BLOG.LOCAL5SALAMANDER.INFO

Tuesday, Oct. 18th Update

David Nix — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 01:55:37 GMT

We have updated the In Memoriam Page of our website in honor of our beloved fallen brother Walter P. Stanton. I just received the material from the hall and it is now posted on our site. I never had considered having to post a memoriam on my friend Waldo and I have to say, it is a very sad occasion but at the same time, I am honored to do this for a friend who's friendship I will always remember and cherish. R.I.P. Waldo. We all love and miss you and our meetings will never be the same without you being there raising money for all our members who fall on hard times.

Sunday, October 9th Update

David Nix — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 04:01:27 GMT

As we all now know, we have lost a member and a friend to members of Local 5 when we lost our friend, Walt "Waldo" Stanton. He was a human Dynamo who did more to help his fellow man than any one person in the thirty four years I have been in this trade. He not only gave a silver coin to all the new people he encountered on every job he worked on as far as I know, he is the man who championed the M.A.F. which is now going to be called officially the Waldo Fund in our local if the members vote to make that happen at the October meeting. When I built the website in Feruary of 2009, I made the page called the Waldo Fund. Since that time, I have had travelers who subscribe to our website ask me what the Waldo Fund is. A couple of months ago, Waldo asked me to put a blog on the website explaining what his M.A.F program is all about. The words I put on that page are the words of Brother Walt Stanton and I will not remove his words from his own page on our website as long as I have anything to do with it. Now, if we can all agree, the M.A.F will officially be called The Waldo Fund which we already have a page honoring all his generousity and love for his fellow man. Five men who are totally dedicated to his cause could not fill the shoes of this beloved man who cared more for all of us than he did for himself. He not only touched many of the lives of members of Local 5 as well as travelers he encountered as they came to San Onofre and Diablo Canyon to help out with our outages, he also touched the lives of the families of these members. If half the people in this world had the love in their hearts for their fellow man as he did, there would be no poverty, wars, or homeless people in this world. I am honored to have known Waldo for as long as I have known him but there are many members who loved and knew him better than I did. When I received the call from Brother Gene Clark while working in North Carolina, I was devastated by the news and the news even affected my health with an increase of my level of stress I was experiencing to having chest pains which I was afraid would be the death of me. I ended up in the hospital 2500 miles from home and underwent all kinds of tests that revealed my stress levels had risen to the level of causing me chest pains. I am not dying and I did not have a heart attack but I thought for a day or so I was going to be seeing my friend, Waldo on the other side. We must celebrate his life and come together as members who respect and appreciate the man and all he did behind the scenes to help his fellow man. About a year ago, Waldo asked me to help him with his efforts by organizing the M.A.F. and make it a viable way to help our members who fall on hard times. I told him my help had to be limited to making announcements on our website because I don't have near the organizational skills waldo had and also, I travel too much to have a greater involvement in the program. M.A.F. was his dream alone and he made it happen. Let's not let it fizzle out and let's continue what our friend started with absolutely no help from anyone else. Look for a page on our In Memorium page in the next few days as I get the funeral announcement and other things from the hall this week because I just returned to L.A. Saturday night from my trip to N.C.

August 8th Update

David Nix — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 03:07:39 GMT

Now that we have settled our contract, we have time to focus on other important issues concerning all our members such as work and when will we enjoy full employment again. With the economy in the present condition, we can all agree that even though our contract does not please everyone who is a member of our local, the contractors are not feeling victorious in their negotiations either. We are still in tough financial times and hopefullly with the work we now have on the books, we can get all our members back to work soon and keep them all working for a while. We all know that in the construction business, things seem to go in spurts and this is a very unstable economy to make predictions in. We seem to be on the verge of a spurt in growth of the construction market and that is thanks to the Solar projects that are now under way and will be hiring insulators soon in a big way. San Onofre has a 55 day outage coming up next January and will hire sometime in December in preparation for that.
Some of our members are working in Saint Louis on a refinery which is in full swing now. Chicago still has a hundred men on the bench with hopes of work breaking soon clearing their bench as well. Sometimes it seems as though we take one step forward and two steps back. There is work in Ohio but at present time, it is only 40 hours and hireing is sporatic at best.
There has been a long time from the last update to this one. I need to train someone at the hall to make regular updates so this site does not die like the last one did. We have the tools to keep all our members informed using this website and we need to do a better job at getting that job done. I blame myself for the serious lack of content on this site because I have not kept it up since I built it in February of 2009. I need help to keep it running properly and if anyone has any suggestions as to how to best accomplish that, or if you would like to volunteer your time to help with the site, please call the hall and express your desire as to how to keep this site fresh and up to date.

