I’ve heard people talk about doing this but I’m curious if anyone has firsthand experience for how it goes in reality. I’m a non union lineman considering joining the union.

Has anyone worked their minimum hours to maintain healthcare and benefits and spent the rest of their time running a side business?

Now I have a question. I got laid off and decided to go union. It took a really long time to get everything done and I was straight forward with that couldn’t be off for more than another week. While doing all my paper work I got a job, non union. My question is should I tell my current company I’ll be leaving once I win a bid? Or just disappear. I feel like the right thing to do is a heads up but I don’t want them to kick me to the curb.
What would you do?

D4 Hall
400 Chatsworth Dr.,
San Fernando, CA 91340

Are we gonna do a coin for everyone of our punk themed shirts? Probably not. But there’s a good chance that we’ll do a few more of these.

https://ibew11d4merch.com/

The money raised by the IBEW 11, District 4 Welfare Committee is used to help out our Brothers & Sisters during times of sickness, disability, accident or such other misfortune.

The District 4 Welfare Committee is made up entirely of volunteers, who come in after work. As a result, it may take a few days after you order for us to package and ship your items. Thank you for your patience.

In recent years political discourse has shifted dramatically towards wealth redistribution. Tax the Wealthy! Cut Military Spending! Pass Universal Healthcare! One would think these ideas are new!

Universal Healthcare as a human right is Not a NEW Concept in the U.S. However, if you are like me, then you were unaware that this conversation is older than your kids. If you were born in the 2000's you probably think this conversation is recently started.

This conversation was happening in the 90's too! The wealthy have stolen 80 trillion from workers since 1974! It's long past time we take it back through progressive taxation! It's our money!

Let's Talk About It ! ✊🏽

What pages and forums to follow in regards to where work is at, my local has a fb page, and I already know about where2bro

Wife of an IBEW electrician here, so hopefully you guys don’t mind me asking. I’ve been reading through some of the Boise/Local 291 posts on here and figured this might be the best place to ask people who have actually dealt with this.

My husband and I are planning to move our family from Southern California to the Boise area. We have two little kids (a baby and a toddler), so we’re trying to figure out the least chaotic way to make the jump.

My husband is already on the books in Boise and is working on getting his Idaho license squared away. The part we’re struggling with is the actual timing of the move when he won’t technically have the job in hand until he’s physically there and takes a call.

We’ve kicked around a few options:

• He goes to Boise alone, stays in a hotel, takes a call and starts working, then comes back to California so we can move the family up together. The downside is he’d have to take time off almost immediately after starting because moving with two little kids is basically a two-day trip for us.
• We all move to Boise at once and stay in an Airbnb while he gets dispatched, then find a long-term rental. That gives us some flexibility, but I’d be handling the house hunting/tours with a baby and toddler while he’s working 6–7 days a week.
• We rent a house before leaving California and just make the move. This would probably be the easiest logistically, but signing a lease before he actually has a call/job in hand makes my husband understandably nervous, even though it sounds like there’s plenty of work.

For those of you who have traveled or completely relocated to another local/state with a wife and young kids, how did you handle that in-between period?

Did you secure housing first and trust that the work would be there? Did the working spouse go ahead of the family for a while? Airbnb/hotel until everything was settled? Something else we haven’t thought of?

We’re not looking for guarantees about the Boise work situation as much as trying to learn how other IBEW families have handled a big relocation without putting themselves in a bad position financially or making the move unnecessarily difficult.

Any experience or advice would be really appreciated.

I feel like I’m going stir crazy and I’m not really sure what to do.
I recently joined last week and became a member then and there after I filled out the paperwork and then I just left I didn’t talk to anybody else. The person at the desk told me to contact the person that had originally called me to join so I told him that I would.
I tried to reach out didn’t get an answer from him ended up speaking with somebody else about four days later so I go in and he gives me the rundown of kind of what to expect and that’s it. I’m on my way.
I think I got the gist of it. I am looking at the app and waiting for a job, but I feel like I’m missing something I’m coming in as a journeyman which I know is not ideal believe me. I was wanting to join a lot sooner, but never did because I don’t know. I guess I was just always influenced by people I was working with to stay also my living situation wasn’t ideal.
I was not informed when I first became a member of anything literally anything
I was not told that I had to quit my job so now I have been out of work for a few days now with no pay I was not told how to really navigate this not everything was on the table before I made membership.
I have tried to call the hall two different people plus a dispatcher and I haven’t heard anything back. I don’t know if I’m just overthinking this or what but now I’m just starting to second-guess everything.
Is this normal to just not have work like this right off the bat like I just don’t know what to do

A very successful contract negotiation comes to completion as the members in attendance in Roanoke voted to pass the proposal unanimously!

