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News IUOE Local #487 1425 NW 36th Street Miami, FL 33142 305-634-3419 Phone 305-634-4314 Phone 305-633-0698
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Newsletter As of this writing, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of gallons of crude oil continue to gush into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico every day. No one knows how much is flowing, when it will stop, and how much harm it will do to our environment. We do know that the cause of the well blow-out and the 11 related deaths is related to the failure of government to properly regulate and oversee the oil industry. We also know that the deaths of 29 miners at the Massey Energy Big Branch coal mine in West Virginia was partly attributable to lax government regulation and enforcement. We know that the melt-down of the financial market and consequent recession was due, in the most part, to unregulated trading and a political doctrine of laissez faire. These are incidents which have been well publicized. There are myriad other incidents that are not publicized. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has become more allied with the businesses and corporations they are meant to monitor and regulate, than with the workers they are supposed to be protecting. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has become a toothless paper tiger. How did all this come to be? The answer is money in politics. Political figures in both Parties know that they cannot be elected without a huge war chest of campaign contributions. Where are the contributions to come from? They come mostly from the corporate world to whom politicians then become beholden, and to whom they must in turn curry favors for, if they are to be elected or re-elected. Is it any wonder that indebted politicians favor those whose campaign contributions put them in office? We have only seen the beginning. Overruling two important precedents about the First Amendment rights of corporations, the U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that the government cannot ban political spending by corporations in candidate elections. This 5-4 decision will further push our political system toward plutocracy, if we are not already there.
Unemployment for June in the construction industry, on a national basis, was 20.1%. This is down from the high of 27.1% in February. Our local unemployment figures have decreased in the last quarter, mostly due to increased pipeline work. Work on the pipeline project is expected to continue through the next nine months. Increased maintenance activity is expected through 2015 at both the St. Lucie and Turkey Point nuclear power plants. The two new nuclear power plants planned for the Turkey Point facility are still in the regulatory and licensing process. Construction of the Orange Line transit project is probably at its peak employment stage. Federal funding for the North and East-West Corridor of the planned Metro Rail extensions are currently on hold. The Marlins Stadium project is also nearing the mid-development point of construction. Construction of the parking garage planned to accommodate the stadium should begin soon depending on the City of Miami’s ability to meet the funding obligations for the project. The Port of Miami Tunnel Project has broken ground with the start of some preliminary work and testing. The boring of the twin tunnels under the channel to connect the Seaport and Watson Island is expected to begin next year. Private sector building construction continues to lag, especially in the construction of hi-rise buildings. Two of our foundation contractors continue to work at the I-595 Corridor Improvement Project. Maefield Development has proposed constructing the “City Square” project under a project labor agreement with the South Florida Building Trades Council, provided approval of the project is garnered from the City of Miami Commission. The proposed project would cover a 10-acre tract in downtown Miami near the Miami Herald building, and would include an eleven story parking garage, a residential tower, and two media towers with elevations of 450 and 350 feet. Building construction on Florida’s west coast is even more stagnant than on the east coast. The Veterans Administration Outpatient Clinic project, located in Lee County, is the only major building construction project where we have members working. We have reached a tentative agreement for a three year contract with the City of Stuart, which has been a process of trying to keep the losses in benefits and wages to a minimum. The City, like most other municipalities, is dealing with reduced revenue due to falling property values. And, like other municipalities, they are attempting to address budget shortfalls by reducing costs, including reducing employee benefits and payroll expenses. Fortunately, the Florida AFL-CIO was successful in de-railing most of the proposed state legislation that would have done major harm to public employee pension benefits. Unfortunately, the current legislators, if returned to office, will try again in the next legislative session. I remind you that Andrew Saban is now our Steward for the bargaining unit members employed by the City of Stuart. Any City of Stuart bargaining unit member who is facing what they believe to be unjust disciplinary action should contact Steward Andrew Saban or this office immediately. There are time limitations on the submittal of grievance notice to the employer. Once the time period has elapsed, a grievance can no longer be submitted. As I have previously mentioned, it is of utmost importance if you have an accident, or if there is an incident for which you believe