Wednesday, May 11th, 2011

David Nix — Thu, 12 May 2011 02:25:00 GMT

Our second anual J.A.C. Golf Tournament is coming up soon and as it was such a success last year, we hope to have the same if not better success this year. Details will be posted on the Article Scan page as soon as I receive the new flyer from Peter Rojas.
I have managed to talk Fred into doing another Video Blog and that will be coming up as soon as both our schedules permit. With his permission, I can republish the first one he did and you can see if he is getting more confortable being in front of the camera. I think he did an exellent job the first time so the second one should be even better. It would be nice if we could all show him our support after we publish the next video and maybe we can talk him into doing at least one a month if not weekly.
As you all know, we are now in contract negotiations and I hope that is going well and we should have something to bring to the members to vote on soon.

Tuesday, May 10th Update

David Nix — Wed, 11 May 2011 06:34:00 GMT

The following message has been requested by Brother Walt Stanton who is Chairman of the M.A.F. which is the Members Asistance Fund. You can find information about the M.A.F. on the Waldo Fund page link when you log onto our website.I will write it in his own words as he asked me to post this message on the Video Blog page.

I would like to thank the members who showed up at the April 16th, 2011 meeting in San Diego. We voted to strike a portion of Article XIII, Section 6 from our Constitution and By-Laws and Regulations that I feel should be ommitted because it should be a personal decision to travel to work in other territories during a strike and not be regulated by having that option left up to the discression of the Strike Committee. The part of Article XIII, Section 6 that was ommitted was as follows; In the event of a strike, no travel cards or Letters will be issued without first receiving the approval of the strike committee.
On June 17th, 2011 at the Buena Park meeting, the Members Assistance Fund, "M.A.F" will be up for vote as part of the Constitution and By-Laws and Regulations. Please attend this very important meeting and show your solidarity by showng your support for our M.A.F. and how important it is for all our members and their families who are in need..

Tuesday, May 3rd Update

David Nix — Wed, 04 May 2011 03:09:00 GMT

This site has remained dormant for the last three months while I was working in Wisconsin at the Point Beach Nuclear Plant. When the catastrophic earthquake and the following tsunami did all the damage in Japan, it devastated the nuclear industry in Japan but the ripples will be felt throughout the nuclear industry world wide. I am one of those people who believes the nuclear industry as we know it today will change for the better because of lessons learned in the disaster that happened in Japan. The plant that is experiencing all the problems is forty years old and has operated without major problems for all that time. A major earthquake caused that all to change in an instant. We in the U.S. will benefit from lessons learned during the disaster in Japan and I believe we will experience a huge increase in the work that is done in our own plants as they are shut down for refueling. Since the disaster is still underway and Japan is doing what they can to regain control of the most damaged reactors in that plant, it will take a while for new procedures to be written changing the way we operate here in the U.S. and take actions that will prevent the same thing that happened in Japan from happening here. Japan can not replace their nuclear energy with fossil fuel because they have no natural resources such as oil or coal to produce that energy. They would have to import all that oil and coal and that would put an enormous strain on the worlds energy sources and drive up energy prices world wide. There are people who would like to use this disaster as an excuse to shut down nuclear power use in this country and the rest of the world. All we would accomplish by doing that is putting ourselves back in the dark ages and put such a demand on fossil fuel that we could not afford it. The key to keeping safe nuclear energy is to insure a secure shutdown process which is possible and is the norm in the nuclear industry here in the U.S. All we have to do is assure we have a redundant system that continues running cooling water through the reactor in the event two safety systems fail as they did in Japan. We may even see some changes in design as the result of the catastrophe that happened in Japan but we can all rest assured that nuclear energy is both clean and safe in this country and our N.R.C. will do what it takes to keep our nuclear industry safe in this country by learning from the disaster in Japan.
As for other work in our industry, Canada is making a list of people who are interested in working up there in the near future.
Local 1 has work on a refinery as well as a new fossil fuel power plant in Southern Illinois.
Now for the best news of the year or even the last decade, Osama Bin Laden has been killed in a mansion in Pakistan and it was done by our very own Navy Seals. This is special for me because I watched the World Trade Center fall in person while I was working on a cogeneration plant in Linden, New Jersey right across the harbor. It took almost ten years to get Bin Laden but he is finally dead. He lived by the gun and he died by the gun.