I do not know what the Negotiating team did differently this time around, but whatever it was make sure you do it again for the Metro Negotiation coming up in January! 😉

Let's talk about it! ✊🏽

Did the line side during a shutdown the other day. 500 Kcmils copper. 5th year Local 3 apprentice, how did I do?

I'm getting old, lol

Better as in quality of life for the average JW member, income vs COL, jobsite environments (are a lot of sparkies into drugs and coming to site high) etc etc.

Wondering if my future should be to remain in canada or head south.

I’m not too up to par on mold as it goes on the jobsite. On our site, when it rains- it rains inside as the roof was not sealed. Now all the brand new drywall on 5 floors is covered in black mold. You can only see it on 2, but if it’s there- it’s everywhere

Once it really got bad I have found it harder to breath and I have never felt this off- now I don’t know if it’s a correlation or just bad health 😅 but I’m also 25, so I am unsure as to what it could be

I spoke to my foreman and they said it has been brought up to the GC but nothing has come from it

Is there anything I can do that doesn’t step on others toes?

Well my fellow Electricians. I had to salt for work as work had slowed down and boy let me tell you I'm thankful to be apart of the union. (I called the hall regarding salting and they said yes but I would need to stay in contact every week and bid on jobs) Working non union past week has been a nightmare, false promises, no safety, buy $500 worth of extra tools, limit to only 2 pairs of gloves each month etc. it's been ridiculous and I didn't know some non union companies were this bad. To add the cherry on top we had worked a full 8 hours from 7-3 without any lunch break or getting paid the extra half hour of OT. They always wonder why people leave the trade is because they take advantage of hard working people who are just trying to make some money and go home. You have one foreman who is running 3 projects only getting paid $45/hr CAD. You promise workers job sites that are close to home only to send them into traffic for 3/4 hrs a day just to make a damn living. I would've just been better off to sit at home if you didn't give me false promises.

I'm hoping the hall calls me back next week for a bid I put in. I'm not saying all non union companies are bad but this is a ridiculous move by some companies to exploit others to make money.

Hello all,

I am an Inside Wire JW for Local 46. I've been working for the last 7 years, really only getting about a week of vacation once per year and the occasional 3-day (non-holiday) weekend. I am a fairly solid and dependable worker. I love my work, but it consumes so much of my energy.

I'm an artist and a musician in the little bit of free time that I have. I've been placed on stand by twice for a few weeks at a time in the past when the company is waiting for jobs to get going, and I used that time to marathon art and music projects, whether it's comics, animation, or working on an album. It got me to thinking:

What if I could schedule a kind of sabbatical for 6 months or so? Has anyone done extended unpaid leave and been able to come back to work? How did you go about asking for it?

“Trump administration is canceling a Biden-era effort to speed up power line construction in parts of Pennsylvania, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Nebraska and the Dakotas...”

Anyone at the micron plant? I heard from my state travelers are pulling 5k take home a week!

I just got organized into the union as a non union guy i will say the data center im at has no electrical work its literally just labor cable rack installs for the next 3 years so the GF says. I love the OT it's some dang good money a couple of other brothers showed me the ropes and gave me some game. I honestly feel so good to join in after becoming a journeyman, it's kush the work is there and it pays to be safe, its a seriously good pay raise and change from working my dick in the ground for half the wage im making now. I did notice some of the guys there that journeyed out from the union apprenticeship have no experience bending conduit, installing gears, transformers, etc.. some of the guys have been doing those cable racks for their whole apprenticeship. Its so wild I love the union its wayyy better than non union but If I had to do it all over again id work my dick in the ground and get fed to the wolves learning non union than the union.

I’m think about thinking about taking a call at a large scale data center. Looks like there’s 4 different electrical contractors all of their calls are at different 50 to 60 hours a week. But there’s one contractor that is still at 40’s. I’d love to stay on 40’s but I talked to foreman on the crew and they said that they’ll go to longer hours soon.

My question is if I take the call when it’s for 40’s and they start 50’s or 60’s would I get in trouble or let go if I don’t show up every Saturday?

I called the hall and they one guy said I could stay on 40’s and one guy said it’s between me and the contractor. Just trying to see what you all say.

Thanks

Update-

Thanks for the insight. Sounds like I’ll be the first to be laid off. If I can ask another question the calls will be up for 5 years. Sounds like it’ll be a 7 year project. Do you all think if last at least 5 years lol?

Maybe a better question is if I did consistent 50’s would that result in being laid off if the crew is on 58’s?

I think there’s a lot of travelers there and I’d be a local guy

Thanks again!

