IRON WORKERSLOCAL 378

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BUSINESS MANAGERS REPORTBy Jeff McEuenHello Local 378 members. In our most recent newsletters, I have been informing you of the level ofparticipation we will need to fight back against the union busting organizations. These organizationsare set on breaking us down to the point where our numbers will no longer be an obstacle for them topush their political agenda and the way of life that we have fought long and hard for will be reduced tobenefit just a few instead of providing for many.

I believe that we “collectively” can make our union stronger than it has ever been in our history. Justby looking back on our history of voter turn-out and volunteer efforts, when there was an issue orevent that we needed to turn out for in big numbers, we did exactly that. That’s how I know thatwhatever union busting organization that tries to threaten our way of life, that we will come togetherand push back those who try to silence our voice. It all comes down to the numbers, this is the timethat we need to stand up and be counted and turn out for the upcoming elections.

In the months that lead up to the 2020 elections there is the California Primary (Super Tuesday) onMarch 3, 2020 that you will need to be ready to participate in and then the June Primary on June 16,2020 that you will also need to participate in and of course the big enchilada on November 3, 2020,that “YES” you should most definitely be participating in. Being ready means, being registered to vote.Participating means “VOTING” at a bare minimum, but it just happens to be the most importantminimal effort you will make for yourself, your family and your union.

Participating in your general and national elections as I said is the minimum, but you are also neededto communicate with your friends, neighbors and family members what is necessary for all working-class Americans to keep working. If you feel like participating even more, you can join us here at thehall for community out-reach and precinct walks that are essential boots on the ground efforts to letthe public know that we will do what needs to be done to ensure good wages and benefits for ourfamilies.

The most recent participation request was for our membership to write a paragraph about theirexperience in their apprenticeship program to combat the IRAP’s Industry Recognized ApprenticeshipPrograms) because these programs are in direct conflict with our already established state recognizedprograms. I appreciate everyone who took the time to participate, but we need more than a 40%effort on any level of membership participation if we are going to keep what we have and try toincrease the level of that bar.

I’m pushing the participation message because we will need more than 70% of our membership and allunion memberships, to participate in the voting process if we’re going to succeed in the politicalarena. If you want to grow you will need to do your part in the elections that are just around thecorner. We all belong to the same International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental &Reinforcing Iron Workers that we all put our right hand to and swore an oath and within that oath itsays “ that I will at all times, by all honorable means within my power, procure employment for themembers of this union”. I don’t know how many oath’s you have taken in your life, but the two I havetaken I still honor to this day and this is one of the two. This is just a portion of the entire oath, butthis section means, that we do what we need to do to keep our people working and, in this case, weneed to PARTICIPATE & VOTE.

Always fighting for you & your union.

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Greetings Brothers and Sisters! We all know that it takes a lot of work if we want tocontinue to be the best trade that a contractor can chose for a project. It shouldalways be our goal to improve our work skills, our safety habits and our general workethic.

Integrating new safety techniques, erection or installment methods and work withnew materials are all ways we continue to improve every day. The role of aJourneyman Iron Worker holds even more responsibility with the Union, thecompanies we work for and even our families. A Journeymen makes an even biggercommitment to show up on time every day for work, to do the work with extra carefor safety and efficiency and to always remain drug free.

I’m pleased to say that there are so many of our Iron Workers who uphold and oftenexceed these expectations on a daily basis and I am proud to call these Iron Workersmy brothers and sisters. It is unfortunate that recently there have been someJourneymen who are not making good decisions and therefore soiling the good nameand the reputation that the rest of us have worked so hard to establish.

These workers are taking jobs and then walking off, leaving the contractors in aterrible bind with no good explanation of why. There have also been instances wherethey have shown up late (or not at all), with a bad attitude and sometimes even“unfit” to perform the duties they were hired to do. Reports of: unsafe work behavior,harassment of co-workers, stealing company’s tools and lunchboxes, destroyingequipment and materials have been documented.

