February 3,2010

IBEW Local Union 69

 

NEGOTIATIONS BULLETIN

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Negotiating Committees for IBEW and Oncor met in Arlington on January 28^th and 29^th, and exchanged lists of issues that each side felt were important to discuss during negotiations to include the FSR workgroup into the existing labor agreement covering the distribution workers.

 Agreement was reached on two (2) issues: 

1)        Conversion to a bi-weekly pay plan for FSRs.

2)        Incorporation of the National Labor Relations Board certification into the labor agreement officially recognizing the FSRs as part of the contract.

Productive discussion also took place over other important issues including wages, hours of work, job security and the impact of PUC regulations on work assignments.  Negotiations between IBEW and Oncor will continue in Arlington on February 18^th and 19^th.

Two (2) other developments that relate to contract negotiations are:

1)        The Revenue Security Reps have submitted sufficient evidence to warrant a joint meeting with IBEW (George Crawford) and Oncor (Kyle Davis) to discuss the merits of union representation and have an opportunity to cast a secret ballot vote for or against at the end of the meeting, which is scheduled for February 10^th in Grand Prairie.

2)        The FSR SRs  have submitted sufficient evidence to warrant a series of joint meetings with IBEW (George Crawford) and Oncor (Kyle Davis) to discuss the merits of union representation and have an opportunity to cast a secret ballot vote for or against at the end of each meeting.  If the FSR SRs vote to no longer be represented by the Union, negotiations will continue to move forward for the FSR workgroup only.  The FSR SR meetings are scheduled for February 10^th (Grand Prairie), February 11^th (Athens) and February 12^th (Brownwood).

 IBEW LU 69 encourages all FSR work locations to continue the process of electing Union Stewards.  As soon as steward or stewards are elected, please notify IBEW LU 69 with the name(s) and contact information. (214.821.4700 or ibewloc69@aol.com )

Thank you for your continued support.   Regular updates will continue to follow.

 

IBEW LU 69 Negotiating Committee February 1, 2010

          

 

 

 

January 27,2010

Dear Brother and Sisters:

 

On January 15, 2010, the FSR/FSR, Sr.'s, Negotiating Committee met at our IBEW 7th District Office in Arlington, Texas, to discuss the upcoming negotiations with Oncor.  Our International Representative, George Crawford, covered many subjects at this meeting.  We learned that there are many areas that need improvement.  We had a good response from the survey that was sent out to the FSR/FSR,Sr's.  The information received back from the surveys were addressed and this will be help us in our negotiations for the FSR/FSR,Sr.'s.  The first scheduled negotiation meeting with the Company is set for January 28 and 29, 2010.

 

We are currently in talks with the Company to settle some or all of the five grievances that are pending arbitration.  These grievances have been put on hold pending a resolution.  They were discussed at all of our Unit Meetings.  We will keep you updated by informing the stewards on any progress.

 

We have a grievance that is going to arbitration about Cross Utilization with KDFW.  We are currently meeting with an attorney on this issue.

 

Remember to work safe and watch out for your co-workers.

 

Johnny L. Flowers

Business Manager/

Financial Secretary

 

December 2,2009

The FSR's vote was counted today and it passed!  Congratulations to all.

 

October 9,2009

Latest news on the FSR's

 

The IBEW has filed your petition for an election.

 

This has been a long and tedious campaign; we started this campaign in 2007.  There have been many ups and downs along the way but you stuck together and stood strong through it all.  Over the last two years many of our supporters left the FSR ranks to take other positions within the company and some left the company entirely for jobs elsewhere. However, most of their replacements recognized the need for representation and stepped forward in supporting our attempt to gain IBEW representation for all the FSRs and FSR SRs.  

This is our opportunity to have:

·        A work place that promotes fairness and respect for all

·        A work place where good work ethics are rewarded and compensated equally

·        A work place where grievances are resolved rather than ignored

• A work place where we can feel pride rather than disappointment
• A work place where we have a collective voice in our daily jobs
• A work place where we have advancement opportunities
• A work place where we can feel secure in knowing that our salaries, benefits and working conditions are guaranteed in accordance with our labor agreement

FSRs, by casting a YES vote, you will write a new chapter in the history of Oncor. You have the power to secure better salaries, benefits and working conditions for yourselves and all future FSRs. When you join the Distribution linemen/servicemen in having IBEW representation, you will have a strong collective voice of almost 1,000 IBEW represented Oncor employees.

YOUR FUTURE IS IN YOUR VOTE !

 

 

August 26,2009

IBEW LOCAL 69

August 2009 

On Saturday, August 22, 2009, IBEW Local 69 Officers and Stewards met with Seventh District Vice President Jonothan Gardner and International Representative George Crawford at the Dallas Local Union Hall.  The meeting was scheduled to discuss what our Union is doing correct and what we need to improve on.  I would like to thank the following officers, stewards and members for taking their time Saturday to attend the meeting:  Russell C. Fontenot, Greg Germany, Keith Hudson, Mark Hudson, Charlie Jackson, Ron Killion, Mark Lane, Marvin Lawry, Manfred McCollum, Randy McMullen, Bobby Reed, Lynn Riggs, Don Smith, Scott Smith and Jody Taylor. 