Thursday, November 25th Update

David Nix — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 02:50:00 GMT

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I hope everyone got enough to eat without getting a belly ache from eating too much.
To everyone who had to work this holiday, You should be thankful to have a job that requires you to work the holiday. I hope the trend of work breaking here in Local 5's territory keeps up and gains momentum and at the same time, I hope work around the country follows that trend.
I understand that the work in Hawaii that was supposed to break earlier this year is finally breaking so that is good news.
This message was not pre approved by the business manager and is only comments from me so if it offends anyone as some of my older posts have, You can blame only me and not our business manager.

Wednesday, November 17th Update

David Nix — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 20:04:00 GMT

The subject of my posts as putting a negative spin on things has been brought up by certain members who feel I am shining a bad light on things that are going on during the meetings each month. These comments have been my opinion and do not reflect the opinions of the business manager or any other officer in our local.
From this point on, all blogs on this site will be read and approved by our business manager prior to being published on this site. I certainly do not wish to cause any one any harm by the comments I have published here on this site and If I have hurt any one's feelings, I appologise.
The next blog on this site will be posted by Fred Montoya tonight as he will make a statement in his own words. He has posted a comment to the site but I am having difficulty publishing it so I will set him up to make his own blog instead. This was my intention in the first place when I built this web site to have the officers in our local make their own blogs including video blogs but until now, that has not happened.

Saturday, June 26th Update

David Nix — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 21:27:54 GMT

We have finally finished contract negotiations and the contract was voted on today. There were 204 members at the meeting but not all members could vote because some of them owed money and were not eligible but the contract was ratified. We received an increase of 1.75% for all classifications which adds up to an increase of .85 for mechanics and all classifications accordingly. The peridium rate went up to $60. per day for 80 miles from the radius. The vote was about 119 to 51 in favor of ratifying the contract. The duration of the contract is for 1 year and we will be in negotiations again after the first of the year 2011. We hope to get a better contract then because the economy should be turning around by then. There are other locals in the Western States such as Las Vegas and San Francisco negotiating contracts now and this is a bad economy to try to negotiate a good contract. Since our economy is in such bad shape right now, I guess we are doing good to get any increase at this time. We decided to ask for a 1 year contract so as to not get locked into a bad three year contract.

