A Few Minutes With Executive Board Chairman Big John
By Robert Fulton
John Harriel – Big John to friends and colleagues – is superintendent and diversity manager for electrical contractor Morrow Meadows, a facilitator at South Los Angeles post-prison re-entry program 2nd Call and heavily involved in IBEW Local 11.
John recently was elected to a full-term on the Executive Board – of which he’s Chairman – after previously being appointed.
He took a few minutes out of his day to share what it is the Executive Board does and to talk a little about integrity.
What does the Executive Board do for Local 11?
We maintain checks and balances. We check all the bills, all the checks going out, coming in, the Business Manager expenses. Anything that’s related to money coming in. Changes to the classifications, all kinds of stuff. Political funds, donations, charities, everything.
What makes your job important?
Checks and balances. Without it you have anarchy. This keeps everything balanced. We are the gatekeepers. You have to have individuals who sit on the Executive Board with integrity and dignity and understand that we work in concert with the Business Manager. But we don’t just rubber stamp for the Business Managers. Nobody comes in telling us what to do.
There’s some independence there.
Oh, absolutely, but it’s independence with integrity. If we think something’s wrong, we’re going to say something.
Why is it important to have that integrity?
It’s important because we deal with members and their families, and the integrity part is just a no-brainer as far as doing what’s right by the membership and their families. You don’t want someone getting this type of position who could abuse their authority, mismanage funds or something else, and then everyone gets handcuffs put on them. We don’t want any of that.
Why did you want to be a member of the executive board?
So I can have my hand in the decision-making process, be part of the solution, not the problem. I don’t want to be out there talking bad about what I think is wrong and didn’t even put my hand in the hat to even help change it by being on the inside.
How do you all work together?
Well, we have to. That’s why the group that just won, was pretty much the same group. Everybody sees the paperwork twice, and there’s no voice that won’t be heard in there. Everyone has a voice.
Why is it important to you to be so involved in the union?
Well, for me, it’s always how we make it better. And you make it better by being involved. You make it better better by being involved with a purpose to make it better for all and just to bring a shining light to our IBEW, what we’re doing. I believe that the greatest leaders are servants, and the only way to be a servant is to get involved.
And what do you mean by servant?
For the Executive Board, we serve the membership. Any position of leadership, we are servants. I think it’s so important because it keeps the person humble. It keeps the person honest, and at the same time, they can respect you, because I’m not going to ask them to do anything I wouldn’t do.
How has the Union helped you?
It changed my life. It saved my life. Now I have a family, my IBEW family.
