lets make everyone UNION!  I would like to Thank all my brothers and sisters for the makings of a great TEAM! 

Thank you so much for all your help and support. 

The future of the U.A. is bright, lets keep the lights on brothers and sisters.

Fraternally yours,

Gary Sallis

Organizer

The Prez Says

Local 230 President     

Pete Vargas

Dear Brothers and Sisters, 

First and foremost, I would like to take this time to THANK YOU for your trust and support. I will be serving you as your President for another term. Congratulations to all the Officers of Local 230. I know they will do their best to serve the membership of Local 230. 

Once again, I would like to emphasize how politics play an important part in the Labor Movement. Just a couple of months ago Port Commissioner, Steve Cushman was termed out. More than a dozen Union Labor Leaders attended a San Diego City Council Meeting supporting a motion to waive the term limit policy and appoint Steve Cushman to a third term. The City Council responded with a 5 to 3 vote to wave the policy and re-appointed Steve Cushman to serve another term. An interesting point is that Steve Cushman is a Republican. Steve supports working families. It shows you that it does not matter whether a person is a Democrat or Republican, as long as they support Labor and working families we will support them.

Fraternally yours,

Melvin "Pete" Vargas

President

 "From a Woman’s Point of View"

 By Sister Judy Lee Camp  

Happy Holidays to all my brothers and sisters in Local 230.  We have much to celebrate.  Work is good and the future looks bright. 

We will be welcoming in approximately 40 new apprentices in January 2007, along with the group we welcomed into our ranks this past August. Remember to pass your knowledge on to keep our union strong! 

I would like to pay a special tribute to three very special women in our organization, Sister Karen Trusty and our indispensable office professionals, Caryn Bateman and Pam Burke. They participated in the Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk for the Cure for the Susan G. Koman Foundation this November.  All three completed the walk CONGRATULATIONS!  That is quite a commitment that required a lot of time and effort in training.  We are proud of them and thank them for their dedication to a good cause.  I know that many members of Local 230 donated money to them individually, as well as voting as a group to support them with a donation from the local. We are proud of them and the members of Local 230 who supported them. 

Here’s to a Happy New Year to all.  Be safe- Don’t drink and drive!  We need you all out there continuing to show our contractors that we are providing them with the manpower and quality of work to keep our union as a strong presence in the job market.  

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