Some have even cheated on welding tests. This is unacceptable and those IronWorkers who have worked hard to create such a positive reputation amongst thetrades should be outraged and ready to band together to help put a stop to thisdamaging and dangerous behavior. It’s our responsibility to report these rulebreakers, get them removed from jobs and bring them up on charges. I personallywill not allow the bad behavior of a few irresponsible individuals ruin the hard workof the rest of us who take pride in not only our Union and our jobs but in ourselves!

Be sure to attend the upcoming Annual Iron Workers Picnic where we will also haverepresentatives on site re: employee benefits and open enrollment. Give blood if youare able and bring the family for their annual flu shots, food and fun!

Always pay your dues, practice safe working habits and attend your Union meetings!

PRESIDENT/BUSINESS AGENTS REPORTBy Jason Gallia

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Sisters and Brothers, I hope this issue of the Local Line finds you all gainfully employedand your families in good health and spirit.

Work continues to look abundant. There are some jobs that are old favorites on thehorizon for springtime next year. Summit Wind Project started with PSG placing therods for the footings in August. This job will shut down for the winter months anderection of the towers should start around March or April. Twenty-three turbines areplanned for this project on the Altamont Pass.

Sand Hill Wind is another 40-turbine project that is also scheduled to start soon. Thisproject will also be in the Altamont area. It’s hip to be green. There is also the Solano 4wind project that is scheduled to start late 2020. This will be 22 turbines in Solanocounty. These are good jobs that aren’t too far from home.

I hope you all took a few minutes to do your part to save union construction as we knowit. In July and August, we asked members to write a couple of paragraphs to keep theconstruction industry from being included in IRAPS. This topic has been discussed atlength in The Iron Worker Magazine and at our union meetings. We have bombarded theapprenticeship and asked people at the window to write about this topic. We have doneemail blasts and texting as well as visited jobsites. This was your opportunity to standup for our way of life and do something that has a real impact in protecting our wages,benefits and pension.

If you are one of the members that participated in this, I want to thank you for fightingthe good fight!!

If you couldn’t be bothered with it, let’s just say I can’t publish the words that come tomind. As has been stated many times for many years, there are contractor associations,politicians, developers and more out there that DO NOT WANT US TO EXIST! Whetheryou choose to believe it or not, there are folks IN OUR AREA doing YOUR work, forHALF the money and ZERO benefits. We are under constant attack and we need EVERYMEMBER to stand up and fight back!!

BUSINESS AGENTS REPORTBy Jason Lindsey

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We are rapidly approaching the 2020 Election with new initiatives in politics, policy, andorganizing. In this age of an increasingly unequal economy and society, the union causehas never been more important toward both uplifting Iron Workers and this nation’sworking people. As the 2020 Election approaches, we will employ new methods toadvance the cause of our members and working people across the Bay Area. We will fightto steer economic development in a pro-worker direction while advocating for thepolicies that put members to work and protect the Union way of life. Finally, we will beon the frontlines to organize more workers and employers into the union. In our political efforts, we are identifying and preparing for key races in the PrimaryElection in March. Our work is influenced by politics, both through funding forconstruction and through the many government agencies that approve major projects.The information that we have collected and organized for this election will allow us tosystematically track and influence competitive races as we work with our Building Tradesand Central Labor Councils to elect pro-worker candidates across our cities, counties,and school districts. We will now use our new political database and the information wehave collected to identify and use shared allies to influence elected officials to advanceour interests, from Project Labor Agreements to infrastructure spending and beyond. Inclose relation to our political efforts, we are working to open dialogue with current andpotential allies to employ the best strategies for coalition-building. Just as we requireallies to elect pro-worker candidates, we also need them to overcome political oppositionto major projects across the Bay Area that put our members to work.  All of these plans require an unparalleled effort to mobilize our members while bringingour message to the broader community. The greatest strength and resource that we haveis you. Over the coming weeks, each and every one of you will be hearing from me aboutour strategies to win elections, establish pro-worker policies, and build up ourmembership. Our recent struggle to collect comments to oppose Industry-RecognizedApprenticeship Programs (IRAPs) illustrates this point. Our Local, like Building Tradesunions across the entire country, struggled to achieve enough member participation tofight a policy that would destroy our very livelihood. These weaknesses end now, and Iwill work tirelessly to connect with all of you. It is your union, and we want your input!On behalf of the Local, I will have the conversation about our strategies with everymember, and we ask for both your input and your help. While the benefits of this unionmay appear private in nature (i.e. good wage and benefits), it is only achieved collectively.It is when we combine our strength that we win. It is when we get our members involvedwhile spreading our message to the public that we prevail. We have many challenges andadversaries but, when push comes to shove, a majority of the American people CANendorse our vision over the recklessness of big business. It’s now up to all of us to cometogether to fight for the members that the policies that can uplift working peopleeverywhere.