We discussed many different issues related to work and our Union .  The membership wants to know what the status of the IBEW Nat’l Healthcare Plan is.  I.R. George Crawford reported that the IBEW submitted a proposal to ONCOR & Luminant several weeks ago.  Luminant has taken the lead on the healthcare issue and has assured IBEW that the Company’s response to the Union proposal should be delivered to the IBEW within a couple of weeks. The Union leadership will then evaluate the Company’s offer and determine if it is reasonable enough to bring back to the Union membership for review and approval to move forward.

We went on to discuss our grievance procedure.  Several of the Stewards were frustrated about how long the grievance procedure takes.  I explained that most of the delays begin when the grievances get to Bonner, Carter and Chapman’s level.  Scheduling grievance meetings with the Directors has been a challenge.   

At the end of the day we came up with a “Union To Do List”. 

1.      Give more advance notice of Unit Meetings, dates, and locations. 

2.      Stewards have mini information meetings at each Service Center.

3.      Grievance communications between Stewards and Business Manager.

4.      Better use of  our web-site

5.      Cross Region exposure of Union representatives.

6.      Schedule future Steward Training at the Dallas Union Hall.

7.      Focus on trouble areas.

8.      Enforce grievance timelines. 

These are some of the things we will be working on in the future. 

We sent a letter to Oncor on 8-17-09 with an answer to their proposal on the Aloi arbitration award and expect a reply the week of 8-24-09. It has been almost 60 days since the award and it is time to get it finalized. Our next step would be to go back to the Arbitrator for his interpretation of the award.  

For the schedule of the steward /management training go to our web page and check it out.  

If there is an interest in forming a RV or Motorcycle club for IBEW Local 69 members please send me an E-Mail. I talk to a lot of members that have a Motorcycle or RV and it would be interesting to meet other members from across Texas who has the same interest.  

If you know of something that can improve our Local Union please share that information with us.  Call the office at 214-821-4700; e-mail us at ibewloc69@aol.com or call me at 214-793-0937. 

Our Union is better when we are together.

 

June 26,2009

There are still IBEW Local 69 T-shirts and knifes for sale and can obtained them through the Local 69 office or talk to your Steward. You can call the Local 69 office at (214) 821-4700 to check for availability. Below are three of the designs.

         

       

June 26,2009

Brothers and Sisters,

KDFW-KDFI  has voted on their contract and passed!

May 4,2009

Brothers and Sisters,

The IBEW Local 69 FR Committee met with Oncor today (5/4/09) to discuss the changes made to the Safety Handbook regarding the Suitable Clothing rule. The FR sock and the FR face shield was the main topic.

The IBEW Local 69 FR Committee sent a letter of our concerns to the ONCOR Arc Flash Committee on 2-6-09.  Our main concerns were on using the FR sock and the FR face shield. We believe that our concerns were considered in making these changes. Please review the attachments and always refer to Safety Rule 107-Suitable Clothing.    

 

Johnny L. Flowers
Business Manager/
Financial Secretary
IBEW Local 69
1408 N. Washington
Ste.210
Dallas Texas 75204
214-821-4700 (office)
214-821-6906 (fax)
214-793-0937 (cell)

 

May 1,2009

A brief summary of what went down at our meeting with ONCOR (Rob Trimble, Brenda Pulis and Kyle Davis) yesterday:

 

·                    Meeting format seemed to be better with smaller group and more candor between the parties.

·                    Parties agreed to focus on improving “communications” and in fact decided to put communication as standing agenda item at each quarterly meeting.

·                    Agreed to begin regular meetings between three (3) ONCOR Regional Managers and Local 69 Assistant Business Managers to improve communications  and address issues at local regional level.

·      ;               Agreed to schedule follow up meetings with Kyle Davis (ONCOR) and George Crawford (IBEW) addressing supervisors and stewards in the different regions.

·                    Discussed and reviewed the possibility of a settlement of an important pending arbitration case involving “rest time”.

·                    Discussed and reviewed the possibility of using “Grievance Mediation” as an additional step to use between a top level grievance and=2 0arbitration.

·                    Discussed and reviewed union concerns over the erosion of bargaining unit jobs and the lack of growth of bargaining unit jobs vs. non-bargaining unit and management jobs.  This issue will also be a standing item on the agenda at the IBEW/ONCOR quarterly meeting.

·                    Agreed to request that the ONCOR Regional Managers work with the Union Assistant Business Managers in their respective regions to complete the updating of the seniority list for bargaining unit employees.

·                    Set the next joint quarterly meeting for August 5, 2009 at 1:00 p.m. at the ONCOR office in Grand Prairie, Texas.

 

 

April 21,2009

Health Insurance Update

IBEW and Oncor have been in the process of gathering important documents in relation to providing us with a firm bid of IBEW Health care plan. This information has been submitted to the IBEW in Washington and there will be processed and hopefully a bid will be presented here within the next month or so.  Local 69 has pressed very hard on getting this very important issue completed. Thank you for everyone's patients.

