1977-02 February IBEW Journal.pdf - International Brotherhood of ...

they were working. Parties were held in
most of our units and :I good time was had
by all. Santa made his appearancc, to the
joy o f the children.
May the blessings of the New Year be
with you all.
BRUCE ~ I JC"AI.1(f:. ASST. B.M.
Labor and Management
See Customer as Boss
L. U, 995, IIATON ROUe E, LA.- The best
news has come to liS in organized labor and
also to those in the construction business
who use union labor. In our whole lifetime
we have been at odds in our assessment of
what we have if we pull together.
I speak of a multi-month campaign by
both labor and management to bring to our
state a new "partnership concept." There
is hope that this will produce the best value
for the construction dollar. The thinking behind
this concept amounts to a fact that
no one can disagree with, labor does not
boss the contractor and neither does the
contractor boss labor. The real boss is the
customer who pays both the wages and
profit. There is room for imrrovement on
both sides. 1"hi .~ is the only way that unfair
compctilion will be stamped out.
Mr. Ed Steimel is popping off at the
mouth again. He is of course against Mr.
Carter's stand on the 14(b) section of the
Taft-Hanley Act, In all fairness to Steimel
I'd like to state that I'm answering state·
mcnts made by him on October 5, 1976,
and this is December 5, 1976. This means
that he ' talked before Ihe election and I'm
~pcaking nfter the election. This gives me
the ndvantase. which I truly relish.
Mr. Steimel repeatedly remarked before
passage of the "right·to·work" bill th:!1 its
passage would have: no effect on organized
labor. Now every time he sets the opportunity
he rebuffs this line of thinking. 1
quote. "Right.to-Work legislation is secure
in Louisiana and 'union bosscs' are soins
to lose more in the future."
J list in case you might forget, this is a
list of Democrats in Louisiana who supported
Ford: Mrs. Elaine Edwards, Sam
Jones, Robert Kennon, Patrick Caffery, J. B.
D:lVis, Claude Duval, Bill Dykes. Forrest
Dunn, John J. Hainl:el. J r., Rohert Dc·
Viney, J. D. Fowler, Guy Wootan, C. O.
Perez.. J. Robert Wheeldon. Buford Smith,
Rich:trd n reau~, /-I nrmon Drew, Fete Her_
n~ndez, D. J. McDuffie. L. H. Pcrel, Jr ..
David Perkins, Perry Sequra, B. L. Wade,
James WiI ~()n and Cle;ln Worley. Thirty·
nine mnyors, inc:lu(ling Bill LeBlanc. m:l }'OT
of Port Allen, were aha listed as ~upporting
President Ford.
The Ameriean columnists hale had one
hell of a field day "ith the Me,IIly-Carter
tUl!etherncss. Their 115unl sour grapes propn.
j;anda ha~ depicll.'d Meany as in Ihe p-oc)"et
of Carler. ns in an ;lrmchair in Ihe 0"31
Office and n~ numerous other assumptions.
To all of then! I say this: he is now Ihe
Pre~ident of these United States, yuurs nnd
mine and "hcrher you like it or not docsn't
amount to a hill of beans. Admit ~'our mis.
ta~e~ and ler's get on with rhe country'"
11IIjiness.
Mr. Victor Rie~el, whose anti-labor feel -
"
ings srick oul like a sore thumb, is at it
again. II ~ says Mr. Carter has a problem in
the South. r can'l write all of his statements
but his story nmounts to this: he admits
that the wage differential in a General Molars
plant in Clinton, Mississippi (Paekard
Electric), is $1.05 to $1.20 an hour less Ihan
in Warren, Ohio, and Detroit. Michigan
plants. He states that if Mr. Carter repeals
the 14(b) amendment wages in the South
will go up and remove it as a competitor
with the North.
Mr. Riesel, Carter wi ll be President of
all '0 slates and irs hiSh time you and your
cohorts acted accordingly. Your whole story
W:lS hogwash. I thought your concern for
the Gr.1 profit stuck out a lillIe. Why don't
you work a little cheaper and put the news.­
papers in competition, then maybe a shec.'t
of :!dvertisement wouldn't cost a fortune.
I'm still ..... aitins for pictures and news of
~ickness or anything else of interest.
Lary Coppola, a ton of tlwnks to you.
PETE M AC~t lISO. 1).$.
One Agreement Signed ,
O ther in Arbitration
L.U, 1001, T ULSA, OJ.: LA.-111ings are
looking up somewhat here in Oklahoma. On
the third vote our members accepted a new
contract with Public Service Company of
Oklnhoma. It wasn't every thins we wanted
but we can li,'e ..... ith it until next negotiations.
However, contracl negotintions with
the Southwestern Power Administration have
broken down and we are in the process of
soing to arbitration.
Outside construction work remAins slow,
with a few crews workins. There is an
undersround job in progress at Vance Air
Force Base. Enid; a distribution job at Fort
Sill, and another in the Continental Oil
Refinery at Ponca City. We have II substillion
job going at Anadarko and about
20 miles of transmission work has just been
awarded to the L. E. Myers Company with
the job scheduled to begin about the middle
of January. This job should keep most of
our construction people busy until early
summer.
We e~tend our sympathy to the family of
our deceased members: Jim Milton and
Odell Guy. These men were a credit to the
Brotherhood. to their trade. nnd to the
community. They will be misscd.
RlnlAlt1) E. COLl. INS. Assl". H.M
Local Active In
Politics an d Charity
L U. I 04~, LO ~G ISLAND, N.Y.-The
drawing for the 19-inch portable color TV,
which was Ihe prize for the Politic:lI Action
raffic, .... as held on November 18, 1976.
Political Attion Chairman John Bartolotti
held the rame box and Treasurer Warren
Edman drew the winning ticket, which
belonged to Mr. L. Clements of thc L1 LCO
Employee Rd(ltions Department. Congratu·
lations to Leo and thanks to all the mem·
ben who supported the committec's rame.
Each )'ear we hold aUf Needy Fnmily
I)rl>·e. to provide the opportunity for our
kss·(ortunate members to enjoy a joyous
Raffle
The Potil