# The Good Old Days



## ohmed out (Jul 30, 2015)

A question for anyone with 20 years in the local or more. Have you noticed a change in union culture? My uncle passed away 3 years ago. Local 3 and dedicated. He would talk about the brotherhood of the union and how great it was. All he knew was the union and electrical work. Have you noticed a change over the years. The union he bragged about is not the one I see today. NECA has the upper-hand (it seems ) and back biting and two faced behavior seems prevalent. I am proud to be union and will never turn my back on my stand up brothers. Have things changed that much over the years? I'd ask my uncle but unfortunately, we never got to have that talk.


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## ohmed out (Jul 30, 2015)

Not one response... Guess that answers my question. Stay safe and employed.

Respectfully.


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## pete87 (Oct 22, 2012)

ohmed out said:


> A question for anyone with 20 years in the local or more. Have you noticed a change in union culture? My uncle passed away 3 years ago. Local 3 and dedicated. He would talk about the brotherhood of the union and how great it was. All he knew was the union and electrical work. Have you noticed a change over the years. The union he bragged about is not the one I see today. NECA has the upper-hand (it seems ) and back biting and two faced behavior seems prevalent. I am proud to be union and will never turn my back on my stand up brothers. Have things changed that much over the years? I'd ask my uncle but unfortunately, we never got to have that talk.




The Last Real Men were born in the 50's .




Pete


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## gnuuser (Jan 13, 2013)

its worse when the unions elect those who suddenly become company men after they are elected, and the union employee gets thrown under the bus too much!
i am in a union and im seeing this happen from time to time.

but its a little known fact that your union can be sued for failure to represent a dues paying member in good standing.
a drastic but sometimes necessary action to have to take.

this is something they don't want you to know.
and by the way the whistleblowers laws protect you from union retaliation as well
believe me they do not want the negative attention foisted on them


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## ohmed out (Jul 30, 2015)

I'll have to refer again to my bylaws and constitution. From one brother to another...thanks gnuuser. Not blowing any whistles...just wondering why we dont sound the call for IBEW to stick together.


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## pete87 (Oct 22, 2012)

ohmed out said:


> I'll have to refer again to my bylaws and constitution. From one brother to another...thanks gnuuser. Not blowing any whistles...just wondering why we dont sound the call for IBEW to stick together.



I always thought that they kept a Good supply of Competent Union Electricians

for anything important and dangerous ... Critical Infrastructure and such ...

We did the Big Jobs and Non Union could not man up .



One thing to notice is there is a Lot of Built Buildings ...

I always liked the road part of it ... 

Construction is a Travel Job ... a family man should weigh his options . 




Pete


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## 360max (Jun 10, 2011)

ohmed out said:


> A question for anyone with 20 years in the local or more. Have you noticed a change in union culture? My uncle passed away 3 years ago. Local 3 and dedicated. He would talk about the brotherhood of the union and how great it was. All he knew was the union and electrical work. Have you noticed a change over the years. The union he bragged about is not the one I see today.* NECA has the upper-hand (it seems )* and back biting and two faced behavior seems prevalent. I am proud to be union and will never turn my back on my stand up brothers. Have things changed that much over the years? I'd ask my uncle but unfortunately, we never got to have that talk.


...how does NECA have the upper hand, and are you a JW?


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## don_resqcapt19 (Jul 18, 2010)

While most members don't really believe it, many contracts favor the contractor in the contract language. The real problem comes up when the member only wants to enforce the parts of the contract that are favorable to him or her, of course it works the other way around too...some contractors only want to comply with the language that is favorable to them.


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## ancientchristian (Jan 22, 2016)

I've got 29 years in the trade. Things have changed a lot. There is definitely less work out there now and not just in the construction field. Employers have the upper hand and anyone who has a good job will throw you under the bus to keep it. When you go to work bring your "A" game.


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## PipeMonkey134 (Sep 24, 2013)

These are the good old days!


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## joebanana (Dec 21, 2010)

My states unions banded together to lobby the state to require "certification", they thought it would increase "market share". Wrong. Only union members have to be certified, non-union shops are business as usual, because the DIR doesn't/wont enforce certification. I recently contacted a former non-union co-worker, and he's working prevailing wage jobs, no cert required. So much for market share.


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## ohmed out (Jul 30, 2015)

2nd year apprentice. Have you ever been injured on the job? I was and my contractor screwed me royally. My hall and training center did nothing to help me out. I've seen a lot of instances where Top rank Union men screw those of us in the field just to keep the contractor happy. Still employed by the same contractor btw.


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## cabletie (Feb 12, 2011)

ohmed out said:


> 2nd year apprentice. Have you ever been injured on the job? I was and my contractor screwed me royally. My hall and training center did nothing to help me out. I've seen a lot of instances where Top rank Union men screw those of us in the field just to keep the contractor happy. Still employed by the same contractor btw.


If you get hurt on the job it is between you and the employers workers comp insurance company. Why would the hall have anything to do about it? 

The contractor buys insurance for this reason, and is usually under no other obligation. Any lost time is paid for by the insurance company from the start of the injury. So when you get hurt, you are off the clock. 

If you think of the hall as a place to find employment, and not a place to file grievance you might be better off.


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## kg7879 (Feb 3, 2014)

I have been in ten years and it has gone down hill but some of it is out of the business managers hands.

Although I think a lot could be accomplished by making examples of the contractors golden boys who do not follow the local's agreement.


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## John Valdes (May 17, 2007)

gnuuser said:


> its worse when the unions elect those who suddenly become company men after they are elected, and the union employee gets thrown under the bus too much!
> i am in a union and im seeing this happen from time to time.


I can remember the time we as a majority upset the shop steward (union rep) and elected another after the steward wrote his resignation during this very meeting.
The next day as I'm walking into the shop, I see this new guy/rep we just elected in the office and the superintendent had his arm around our new leader.
I knew right then we made a mistake. Big mistake.

We ended up backing the old steward. He actually was the best choice even though he was an asshole.
He had balls is what I mean.


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## Jarp Habib (May 18, 2014)

The "old days" got our local almost run out of town. Back in the 70s there were strikes which was fine and well but the strikers in the ship channel broke down their fences and hotwired some dozers and wrecked a lot of property. We lost almost all contracts in that industrial belt (the entire houston ship channel) and ultimately dropped below 10% market share. Only just this past year have we been able to sit down with companies from the ship channel again and get new contracts out there. 

Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk


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