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International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
Local #612 Home Page
This page is to inform our members as to what is being
reported to our local via the AFL-CIO, and The IBEW news
letters that we receive.

October 2009

Congress Puts An End to Anti-Union
Rules at Defense Department
October 14, 2009

The controversial National Security Personnel System – long
opposed by Defense Department workers and their unions – is on
its way out.
“This is a sweet victory for all governmental workers,” said IBEW
Government Department Director Chico McGill.  The IBEW
represents 12,000 workers at the Department of Defense.

The NSPS was terminated earlier this month by a joint
congressional committee which removed the program from the
National Defense Authorization Act of 2010. “Repealing NSPS
clears away the toxic atmosphere that has been impeding positive
exchanges between Defense Secretary Bill Gates and unions,” said
Ron Ault, president of the Metal Trades Department of the AFL-
CIO.  

The NSPS, instituted by the Bush Administration in 2003,
effectively denied basic collective bargaining and civil service rights
to some 750,000 Defense Department employees and watered
down seniority rules by placing authority over pay raises in the
exclusive hands of supervisors.

“The program was an attempt to destroy civil service regulations,”
McGill said. “It was a broken system that turned employees
against managers.”

McGill particularly credits the work of New Hampshire
Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter (D), who helped write the
legislation that eliminated the program.  

Once the reauthorization act is passed, federal agencies must halt
NSPS by the start of 2012. “It’s huge news for federal
employees,” McGill said. “They have their collective bargaining
rights back.”

More news

IBEW Locals Rally Against “Jobless Recovery”
October 9, 2009

Despite hopeful numbers on Wall Street, the job situation for most
Americans remains bleak – and it’s getting worse.
September brought the 21st straight month of job loss, the worst
stretch since 1939. More than 7 million jobs have been lost since
the beginning of the recession with little hope that they will ever
come back.

The official unemployment rate of 9.8 percent only underestimates
the total damage as official records don’t count those who have
given up looking for a job, pushing the unofficial rate past 10
percent.

While some leading pundits are now claiming the economy is on
the rebound, the reality for most Americans is that they are facing
the worst job market since the recession of the early ‘80s.

Complacency in the face of rampant unemployment isn’t an option
for union members. Across the United States this fall, IBEW locals
have taken the lead – working in coalition with other labor unions,
community and faith-based groups – in fighting for good jobs.

On October 1, more than 1,000 union members, unemployed
workers and neighborhood activists marched through downtown
Boston protesting layoffs and the failure of corporate America and
policymakers to address the jobs crisis.

Said Boston Local 2222 Business Manager Myles Calvey:

It is not a coincidence that the rally was on the one-year
anniversary of the bank bailout. We need our political leaders to
focus on making sure every American who wants a job can get one
instead of bailing out Wall Street.

Calvey is also a member of the IBEW’s International Executive
Council.

Protestors stopped to rally in front of the New England
headquarters of Verizon, which recently announced that it was
laying off more than 8,000 employees, including more than 150
members of Local 2222.

Dan Manning, a Verizon technician facing an upcoming layoff, told
the crowd: (embed http://blog.aflcio.org/2009/10/05/more-than-
1000-march-in-boston-for-jobs-corporate-accountability/ in Dan
Manning)

I know these are hard times, but with Verizon there’s no excuse.
There is still plenty of work for us to do (and) they have the
money, too.

Michigan has been particularly hard hit by the recession, with
unemployment topping 15 percent. Many building trade locals have
upward of 60 percent of their members sitting on the bench.  

Calling on state leaders to “put us to work,” nearly 2,000 union
members came to Lansing on October 6 to ask Gov. Jennifer
Granholm (D) take the lead in job creation by approving the
construction of two clean coal plants, which are expected to create
nearly 2,000 construction jobs in hard-hit Northern Michigan.
(embed http://www.newgenmichigan.com/ in two clean coal plants)

According to Sixth District International Representative Jeff
Radjewski, one of the speakers at the rally:

We’ve been waiting for over two years for these projects. The
plants meet existing environmental standards, and Lansing needs to
move so we can put the people of Michigan back to work

Workers in Minnesota are hopeful that federal and state
investments in green energy will help bring new jobs to the
Midwest. Union members, community leaders and environmental
activists rallied in Duluth on October 1 telling residents to call on
their U.S. Senator to get behind new renewable energy legislation
which supporters say will create 1.7 million new jobs.
IBEW Local 612