Friday June 25th Update

David Nix — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 04:33:48 GMT

I have finally hired in on the Scotford Upgrader Project in Edmonton, Alberta. We had nearly three full days of orientation and training and now I am being thrown to the wolves so to speak. I have been shown my first project for Monday and ready for work. Safety is a huge issue on this project and you can be run off the job at the drop of a hat. There was one guy fired today that dropped a sharpie felt tipped pen through a grating floor into a confined space. He was observed by a Fuller Austin safety man and fired on the spot. I don't know about other units in the plant but you have to wear hearing protection at all times in the unit I work in even though it is quiet in your work area. There is a rule that on every scaffold whether you need to be tied off or not, you still have to wear a harness. You are required to wear steel toed boots with the green triangle safety symbol on them but I have yet to be checked for my boots. They have change trailers where you put on your coveralls which by the way have to be long sleeved. You are not permitted to wear your coveralls into the lunch trailer as well as your hard hat or even your safety glasses. There is a place called Direct Workwear on 9880 63 Ave. in Edmonton where you can buy used coveralls at a reasonable price. The phone number for that is (780) 435-5967. He closes before we get back to the Ramada at 6:30 but if you call ahead, he will stay open and wait for you to get there. When you check into the Ramada, you tell them that you want the monthly rate of $1780 per month divided into four payments. It comes to about $56 per night opposed to the $69 per night plus tax for the weekly rate. If you take the monthly rate, they pack you a bag with an apple, juice box, muffin, and a crunch bar to take to work with you every morning. You get them at the front desk. Canada Day is next Thursday and is equivalent to our Fourth of July. I am told that we may start 6/10s after the holiday. On 6/10s, Saturday is your double time day. Some guys have contacted the Canadian Consulate to ask about potential problems they may have due to their criminal history that may prevent them from getting a work visa. If you have a misdemeanor offence on your record, odds are very good that you will not have a problem getting a visa at the border. You must tell the truth because they have access to all your records. If you are calm and truthful to them at the immigration desk, they will give you the benefit of the doubt. When you go into the facility for visa processing, if there is nobody at the immigration desk, just have a seat and wait patiently because they are busy running your plates because they have your tag number from the surveillance camera. They know you are sitting there and they are watching for nervous behavior. Just remain calm and patient and you will be successful at getting a work visa even with a couple of misdemeanors on your record.

Saturday,June 19th Update

David Nix — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 02:29:00 GMT

We had our regular union meeting with the special order of business and we had a discussion about work in the territory and around the country as well as the ongoing contract negotiations. We had an individual who tried to disrupt the meeting by using rumors and innuendos that we are not including all the classifications in our efforts to get a raise for our members. He even suggested to the firestopper members that they would be better represented if they pulled out of Local 5 and perhaps start their own local so they would have better representation. While we could not tell the members specifics about the ongoing negotiations, we asked the question of the body what exactly did they want to achieve in the negotiation. The answer to that question is that we want a raise for all members of our local and not just a select few. They also said the out of work list needs to be handled more fairly and we need to stop using it exclusively as a referral list. One of the members on the floor stood up and asked for a show of solidarity and asked for all those members who are willing to stand united on these issues to stand up. A large 2/3 majority stood up to be counted as willing to stand united.. It is obvious that the members of Local 5 want to get raises for all members and not just a select group. If we are not successful at getting these two issues resolved in negotiations by Saturday, we will all stand united in our decision as to what to do next.
Work in Canada is ongoing and we have members going up a few at a time. Some members are not sure they will be able to get their work visas to enter the country for one reason or another. If you have a question about your eligibility, you can call the Canadian Consulate and give them all your information and they will tell you if you will actually have a problem or not. If you do have a problem, they can lead you through the steps to clear up your problem. You can reach the Canadian Consulate at (403) 344-4516.
Some guys have asked what actual bring home pay is on the job in Canada and the answer is $2200 per week working 5/10s. This is based on getting your pension money on the check and also 5 days of $100 per day L.O.A.. If you choose to have pension taken out of your check, it will be less. This is considered in Canadian Dollars.

Saturday,May 29th Update

David Nix — Sat, 29 May 2010 08:25:00 GMT

We have worked out a deal with the Ramada Inn in Edmonton Alberta for our U.S. Insulators with a rate of $69. Canadian plus tax per night or a flat rate of $1700 per month. This hotel is a nice place and the rate is about as good as you will get. All you need to tell them is that you are an American insulator to get the rate and if anyone has a problem getting the rate at first, don't worry, we will work out the bugs if needed. The hotel address is:
11834 Kings Way Ave. N.W.
Edmonton, Alberta
Ph#(780)454-5454
If anyone needs any more information, please call the hotel and if you get someone on the line that is not familiar with the arrangement, send us an e mail and we will take care of it for you.
Work in Washington is breaking and will need travelers.
Work in Hawaii is still supposed to happen in June.
We are waiting for a call back from Saint Louis regarding the work they have coming up shortly.
Enjoy your holiday weekend and stay safe.
I will be leaving for Canada next weekend but I will still make the updates to this website as needed.

