Commentary

“We’re in this together,” IBEW President says

Will those jokers in the office ever stop reminding us we need to work faster, do more work, be more productive every hour on the job? Are our company and our union-paid jobs really going to evaporate if we don’t pick up the pace? Or is this a retelling of the “big lie,” perhaps nothing more than a veiled, cynical attempt to increase profits? Ever since the perennial warning was first heard, hasn’t it been easy shrug it off and go back to business as usual? More recently, however, the same warning came from the lips of one union’s international president — so this time, brothers and sisters, shouldn’t we sit up and listen?

IBEW International President Edwin D. Hill wants his union’s members to get the message that their backs, and not only those of their employers, are against the wall. Owners today not only know they have other choices, they are making them and choosing non-union.

“We can become the choice again if we go out and prove we are the best deal for the customer. Your actions in your current job will go a long way towards getting hired in the next job…” Hill recently told IBEW members. During the lengthy heart-to-heart, recorded on DVD for industry-wide distribution, he said while owners still recognize the union sector’s superiority when it comes to training, this virtue has become outweighed by various negative productivity issues.

Hill asked members to ask themselves:

“Are you where you are supposed to be when the workday starts, or do you spend an extra several minutes wandering over to your job?

“Are your breaks 10 minutes, or are they 15 or more? How long do you really spend at lunch? Do you show up late or leave early?

“Do you continuously look the other way, or do you ever join in slacking off when one of your brothers or sisters isn’t carrying their share of the load?” These and a handful of other issues, from attitude and appearance to shutting off your cell phone while on the job not only hurt the professional image of the union but also hinder the contractors’ ability to compete for more work.

Regarding late starts, early quits and extended breaks, Hill said they may not seem to be much but they add up quickly when you look at the numbers.

“Let’s take a range and benefit package of $40 an hour as an example. Let’s say you’ve taken 5 minutes here, 10 minutes there, to the point that you would have a hard time accounting for an hour of work for which you’ve been paid that day. That $40 dollars a day quickly becomes $200 a week,” he said. “Now multiply that by 50 weeks, and the contractor has just given you an annual donation of $10,000. Multiply that by, let’s say, 100 workers. Would you pay someone a million dollars a year for nothing?

“Your actions as an individual do affect the big picture,” he emphasized.

Hill told members the keys to success for the union lie in helping their contractors stay competitive and profitable. “He needs us, and we need him. That’s why the sooner we realize we’re all in this together, the better off we’ll be,” he said.

None of the above negatives is insurmountable, Hill said, but they will take everyone’s part to overcome. “Even if the vast majority of our members deliver the goods every day, it only takes a few that don’t to bring the whole ship down,” he said. “When a few workers don’t produce, it gets noticed and we all pay the price.”

Some contractors have told the IBEW leader if they could just bid on jobs knowing they are going to get that extra hour a day in work, the industry would be well on the road to recovery.

“The battle to insure our success starts right here, on this job and on your job, on every single job.” He told union members: “We must prove ourselves today and every day we strap on the tools. It’s a battle we can win.”