President’s Message — December 2020

Despite the Pandemic, 2020 Had its Positives

Brothers and sisters,

As I write this article I count myself and all of us, fortunate. We are fortunate because there are many positive things that took place in spite of the pandemic.

When the government shut down non-essential businesses, our electrical construction was considered essential. When the health department established protocols, our local adapted by providing face masks and our Business Manager went out to the jobsites to lead and to encourage everyone to work safely and productively. When circumstances caused our members to go on unemployment, our local stepped up the supplemental unemployment benefit to provide additional financial support.

When large in-room gatherings and in person meetings were shut down, our local engaged in other forms of social media and communication. We now have our General and Unit meetings (temporarily) replaced with informational Zoom meetings. When our members and their extended families needed food supplies, our local collaborated with the L.A. County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, and hosted Food bank drive-throughs  at various locations including a couple at our ETI/Commerce facility. Since our local can’t hold allocation meetings to decide how to distribute our contract increases, our local has sent mail-in ballots to our members to allow them to vote.

So here we are in December of 2020. Overall we have had a very good employment year for our members. Even our pension plan is showing a much stronger year end rate of return. I consider this a lot to be thankful for.

But we’re not through. Our local has created a secure Zoom application for dispatch. That way our members can maintain social distancing and safely see the job calls on their cell phones instead of the job call monitors. Final construction is underway on the new South Bay dispatch hall and we hope to have it in operation by February of 2021.

I humbly thank you for allowing me to be your president and I truly wish you all a pleasant Seasons Greetings. As always, if any of you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to call our agents or our offices.

God bless us all!

Gaylord “Rusty” Roten
IBEW 11 President