Tuesday, May 25th Update

David Nix — Tue, 25 May 2010 23:17:00 GMT

We have a little more information on the work in Canada to pass on to you. People who worked in Local 110 jurisdiction in the past who have hours in the pension already will be given the option to have the pension deducted from your check to go into the pension. If you have one year with 350 hours or more within the last three years and you want to get another 350 hours now this year to get vested in the Local 110 pension fund, you will have that option. Also, if you are already vested in their pension fund, you will have the option to continue to have pension money deducted from your pay.
Cover alls are required on the job and they must have full body coverage with long sleeves. Nomex suits are not required because this is all new work but if you are required to work in an area of the plant where nomex suits are required, they will be provided.
Steel toed boots with the Green Triangle label which is the Canadian Safety Symbol are required.
You will be required to go to Service Canada and aquire a Canadian Social Card with a number much like a Social Security Card. This number will be required to obtain a Canadian bank account as well as getting paid by the contractor. The company will only do direct deposit and only into a Canadian Checking account. You will be required to open a Canadian checking account to get paid.
Most people open an account at The Bank Of Montreal or BMO as it's called where you will get three accounts at the same time. You will get a Canadian Checking, Canadian Savings, and a U.S. checking account. When your company deposits your pay into your account, it will go into your Canadian checking account. You can then transfer any amount of that money into your U.S. checking account and this is when it will be converted into U.S. dollars according to the exchange rate at the time of the transfer.
Once your money is transferred into your U.S. funds account, you can wire transfer funds to your home bank account in the U.S. by making a phone call to the BMO and talking to your personal banker. If anyone is interested in the name of a good personal banker at BMO who will handle all your banking transactions for you, contact me and I will give you her name and phone number as well as her e mail address.
We are still in the progress of locating a hotel for all the Americans to stay at but so far we have a price of $99 per night at the Raddison on the south side of Edmonton. It is a plush hotel with all the ammenities you would expect from a fine hotel. You could probably find a cheaper place to stay but not much cheaper and you get what you pay for. Almost any place you stay, you will have at least an hour commute by bus to the job. You will be required to drive to a bus stop location to ride the bus to and from the job and it will be set up like the bus schedule at Diablo Canyon was with different locations to meet the bus.
The perdiem rat on the job is $100 per days worked. You will most likely be working six tens but if more overtime is required, you will work seven tens with 21 days on and 3 days off. On six tens, you will get one double time day and one time and a half day. On seven tens, you will get two double time days and one time and a half day.
In processing days are on Mondays and Wednesdays so if you arrive on Monday or Tuesday, you will be required to do all the preliminary things I mentioned at the start of this article before hiring in on Wednesday. Plan your trip accordingly to make your trip as profittable as possible.

Friday, May 21st Update

David Nix — Sat, 22 May 2010 08:06:06 GMT

We had our meeting at the Orange County location and it is a very nice facility which is well kept and clean. It is very easy to access and about as centrally located as we could hope to accomplish right off of Interstate 5 and Beach Blvd. I'm not sure but I believe when we have had all the meetings for 2010, we might be having all our meetings at the Orange County location. If anyone is opposed to this idea, please send in your comment or send me an e mail so I can pass it on or just call the hall and voice your opinion.
Work in Edmonton is finally at the point where they are sending out L.M.O.s to people who are on the list to work on the Shell Refinery Project. All the Temporary Foreign Workers on the list have been divided by the three contractors on the job.
We are in the process of finding a central location for some of our guys to stay so we can all be together and not spread out throughout the area. This will make it easier for us to look after each other and perhaps negotiate a good rate for a hotel. I will put all the hotel information in the next update as soon as we have secured the location
It is my understanding that they will need more people than they have on their list of people who are interested in working on the project. If we can't provide them with enough manpower, they will be forced to bring workers in from the Philippines and other locations to fill the calls. As it is now, they need about 400 Temporary Foreign Workers and I know we have more than enough people out of work in the U.S. to fill the call but some people are apprehensive about working in Canada because they have a false impression it is too far to go. The job is only about 300 miles north of Sweet Grass, Montana and is closer to Los Angeles than Chicago, Illinois
Work in Idaho has begun on the chip plant and they will be calling for travelers very likely by next week.
Work in Saint Louis is going to require about 100 travelers by the end of this month.
Work in Hawaii will require travelers in June unless some unforseen problem prevents that from happening.
Work in our territory will be at the point where we will need travelers next year but for now, we will need to have a lot of our guys on the road.
We have four contract negotiation meetings scheduled for next week starting on Monday.