you may be the subject of disciplinary action, that you document in detail the issues surrounding the incident as soon as possible. Remember, if you believe that you are going to be the subject of disciplinary action, call Andrew Saban or this office immediately. After mostly defensive bargaining with Tarmac management, we reached a tentative agreement for a three year agreement. The agreement is not a good one, but the best we could get under the circumstances. The contract is yet to be ratified by the employees. As you might expect, the demand for concrete products is extremely low. Fewer than half of the members employed by Tarmac in 2006 are still employed there. Tarmac management did not hesitate to exploit the fear of job loss in the present economic situation. Management explicitly stated that the reason for their demands were not because the company was unprofitable, but because they saw opportunity for increased profit with so many people unemployed. They expressed the view that it was now a “management’s labor market.” The Florida Gas Transmission Phase VIII Expansion Project is well underway. We have approximately 100 miles of the pipeline within our jurisdiction. We currently have 35 members working on the project. The project is expected to be completed by February or March of next year. We now have two members qualified to issue operator qualification (OQ) certifications for pipeline work. This certification will be required of all operators dispatched to the FGT pipeline project. There are currently four contractors performing work under the General President’s Maintenance Agreement at FPL’s two nuclear power plants in our jurisdiction; Bechtel Corp, NPS/Day & Zimmerman and Williams Specialty Services. Demco is working under our local agreement. At the present time we have 18 members working at the two plants, with a maintenance outage at the Turkey Point facility scheduled for the end of August. In 2011, there are 240 days of maintenance outage scheduled between the St. Lucie and Turkey Point facilities. Anyone interested in working at FPL’s nuclear facilities should contact John Mullen (561-865-2011) for information regarding qualification requirements for “red badge” access to the facilities. All operators dispatched for work in the nuclear facilities must have had the “OSHA 10” training and have passed the NANTEL test. Of course, there are many restrictions on gaining access to nuclear facilities. Workers at the nuclear plants must have “red badge” access authorization. The process takes at least thirty days to complete the background check and to fulfill the training requirements. The criminal background check now has no time limitation. It is from cradle to the present. Activity related to our International’s crane industry survey continues to provide useful and enlightening information regarding area labor standards in the industry. Many developers, contractors, and other crane users have been made aware of crane providers who do not comply with area standards for employee wages and benefits. We look forward to the promised expansion of the survey to include other industries within our trade jurisdiction. You may view the information collected through the survey at www.cranewatchdog.com. jurisdiction. Although things are changing for the better since the Obama administration came to power, they are changing slowly. The opposition party has been successful in blocking most of the President’s appointments which require Senate confirmation. An exception is the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which finally has a full compliment of five board members. As was speculated, all decisions made while the Board had only two members were voided by the Court. This happened because under Senate rules, the President’s appointees can be held up indefinitely. Only by exercising his recess appointment power did President Obama fill the Board seats. All that said, we are still waiting on the Board to confirm Judge Sandron’s order in the Gimrock enforcement case. Sadly, another of the victims of Gimrock’s unfair labor practices dating back to 1995 has passed away, and will not see justice done. However, Board agents have assured me that Ronnie Chinners’ widow will be entitled to the back wages and interest owed. We are still in negotiations with Okeechobee County administrators. The County is still unwilling to consider “just cause” for taking disciplinary action against the employees. Apprenticeship, Training & Safety The much delayed new federal crane and derrick regulations are scheduled to be published in the federal register on July 15th, although there is already talk of another delay. The new regulations will, among other things, make crane operator certification mandatory. NANTEL training and testing is now necessary before referral to work in the Turkey Point and St. Lucie nuclear facilities. The test is on information specific to the work environment in a nuclear facility. Call John Mullen for more information. Evidence of completion of the OSHA 10 training, which is available at the Apprenticeship Training Facility, is also now required. I urge all members to take advantage of the upgrading and certification classes available at the apprenticeship training site. Mark Schaunaman, our Apprenticeship Director, and the training instructors have the ability to provide OSHA, MSHA, HAZMAT, and First Responder training requirements; training and certification in trenching and backhoe operation; qualified operator certification for pipeline work; and crane signaling certification. Training is the keystone for safety and job opportunity. A schedule of other classes available to journeymen seeking to upgrade their skills is available.