POLITICAL COORDINATOR/ORGANIZER REPORTBy Glenn Loveall

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Greetings brothers and sisters, I hope this addition of the Local Line finds you all happy andhealthy.

Every once in a while, you get asked to do something that you really don’t care to do, or don’tsee the point in doing. For example, many of you may have heard about IRAP. Each of you hasbeen contacted 4 times in the last few weeks to participate in the fight against this. If you arereading this and don’t know what I am talking about, well, that is part of the problem. Wehave reached out to you via mail, email and texts. If you haven’t received anything, you needto update your contact information at the Union hall.

At the writing of this article, we are at the height of the summer rush. Companies are allcalling for Journeymen. We tell them we don’t have any more Journeymen and they get madsaying we aren’t doing enough. Well, I turn it around on them and say they are not doingenough. The companies are the ones who bid the work, see the schedule of work, know whenit is going to get busy. They should be adding an extra guy to their crews to start gettingsome more people trained. They seem to forget it takes four years to turn out a Journeyman.

Local 378 is still doing a tremendous amount of organizing. We have targeted companies andwe are constantly stripping manpower from the non-union and bringing them into theunion. Every person we add to the membership, increases our Union Density and makes usstronger. The same can be said for companies, every company we can sign increases ourMarket Share and makes us stronger.

By the time you get this article, Labor Day will have come and gone. What did you do tocelebrate Labor Day? What does Labor Day mean to you? Did you attend the pancakebreakfast at the union hall?

We have a very busy political season ahead of us so stay tuned!

BUSINESS AGENTS REPORTBy Ken Miller

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With the passing of our President Dick Zampa, our bank, US Bank, requested we installeither a permanent or acting president as soon as possible. At the August meeting themembers present voted to appoint me as the acting president until such time as weinstall a permanent president.

After much discussion, it was decided by the members present that we acceptnominations for president at the October meeting and vote on a new permanentpresident at the December meeting. It was also decided that we add the position ofvice president and will accept nominations at the October meeting and vote on thatposition at the December meeting. It was also voted that these positions be for oneyear, with re-election being allowed.

Our guest speaker at the August meeting was a representative from Better HealthGroup in Vallejo. He spoke of the benefits of CBD’s and brought some samples. Hetold us that CBD’s help with almost anything ending in “itis”, arthritis, tendonitis, etc.Gary Johnson asked if it would help with “dumb-ass itis”, he had no comment. The

members that tried the balms said they felt almost immediate relief, hands, wrists andelbows. There were numerous questions and his presentation was well received.

I am still requesting suggestions for guest speakers. Please contact me with yoursuggestions at byrondahl@astound.net or 925-381-7609. If you call, please leave amessage as I do receive a number of “Robo” calls and block any number that doesn’tleave a message.

Dues requests will go out December 1, 2019 for the 2020 year. Where has all the timegone?

Our next meeting will be on Wednesday, October 2, 2019 at the Union Hall in Benicia.