Wednesday, May 19th Update

David Nix — Wed, 19 May 2010 20:52:00 GMT

We have been contacted by Business Manager Bill Springs of Local 110 in Edmonton concerning work in Canada. L.M.O.s are being sent out now for the first group of American workers being hired. As of now, the offer on the table is the expense money and no motel room is being offered at this time. I will find out what the pay rate being paid as well as the expense rate is and post it on this page as soon as I get this information. You can also go to www.insulators110.com and read what they have posted on their site for up to date information. What this means is that you are on your own as far as locating a motel to stay at and you should also consider driving to Canada instead of flying as some of us did in the past. They are supposedly providing bus transportation from certain locations to and from the job.but that should all be spelled out in their web site. What all this means is that you will need to take considerably more cash with you than you would if you were being offered the motel room instead of receiving expenses on your check.
We will be making arrangements with a motel near the job and put this information on this web page as soon as we have the arrangements made. If any of you remember how I made arrangements for people to have a place to go when Diablo Canyon was going on, we are going to try to do the same thing in this case and I will post this information on this web page when we have the reservations made.
I have checked the latest update on the Local 110 website and as far as I can tell, The base rate on the check including the pension is $45.06. On top of that is Vacation and Holiday pay of $4.51, Health and Welfare of $1.50, PITT of $0.50 and training of $0.25 making the total as $51.82. I am not clear on whether the difference between $45.06 and $51.82 will be paid on the check.
We are also attempting to arrange a special rate for rooms at the Ramada Inn where we stayed in the past by getting all the Americans to stay at that hotel.
Saint Louis Local 1 should need close to 100 travelers within the next couple of weeks.

Wednesday, May 5th Update

David Nix — Wed, 05 May 2010 21:57:00 GMT

I have talked to a local 5 member today who is struggling to make ends meet since being laid off in December. His wife was laid off a few days before and they have kids to care for. We have a lot of families in the same boat as this member who are hoping for a miracle to pull them out of the slump they are in.
I myself would be having a hard time keeping my head above water if it were not for the fact that my wife makes the kind of money she does. If something were to happen to her rendering her unable to work, we would not be able to make ends meet. A lot of us are waiting for work to break in Canada to the extent that they will finally hire Americans. Their work visa system is strictly enforced and no foreign workers can work in Canada without a work visa and you can't get a work visa unless all Canadian citizens are employed. We have a very slow economy right now and work in the U.S.A. is slow at best. Jobs that are supposedly going to need people keep getting pushed back month after month. A lot of the problem with the work here in the U.S.A. is a lack of funding. I have been told by an unnamed individual that the Generator Changeout Project at San Onofre is likely to be pushed back to January. It makes sense because they want to hire two to four people to help complete work on the 3M Wrap work that is ongoing in the plant but supposedly they are having trouble finding the funds to hire more people. If this is the case, even work in some of the nukes around the country may be postponed for the same reasons. I'm not saying they will but it is a possibility.
Even with all the negative energy that is flying around in the U.S. economy, I am optimistic that work in this country will turn around soon and our economy will take a turn for the better. There is work on the books in our territory that does not have a definite start date but we hope it will all come into fruition sooner rather than later.
It is my understanding that Canada finally has reduced their unemployment rate to about 0% so they will be calling for American foreign workers very soon. This will take a lot of the pressure off of the out of work situation that is going on right now nationwide but it will not put everyone back to work. While work in Canada is finally breaking for us, work in the Saint Louis area should be picking up very soon to the extent that they will need travelers in the area.
The chip plant in Idaho should also be breaking in June barring any more delays.
Work in Hawaii will require a few travelers in June.