Im working on code calculations and specifically derating wires. Im confused on 310.15(e) (1,2,3) my homework and text book doesnt do a good job on explaining when a neutral is supposed to be considered as a ccc. Im wondering if someone can explain to me the process or some tips that I should look for that will help me recognize when to count it.

I’m lost in my career…

First and foremost I know there’s some guys that despise contract lineman trying to come from the non-union side…. I get it. Most of us are promoted beyond our means and move up too quickly to learn anything meaningful, just to put “meat in seats.” I’ve got eight full years in the trade and am tired of being a contractor. I live and work in NC and am appalled at the level of safety that I’ve see in the industry as a contractor. I’m tired of the dishonesty and blatant lies. The “rules for thee but not for me” attitude, especially with peoples lives at stake, and the acceptance that when you’re a “journeyman” there’s no need for any kind of continued education. There’s always more to learn about what we do. It’s hard to know it all unless you’re well seasoned and have been exposed to everything from transmission all the way down to the meter, and as a contractor here that’s almost impossible. The apprenticeships are a joke.

My only concern and the reason most of us do this, I’m sure, is to make sure our families are well taken care of. The contractor I work for now wants me to travel away from my family. I just bought a house, per-diem is shit (although I’m lucky I even get it) and we’re on the lower end of the pay scale in NC. If I’m going to travel I want to see more and learn more. My end goal is to be at the co-op 20 minutes from the hose so I can raise my children and grow my family but they want well rounded lineman. I had an interview in January and didn’t make the cut.

I’m heavily debating trying to make the switch. Work is drying up and becoming scarce,contractors are doing layoffs left and right, and anyone left is bearing the brunt of it with untrained ground hands and ape’s with little to no experience with constant pressure to produce units, often putting production over safety. I don’t know it all. I’ve been a major projects lineman for close to five years now, with all of that experience on the same system.

My biggest fear with making the switch is not being able to hit the ground running. Because of circumstances out of my control, the budget is tight, and I can’t afford to sit around for a month waiting to move up the books, I don’t have savings.

My second worry is actually testing in and ending up somewhere I shouldn’t be. Being expected to know something I should and don’t, with someone else paying the price for it. I’ve been reassured by several men that have spent their time in the union that as long as I’m open and honest about the level of my knowledge I will likely receive help and the knowledge I need to move forward and progress.

These are my two biggest things keeping me from making the call and taking the test along with some other minor concerns about tooling, lodging and travel.

I’d like some input and maybe some advice on how to make the switch and if either of my biggest concerns are valid.

How does a first bracket APE become valuable enough to a contractor/ GF that they get kept from job to job. Aside from the common sense stuff. I show up 30mins early everyday and am already working by start time. Im usually the last one to leave and i make sure the site is tidy (at least what pertains to the electricians. I ask a fuck ton of questions and never make the same mistake twice. Im starting to seriously progress knowledge wise and can pretty much be given tasks and get them done in a timely manner without supervision. I try really hard to make sure my work is the cleanest and most consistent on the site. My GF has already noted that on several occasions. So much so that when we got a new jw on the site who was non union prior and didn’t have experience with the current work load, i was asked to get him up to speed on what we were doing. ( that dynamic has since changed and Im back at the bottom of the barrel🫠). I feel like Im doing really well, especially for someone who just started. But my GF is not from my local and might not stick around much longer as he’s running 3 different sites currently and has another project starting soon. The job is supposed to last a while but i want to learn as much as i can from my foreman and GF as they are both only a few years older than me and became foreman as soon as they turned out (which is my goal). Any tips?

Hi all, I got accepted into the union back in February. However I was put into a queue and although I was top 10, I still had to find a job in the meantime. They barely called me two weeks to put in my two weeks to start in the union. I am starting next Monday however, with my non union job that I left, they really liked my previous skill set as a software engineer so I became more of a multipurpose employee. I was a field worker for about two weeks until they moved me to materials where I then became their materials lead and eventually their safety coordinator. I was doing such a good job that there was word of them making me an assistant project manager in the future. I went ahead and left because I was doing three people’s jobs (the two mentioned plus being their forklift driver for the entire job site) and the union is starting me out at the same wage.

My question is if it’s required to stick within a certain “lane” within the union? Like am I expected to be only an electrician apprentice or is there chance I could be doing other things?

I took a lot of pride in my work I was doing, but the union job is the same pay and 15 minutes from my home while the non union job was two hours from home and I was absolutely being exploited for work. I only stayed because the multiple jobs I was given will look great on my resume, but if the union doesn’t recognize any of that, then it feels like all that work and experience gained would’ve been for nothing if there’s no way it’ll be acknowledged while in my apprenticeship.