July/August '11 BL - Local 798

CHAD GILBERTAZ, CO, NV, NM, UT, WY970/565-8746 918/663-6520 Press 3I would like to start my report by congratulatingthe negotiating committee on attaining a faircontract. After a boom in the pipeline industry, Ifeel a three-year contract with over 6% in raises,and raising helpers’ travel pay is a good contract.Looking to the future, if you are a 798 welder withsubstantial time left in the industry, Brothers andSisters, Tig skills will be a must to work BuildingTrades. Working Building Trades is a great way tofill in between pipeline jobs and helps retain yourretirement and healthcare credits. We also muststart building our relationships with our sister locals across America. The way todo this is stated in our UA constitution. Section 218, paragraph 5 states: “Travelingmembers must respect the lawful practices, traditions and policies of Local Unions inwhose territory they seek work.” When one works for another Local, one representsall 798 members. So please show them the same respect you show your Local.Your actions will help determine if we are respected and welcomed back for futureemployment.The work in the West is starting late this year. There are some good jobs beinglet at this time and should go to union contractors. Everyone should have called ore-mailed their congressmen/congresswomen on the Keystone XL. If you haven’t, it’sstill not too late to voice your opinion. I assure you, the environmentalist are not sittingback and waiting to see if this project is going to proceed. They are being veryproactive and we must also.I just finished two job visits for Precision on spread 4 and 5 of the Ruby andwould like to thank the hands who are doing a great job. Please work safe and becareful traveling. If you’re out of work you might want to consider learning to weldTig. There are Building Trades opportunities now and as I stated, there will be morein the future.New Pre Jobs:Precision:Elko, NV. Gas Company is Ruby El Paso. Lower in and tie in, approximately4 miles of 42 inch. Welder Foreman: Neal Crabtree. Steward: Joe Pearrow.Working 6-10’s at high scale.BLACK SCHROEDERTX409/753-2264 918/663-6520 Press 2I would like to thank Danny and David for allthe time and effort they spent on getting our NPLAsettled and signed. No one realizes how muchgoes into our negotiations. It looks like a goodagreement.Congratulations to Ronnie Hill on his newposition as organizer. Ronnie will be spendinga lot of time in Eagle Ford Shale monitoring theEnterprise and ETC work that was let non-union.With all the work in South Texas, this is the perfectopportunity for the hands to get their wages up.The majority of the non-union contractor’s totalpackage is less than our Special Agreement. If you are down in South Texas workingnon-union, the choice is yours. Do you want to retire some day with a decent pensionand health care or lose your book and weld until you are 80 years old?Since the last Blue Light our contractors have bid several projects in the EagleFord Shale for various gas companies with no success. There are several more largeprojects out there being bid on.It looks like the Keystone XL (Gulf Coast Expansion) is delayed again; it will probablybe close to February before it starts, provided they get their permits to proceed.I can’t understand how Keystone can even consider giving their work to any nonunioncontractors with the substandard work they did in South Dakota and Kansas.There have been two oil spills on Keystone stations, and they called a union contractorto come fix it.I have had 2 pre-jobs since the last Blue Light report and both jobs are complete.Geeding had some change-out work around Dallas for Explorer Pipeline andMidwestern Pipeline double jointed 100 + miles of 20” pipe for Denbury Resourcesin Pearland.If I can help please don’t hesitate to call.PHILLIP W. WALLACEAR, IA, KS, MN, MT, MO, NE, ND, OK, SD501/724-8801 918/663-6520 Press 6The Midwest area is down to maintenance andrehab work with just a very few jobs awarded toour Union Contractors. Our fair Contractors arebidding these small jobs with the low scale numbersand the non-union is getting almost all thejobs awarded to them. They are cutting the wageson all their employees and people are still workingfor them. The non-union sector knows what ourwage and benefit package is and they work thebids to get under our numbers, so it’s very simplefor them to get the work. They cut the welders’wages and use laborers for welder helpers andspacers. We can’t compete with the unskilled non-union workers. They don’t laya lot of pipe but the Gas Companies keep bailing them out when they don’t meetdeadlines and the repair rates are very high.I was looking for the Gulf Coast Expansion of the Keystone XL to get startedearly fall but that doesn’t look good for now. The Keystone Pipeline that we finishedin 2010 has been shut down because of two Crude oil spills in North Dakotaand Kansas. Michels Pipeline has two crews working on the Keystone Stationsfixing the leaks and doing preventive maintenance in all their Stations. The leakswere in the Stations that were built by non-union contractors TIC and Enserve.These Stations were built with unskilled and untrained labor and single hand weldersand now TransCanada is paying the price to patch their mistakes. The cost ofthe 30” and 36” pipeline being shut down with no oil flowing out the south end totheir customers has to be expensive. Now TransCanada, what’s cheaper - unskilledlabor or Union Craftsmanship? The Environmental groups that fight pipelineconstruction are feeding on these spills and are using this to keep the Keystone XLPermits from being issued. We need this Canadian Crude Oil not just for the jobs,but to keep the foreign oil countries from holding us hostage.The XL Pipeline not starting this year has killed my area for man-hours. Thework is in the northeast this year with all the Marcellus Shale Gas work and willemploy a lot of our people. The southern section of the XL will go in 2012 and thenorthern section will be laid in 2013.We have had a lot of Heliarc Welders working in Sister Locals all winter andspring but the summer months have slowed down in the Building & Trade sector.The B&T work will pick up when the fall outages get started, so be ready and willingto go to these jobs when the opportunity comes. The hours you work on thesejobs could be the hours you need to make a retirement credit or healthcare for youand your family.Always Remember, United We Stand Divided We Fall.DARRELL TURNERAL, FL, GA, LA, MS, SC256/463-7953 918/663-6520 Press 4It seems like it was only yesterday that we werediscussing the upcoming Christmas holidaysand wondering what 2011 would hold in store.Many accomplishments have been recorded inour Union’s history book since this year began.January 2011 recorded an all-time high for hoursworked in a single month in our industry. Ournew debt-free training center opened in the spring,and already, it has been recognized as the premiertraining facility in the United States. The 798Steward School, held in April, set attendancerecords that we never thought possible. TheLadies of 798 basket auction raised money for charity again this year. The auctionraised over $62,000.00 on Wednesday evening during Steward School week. TheLadies of 798 did not exist before March 2007, and look what they’ve achieved insuch a short time. We have a newly signed UA National Pipeline Agreement, effectiveJune 1, 2011, that provides us with fair wages, strong benefits, and uniform workingconditions throughout the USA. Local 798 was recognized recently by UnitedAssociation General President, Mr. Bill Hite. David Barnett, our Financial Secretarywas promoted to the UA Pipeline Department to represent all UA Pipeliners at theinternational level. Wow!!! So much already, and it’s only June 7th.Pipeline construction in the southern United States has been extraordinary thelast five years. Many mega-projects were constructed, and we welded the vastB L U E L I G H T R E P O R T S • J U LY / A U G U S T 2 0 1 1 • PA G E 9