Tuesday, May 4th Update.

David Nix — Wed, 05 May 2010 02:46:00 GMT

We have eliminated the News Update page of the website in an effort to streamline the news updates and keep them all on the same page. All news updates will be posted on this page from now on so we hope it makes it easier for you to keep up with the latest updates.
We had a meeting on Monday with the contractors and it went well with no problems. We are optimistic of having successful negotiations with all the upcoming meetings.
We have a special order of business at the next meeting so please be at that important meeting. Please refer to your Local 5 Meeting Calendar page on this website for date and location of the next meeting.

Saturday, April 3rd Update

David Nix — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 05:51:00 GMT

We at Local 5 wish a happy Easter Holiday to all our members and their families as well as the regular visitors to our site.
We look forward to our first contract negotiations on the 7th and we are having a pre negotiations meeting at 3:00 on Monday, April 5th to get suggestions for things we need to ask for in our contract. We know the economy is still weak but it seems to be about to turn the corner into an upswing. The shortage in jobs has been felt by members of all locals in our International. Some of the locals that were lucky enough to settle on a good contract prior to the downturn in the economy have been asked to give back some of the gains they had made. We have been stuck where we are since 2007 with no good news in the economy for a long time. Now Detroit has announced a surge in the purchasing of American made vehicles and that could be a result of the problems Toyota is having with the sudden acceleration of their vehicles making them unsafe to drive. We never should have been buying Toyotas in the first place. I remember a time when there were no foreign cars allowed on any union construction site and the people driving these cars were told to buy American built cars or find a job elsewhere. We need to get back to buying American made vehicles and start reading the labels on all our products we buy and make a better attempt at buying American made products. We wonder why we have very little work going on here at home and you can start looking on the labels of what you buy and the answer will be clear. N.A.F.T.A. was the first big stepping stone that allowed our manufacturers to move out of the U.S. and make their products using cheep labor and still sell their products here in the U.S. Just because a vacuum cleaner has the name, Eureka does not mean it is still made in Bloomington, Illinois. They closed that plant and moved all their operations to Mexico. Did we see a drop in their prices since the move? The answer is no. The biggest recipient of the cash for clunkers program was Toyota. If we as Americans do not wake up soon and take control of our own destiny, we deserve what we get. Next time you think about the piss poor jobs situation, take a look in your driveway or garage and count the number of foreign cars in the parking lots on your job or count the number of foreign cars in any parking lot as apposed to the number of American made cars you see. It is an eye opener.
These are just my observations. Take a look around and see if I am right or prove me wrong.

Saturday, March 27th Update

David Nix — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 04:41:00 GMT

We still have the white 2005 Mercury Grand Marquis with 72,000 miles on it for sale for $7,000 O.B.O.
We also still have the 2008 Chevy Silverado pickup truck which is being offered by the Apprenticeship Committee for $16,000. It is in like new condition with 22,000 miles on it.
I still believe we need to explore the idea of installing security cameras on our property in light of the fact that someone had cut a hole in the gas tank of the green Grand Marquis we had for sale as it was being kept in our parking lot with a locked gate after hours. Whether it was done after hours by defeating the locked gate or a weak spot in the fence or during our regular office hours, a security camera would have helped us identify how and when it happened. I hope the damage done to the green car was done as a crime of convenience by some street punk and not a crime of sabotage by some disgruntled member of our local. Whatever the case, security cameras placed in key areas of our property would help identify people who wish to do us harm in one way or another. It might even serve as a deterrent to anyone who has designs on doing us harm in the future.
I was able to fix the gas tank that was damaged by replacing it with a used tank from a junk yard for a total cost of $260 and my own labor to remove the old tank and replace it with a tank without a hole in it. I bought the car as is and hold the local harmless in respect to the vandalism done on our local's property but by the same token, the damage should never have occurred and a video security system may have served as a deterrent to prevent it from happening.
If anyone is in agreement with me, please send me an e mail and I will bring it up at the next meeting.

Friday, March 19th Update.