 

April 6,2009

There is an opening slot for a member on E-board that will represent the Western Region. If theres anyone in the Western Region that is interested in this position please contact the local via email or phone. For more information on this position, please contact the business Mgr.

 

Johnny L. Flowers
Business Manager/
Financial Secretary
IBEW Local 69
1408 N.Washington
Ste.210
Dallas Texas
214-821-4700 (office)
214-793-0937 (cell)  

 

April 3, 2009

Brothers,

We have met with the company on the changing of the way we do our on call. We met on 3-30-09 and 4-03-09 and voiced our concerns on why the Company does not have the right to implement this change. We did not come to a conclusion and the Company said that they were going forward with the change. At this meeting we also discussed the grievance procedure and we will be filing a grievance at each service that is affected. This will allow us to see how many service centers are affected and then we will combine them into one grievance. This will be filed under, for the good of the Union.


Johnny L. Flowers
Business Manager/
Financial Secretary
IBEW Local 69
1408 N.Washington
Ste.210
Dallas Texas
214-821-4700 (office)
214-793-0937 (cell)  

 

February 25,2009

Latest news of the IBEW health insurance!

We are set to have a meeting March 13,2009  for an IBEW representative to make a presentation regarding a cost proposal, etc for the IBEW Healthcare Plan for workers at ONCOR and Luminant. There will be a update to the out come of the meeting.

 

February 16,2009

 IBEW Healthcare update.

IBEW is in the process of getting three bids together to present to EFH.The first bid will be for ONCOR Only. The second bid will be for Luminant Only. The third bid will be for ONCOR and Luminant together.As I understand this you will need to be a bargaining unit employee to participate.We should know something by the end of this quarter about the bids.

 

Johnny L. Flowers
Business Manager/
Financial Secretary
IBEW Local 69
214-821-4700 (Office)
214-793-0937 (Cell)

 

December 29,2008

With the combined effort of both Oncor and Local 69, a revised service center preference list is now available.  The preference list will be in the Steward info folder and in a attached link below for a short while. Once you have completed the list and turned in to get it signed, it is recommended that you make a copy of the signed list for own documentation. If you have any questions pertaining to the list please direct them to your Steward or Business Mgr.

                   Service Center_preference_list   

 

December 15,2008

 

 Dear Brother’s & Sister’s: 

On December 10^th we held our quarterly Labor/Management Meeting in Arlington, Texas.  This included the Staffing, Safety & Health Care.

The Staffing Committee discussed the job positing that are being put on Oncor’s job posting site.  Oncor plans are to hire 57 new employees and replace 37 employees that have either retired, been promoted or left the bargaining unit for any reason.  This includes an additional storeroom employee in Temple, and two Troublemen – one for each Doc’s. 

On the Safety Committee we discussed the new F.R. clothing that everyone has been fitted for.  Mr. Tidwell did say that instead of the face shield you could wear the head sock and safety glass’s (clear) at night.  You can wear the sock to replace the shield anytime.  Mr. Tidwell also said that 97% of the time the long sleeve Henley will be the only shirt required.  After you receive your new F.R. clothing in January you will no longer be able to wear your current F.R. clothing to work in.  All of these changes have been brought about by the N.E.S.C. - National Electric Safety Code.  There are not any changes to OSHA rules. 

On the healthcare issue there has not been any progress.  The IBEW and Oncor representatives are still getting all data together.  We should know in the first quarter of 2009 if we have a deal or not.

We will be filling vacancies on the E-Board in January.  Anyone that is interested should contact our office by e-mail (ibewloc69@aol.com) or phone (214-821-4700).  These vacancies will be filled on January 22, 2009 at the Dallas meeting.  All E-Board meetings will be held on the 4^th Tuesday of the month at 4:00 p.m.  All E-Board members will need to be available by phone at this time.  We will be handling the E-Board business by conference call.  Conference calls will allow everyone an opportunity to serve where they are located at. 

If you have an e-mail address and would like to be added to our list send us your information.  Also if you have a new address, phone or job, please contact the office so we can update your records.  Again, you can contact us by e-mail or phone.

Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  Remember all of our troops that have served and are currently serving.  Because of their sacrifices we are free today.  

Just a reminder – Per Capita Dues will increase $1 (one dollar) on January 1, 2009. 

God Bless, 

Johnny L. Flowers

Business Manager/

Financial Secretary

July 9,2008

To help both the Local 69 and Oncor in gathering a complete seniority list, a form has been created for each and everyone of us to fill out and give to our Supervisor. The Supervisor's are aware of this form and have been instructed to work with us in this process.

With the cooperation in both the Union and Management, we can complete this task in a timely manor.

If you have any questions pertaining to this procedure, feel free to contact your steward and or business Mgr.

I have attached the form under the Steward info tab.

We thank you for your time.

your name@ibewlocal69.com Email Accounts

We have 500 email accounts available with our hosting account. We would like all member's to have a ibewlocal69.com email account. This would allow us to easily remember everyone's email address as it would be 'last name'@ibewlocal69.com. This ibewlocal69 account can be forwarded to any other email account you like.

 For instructions on accessing your email account or to have one setup contact

Monty Makarwich  817-988-4454
 makarwich@ibewlocal69.com

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