4/21/2021

From the Office Staff:

The Office Staff has a growing list of members with bad addresses and contact information. Please update your contact information by emailing Lisa or Emily or by calling the Hall. With Officer Elections barely more than a year away, this contact information is vital to your participation in all our processes, including those elections. 
Lisa@ibew291.org
Emily@ibew291.org
2083434861

Online Dues Pay is the preferred method of accepting Dues Payments at this time. You can set your online payments to be done every month. These recurring payments help Staff to be efficient with their time and efforts and to better utilize their resources. It would be helpful for the Members to utilize this option. 

From the Assistant Business Manager:

Outside Line Construction is busy. Groundman calls going to book 4 and Lineman calls going to book 2. The Local had 63 members fail to resign the books by the 16th this month. Please remember to resign your books, and check your registration for the referral process. 

Contractors are expecting an extremely busy summer. 

Several large projects expected at Micron, but no timetable or guarantees. 

A lot of out of state contractors making contact with the Hall due to an assortment of upcoming Public Works Projects they are bidding. 

From the Organizer:

Organizing Department signed up 4 new members in the last week. 

Participated in the 2021 Construction Conference, sat through presentations and discussions on several industry based items and their potential or current impact to the Local. 

New Contract Alert!!
Zap Electrical Solutions
Zap will be operating in Elmore County as a signatory contractor starting May 1st

New Contractor Class: Sept 13th - 15th
Emerging Markets Class: Sept 16th & 17th
Please contact Jeremy Redman if interested: Redman@ibew291.org

Updated Outside Line Wage Calculator to assist with organizing efforts. 

As always, if you know a fellow Electrical Worker, please send them down to the Hall to talk about getting started on a new chapter in their career as a fellow industry worker!

From the Telecommunications Department:

New Hire Orientation for April: The 26th, and will consist of 25 people

Ongoing Grievance Efforts in the two dozen range, including investigations. As always it is the Steward's who make the work possible. This week we will highlight Alicia Davila. Alicia is a Steward for the Local Union at ATT, the Chairwoman of the IBEW 291 Women's Committee, and is an advocate for women in Leadership. Alicia is a valuable member of the team and we appreciate her efforts greatly. 

We have pending arbitrations we are coordinating with IBEW Local 21 and the system council; System Council Telephone - 3 which encompasses all workers at ATT represented by the IBEW and nearly two dozen Local Unions. 

Political Update:

Labor and Worker bills seem to be done for the session, but we are still checking agendas daily to make sure it stays that way

Senate is keeping their nose to the grindstone and staying focused - consequently they are way ahead of the House on their agenda and recessed on Wednesday until next week to try to give the House an opportunity to catch up.

Fights rights now are focused on Abortion, Marijuana, Education (principally funding, but also content restrictions), and the balance of power between the Legislative and Executive branches. The Governor announced his veto of the latest bill to limit his powers to declare an emergency, including statements of support from all four of Idaho’s living former Governors. Legislature has passed S 1110, making the people’s ballot initiative right much harder to utilize, the Governor did sign the Bill.  

Transportation Funding Package - has support but may run out of time.

From the Business Manager:

Remember to RSVP for the Meetings. 

Stay Safe on your jobsites and remember to go home in the same amount of pieces that you showed up in.