President’s Message — November 2020

Brothers and Sisters,

At this time of the year when the holidays are coming up, we all are mindful of taking care of one another, sharing what we can afford to share and accommodating other brothers and sisters of our great IBEW organization.

Last year was a perfect example of this sharing. Our local had total employment and daily unfilled job calls and we extended our hand to our surrounding sister locals giving them an opportunity to come and work here in “our home.” Now, almost a year later, we are experiencing a slow down of the number of jobs that are available and the books are starting to rise in numbers.

Right now the inside wireman book has almost 400 JW’s on it and the apprentice book has almost 140 on it. Our business manager has been informed of this rise in unemployment and he has sent out letters to our contractors that we are requesting that they start pulling back the electricians that are being portabilitied (“ported”) in and to place job calls for our workers to accept.

Also, our staff is engaging the contractors individually and going over who they have here in our local and work together to reduce the excess in portability. The business agents are going to card members when they go out to jobsites and take notice of whether the worker is from Local 11 or from other locals.

Now come the part that involves you, the member. There are about 25 agents on staff with Local 11 and there are approximately 4,500 square miles of area in L.A. County. We do not know where every jobsite is or who is on them. You, the member, have a responsibility to your out of work brothers and sisters (your family) to let our guests know that it’s time for them to go back home. The way to do this is to call your district business agents and let them know where the job is and what portability member is there. This is your responsibility and it will help us fulfill our responsibility as well. I’m sure that all these guest members are good hard-working people, but family comes first. If you have any questions, please contact your business agents or our offices and we’ll do our best to assist you.

Have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving.

Sincerely,

Gaylord “Rusty” Roten
IBEW 11 President