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Hello from New York & New Jersey,
At the January meeting, nominations were held for the vacated position on the Board of Trustees. Brothers Edward Krull and Charles Yeager were nominated for the position. I will report the results in next month's issue.
By the time you receive this, we should be in the middle or near completion of moving the offices of the hall to 47-24 27th Street in Long Island City, which is also the location of the Local One Apprentice Training Facility.
Safety: Most of the time we when we hear about an accident, we also hear about an injury or fatality. It is good news when we hear about an accident on the job where the safety practices put into place worked and no one was injured. The picture below was submitted by Brother James Ralph. It is a picture of a sky climber roof using 3/4 plywood with a brick that penetrated halfway through after falling about 10 floors. Thanks to the use of 3/4 plywood as overhead protection on the climber, no one was injured. This picture should serve as a reminder that an accident can happen anytime, anyplace, and we need to be prepared.
Organizing: Organizing a company for any trade can be difficult to say the least. The Building and Construction Trades often join together to get the job done. On behalf of the Building Trades and Local One, I would like to thank those Brothers and Sisters who take the time out of their busy lives to help in the effort to organize. Pictured below are some of the many Brothers and Sisters who left the comfort of their warm beds to come out at 6 a.m. on a Saturday morning, with a temperature of 7 degrees to support the efforts of another trade to organize. While writing this article, I came across a post on the Local One web site by Brother Mike Halpin. Brother Halpin expressed thanks for all those who have helped out manning the various picket lines. While phone banking the membership we have found that some members have changed their phone numbers, but have not updated the information with the hall. If you have information that needs to be updated, please take a few minutes to update the next time you pay your dues.
Politics: The Bush Administration is currently in the process of "revamping" labor regulations. The 40 hour work week and overtime seem to be the main regulations that would be changed. The administration has not made it clear yet, exactly what changes will be made. The chances of these changes being good for working families is pretty slim if you ask me. We are also facing a growing problem with groups, whose sole purpose is to destroy unions. Many of these groups set themselves up as foundations.There is no beating around the bush, (no pun intended). They lay it right on the line.According to them unions are at the root of all the problems in this country. They would have the public believe that unions have every politician in their pocket and out spend big business in campaign contributions. All the while asking for tax deductible contributions to help rid the country of the union menace. One foundation wants you to help in the following ways: remember them in your will, gifts of stocks, charitable trusts and gifts of real estate. Who is really behind these foundations? With the political climate the way it is today, we have our work cut out for us. Get involved, register to vote and vote in 2004 like your livelihood depends on it.
There was a Shop Stewards meeting in January to go over issues that regularly come up. Not enough can be said for Shop Stewards. They deal with members' problems on a daily basis. It can be a thankless job at times but they continue to help the membership when called upon to do so. On behalf the membership, I would like to express our thanks and appreciation. Pictured below are the Shop Stewards of Local One at a Shop Stewards meeting.
New Additions: The family of Brother Christopher Hall are proud to announce the birth of Christopher Michael Hall. Born on 10/24/02 and weighing in at 9 lbs. 9 ozs.
Donations: The Local One Scholarship fund received a $100 donation from Patrick and Lisa Austin.
Sick: Michael Duwe and Mickey Knighting.
Local One extends its sincere condolences to the family and friends of Ed Costello (retired) and Harold Gneiding (retired).
Quote of the month: "Change is not made without inconvenience, even if it is a change for the better".- Richard Hooker.
Fraternally,
Mike Duffy
www.iuec1.org
Posted Online February 2, 2003