Look forward to seeing you there.

RETIREES CORNERBy Byron Dahl

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2019 IPALIron Workers Political Action League President's Club

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Deryl DamboiseAnthony DoriaRichard FoltzJesse Esquivel

Jason GalliaSteven Grogan

Iron Workers Retiree’sAssociation #378

Harry Ted JohnsonRodney Johnson

Steve KasparKevin KennedyJason LindseyRobert Lux

Michael MatichJeff McEuenJoe MedinaKen Miller

Jaime Mojica

James K. PruettHeather Riccabona

Abel RiveraEmilio RiveraJose A. RiveraLeticia Rivera

Nicolas RiveraLawrence Rostron

Carrie SteeleRobert J. ViolaLarry Wheeler

Michael WidmerJohnny Zampa

Richard E. ZampaRichard L. Zampa

Paul Zarn

TRIBUTESCharles Cavanaugh, #749602, 05/04/1934 - 07/15/2018Kenneth Chute, #1083496, 02/25/1952 - 07/14/2019Craig Johnson, #1160792, 06/01/1964 - 07/09/2019Dave McAfee, #596400, 07/10/1938 - 08/10/2019James Papas, #1214683, 06/11/1962 - 07/08/2019

Jeffrey Quarle, #984508, 09/26/1944 - 08/06/2019Ronald Sawyer, #603637, 11/13/1936 - 08/08/2019Marion Snyder, #606205, 02/16/1939 - 07/09/2019

WHEN: October 19th, 2019 at 10:00AM

WHERE: Iron Workers Local 378's Union Hall, 3120 Bayshore Rd, Benicia, CA 94510

SAVE THE DATE! 2019 ANNUAL PICNIC

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Iron Workers Local 378 invites you to our

Annual Picnic and Open Enrollment Event!

For your convenience, we’ll have an inclusive event where you can bring your family toenjoy our picnic festivities, enjoy great food, raffles, games and prizes all while you canbe assisted by our Trust Fund representatives and vendors regarding your benefits,retirement and life insurance options.

WANT TO HELP SAVE LIVES?Our organization would like to conduct a Blood Drive at our location for this excitingevent. In order to make this happen, we need to ensure we have enough donors toparticipate. Please advise if you are interested in donating blood and sign up today!

Donors can set up their appointment by simply going on RedCrossBlood.org entersponsor code: local378 or call 1-800-REDCROSS. If you have questions regardingdonor eligibility, please call 1-866- 236-3276 for further assistance.

Please RSVP to Local 378 at (707) 746-6100. Hope to see you there!

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ANNOUNCEMENTS

As a result of the amended By-LawResolutions effective July 1, 2019,

members are entitled to onefree month issued by the local union.

You must pay at least 11 months ofunion dues between 07/01/19 – 12/31/19

to take advantage of this offer!

The free month will be issued in January 2020.

FREE MONTH OF DUES!We’re excited to announce the changes in

our new website!

The updated site includes changes tonavigation for both mobile and desktop

versions.

We’ve also improved the structure of ourcontent to give you better access.

CHECK OUT OUR NEW WEBSITE!

WE WANT YOUR PHOTOS!We want to demonstrate the hard workthat you do in the Bay Area every day!

Send us photos of you at work toinfo@ironworkers378.org.

These photos may be included in ourPhoto Gallery on our website and in

newsletters.

NEW LOOK, SAME GREAT UNION!

We hope you enjoy the look of our newnewsletter!

If you have any feedback, please sendyour comments to

info@ironworkerslocal378.org

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Iron Workers Union Local 3783210 Bayshore Road, Benicia, CA 94510Phone: 707.746.6100Fax: 707.746.0979Email: info@ironworkers378.org

New look, same great Union!IronWorkers378.org

IRON WORKERSLOCAL 378

We would like to hear from you!

Please email us your suggestions, comments and general

inquires at info@ironworkerslocal378.org