David Nix — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 09:09:49 GMT

I want to start this message by mentioning something about a close friend of mine who passed away today after being in the hospital for just a week. My good friend, William "Bill" P. Kearns was working at Point Beach Nuclear plant as late as last Friday, when he collapsed due to complications with his blood sugar complicated by other medical problems that all came to a head at one time. I talked to him on Saturday and he indicated to me that he was looking forward to seeing me on the next outage at S.O.N.G.S. this year if not sooner. Bill had plans and death did not fit into his plans. God apparently decided that he wanted Bill in heaven with him because he called him home and would not take no for an answer. I got a call from Marty Delaney telling me that Bill had passed today but he did not know what time. I called Donna Kearns, Bill's wife and she told me that Bill passed away at 5:20pm after his blood pressure had dropped this morning and his doctors could not get it back up. I lost my composure while talking to Donna as I was driving on my way to our Friday night union meeting. I miss my friend as he has left a big hole in my heart that will take a long time to heal. I feel a greater loss with my close friend Bill than I did when some of my close relatives who died recently. I know Bill is in Heaven looking down on us thinking that he does not want us to be sad. While I know that Bill is in a better place right now, that does not alter the fact that we will never see him again on this earth and that is why I am sad today and for a long time to come. I worked for Bill at the Perry Nuclear Plant near Cleveland, Ohio a few years ago and he worked for me at Diablo Canyon on three outages. He was a kind man with a dry sense of humor and was a one of a kind. On the first generator change out at Diablo Canyon, we were near the end of the job and Bill had a brother who was ill but Bill had told me he was planning on finishing the job. He was working in our mirror mod shop and I had a feeling I needed to go to the shop for some reason. I got there and saw Bill as he finished a phone call where he had just learned his brother had just died. I had never seen Bill cry before and seeing that big man with tears in his eyes choked me up. When I talked to Donna today, I told her about that day and she told me that in all the years she and Bill were married, she only saw Bill cry three times and one of them was when his brother had died. Bill has touched a lot of lives of people in our trade as well as other areas of his life. I will never forget him as I am sure a lot of people feel the same way I do but Donna has the biggest hole in her heart. She was not ready to loose the love of her life and now she is on her own. I will make an announcement when I learn of Bill's funeral arrangements on this web page.

At our meeting, we discussed the fact that our health and welfare fund is in trouble due to the huge slow down in the economy. We discussed the fact that we were going to have to make cuts in benefits or give up two months of our hour bank. We decided to prop up the fund by putting 50 cents off our hourly wages and 50 cents from the mechanic member's contributions in the Market Recovery fund adding up to a dollar per hour going into the health and welfare to keep the bank hours at the current time of three months. These modifications will go into effect on May 1st.
We swore in one new mechanic and several new apprentices.
We discussed the fact that the stop gap measures we did tonight are only a temporary fix at best and we are going to have to revisit the issue of our ailing health and welfare fund within the next three months.
We had a good turnout tonight of many concerned members who attended the special order of business.
Our newly elected officers received repeated attacks all during the meeting from two individuals who each have a personal agenda. This has been going on from one of the individuals for a long time prior to the elections in December and the other individual started his public attacks after the elections. Both these individuals bring note books to the meetings to take notes to use to disrupt and prolong the meetings and push their own agenda. The main body of the local is sick and tired of the attacks on our newly elected officials and the attacks have to stop and will not be tolerated.
I purchased the green Mercury Grand Marquis and when I went to fill it up on the way home from picking it up at the union hall, I got about $45 worth of gas into the tank when gas came pouring out of the tank on the ground. I shut the pump off and looked to see where the gas was coming from and found that someone had cut a hole in the tank near the top right next to the filler tube. I would hope that this was an act of vandalism by some street punk and not an act of sabotage by some disgruntled member of our local. I will pay to have the tank repaired myself.
I have said all this about the vehicle to point out the fact that we need to install video surveillance equipment at our union hall because it is very obvious we have a problem. The fence and gate we have around our property does not stop people who want to do us harm during office hours or after hours.

All the statements are the opinion of David Nix and it is being published without the approval of our business manager just in case it steps on a couple of toes. All I can say is, if the shoe fits, wear it. .