Participants in the IUOE Local 487 Health & Welfare Plan should have recently received a new Coventry health insurance card in the mail. Only the name has changed from Vista to Coventry. The participating doctors and hospitals are the same as when it was Vista. The out of pocket costs are the same as were negotiated effective April 2010. You should be aware by now that the Trustees of the IUOE 487 Benefit Plans recently contracted with a new company for the task of administering the various IUOE Local 487 benefit plans. The change in administration was effective January 1, 2010. You should have received a letter with the following contact information: The current Administrator for all Trust Funds is:
Please call the administrator if you have questions about health care eligibility, or if you have questions about the Local 487 Pension Fund. Vista is still the health insurance carrier. Effective April 1, 2010, through Vista, a new dental plan will be in effect with different co-payments and a different network of dentists. You will be getting more information on this by mail. You should call Vista regarding issues other than eligibility. If you have any problems, please call this office. The International Union of Operating Engineers recently adopted an International Health and Welfare reciprocity policy whereby all participating Local Unions would be bound to reciprocate Health and Welfare contributions to a traveling member’s home Local Union upon his or her authorization. Local 487 is party to this agreement, as are almost all IUOE Locals. This means, no matter where a member may travel, contributions can be returned to the home Local so that coverage can be maintained for the dependents back home. Participants in Local 487’s health care plan can now access information from our current health care provider, Vista, online at www.vistahealthplan.com. Location of participating primary care physicians, specialists, and hospitals near your home is available at the website. You can also access personal information after logging-in on a secure site. You’ll need your member identification number, which is at the top of your Vista Health Plan card, in order to log-in. Member identification numbers are no longer based on a participant’s social security number because of the threat of identity theft. You should record your member I.D. number in a secure place at your home in case you lose your card. You can print a duplicate card at the above mentioned website, provided you can enter the I.D. number. Please be reminded that if you are a participant in the Local’s health care plan, and are disabled to the point that you cannot work at the trade, you may be entitled to up to six months of continued eligibility while you are disabled. You must have been disabled for at least 20 days in the month for which disability is claimed. You must request a form from the office of Associated Administrators, LLC (The Fund Office) at 1-877-291-2387, and have your doctor confirm on the form that you are disabled, and then return the completed form to the Fund Office. You must do this each month for which you are disabled. We still have people who have been disabled and are not taking advantage of this benefit. If, for some reason, you temporarily lose eligibility and your coverage is terminated, you must file a new application form with the administrator in order to renew your coverage with Vista. Also, be reminded that if you have a new dependent, like a new child, or you get married, you must notify the plan administrator within 30 days of the event, or you must wait until the annual contract renewal date, which is presently April 1st. If you have a dependent child who reaches 19 years of age, but is a full-time student, you can continue their eligibility by providing the administrator with proof of student status. If you divorce your dependent spouse, you are obligated to notify the fund within 60 days. Consult your Health & Welfare Summary Plan Description for details on eligibility rules. If you are an eligible participant in the Local’s health care plan, you are entitled to a life insurance benefit and you should have named a beneficiary. If at any time you want to change the beneficiary of record, you must notify the fund administrator and file a new beneficiary card. If you should pass away without naming a valid beneficiary, the insurance award could go to someone not of your choosing, or to your estate. The track of the equity markets has been like a see-saw in the last few months, with a mostly overall downward trend. What was recovered in the first quarter of 2010 has been mostly lost since April. The IUOE Local 487 Pension Fund’s fiscal year ended in April 2010, with a gain of 23% for the year. Since April there has been a downward trend in the markets which has of course had a negative effect on our pension fund investments. It would take several years of extraordinarily good returns to restore the losses experienced in the crash of 2008 – 2009. The Central Pension Fund also experienced good appreciation in the last fiscal year but likewise, has not seen appreciation bring the assets close to the market value of a couple of years ago. Reduction in hours worked has also affected the funds with reduced income from employer contributions. The trustees of both funds have had to make hard decisions in reducing the value of future service credits and making other adjustments necessary to reduce unfunded liability and to ensure that the funds remain solvent in the long term. Congress recently passed, and the President signed into law, the “Preservation of Access to Care for Medicare Beneficiaries and Pension Relief Act of 2010.” The law takes into account the losses suffered by pension funds in the 2008 – 2009 stock market crash, and allows the losses to be amortization over a longer period of time giving funds time to recover. The IUOE Local 487 Pension Plan is party to the Pension Reciprocity Agreement for Operating Engineers Pension Funds and has been since 1995. All IUOE Locals in the U.S., and most in Canada, are party to the Agreement. Under this Agreement, credits earned in any IUOE Local’s pension fund are combined with credits earned in other Local’s pension funds for the purposes of determining total earned credits. For example, if you earned three credits in the Central Pension Fund (CPF), and three credits in the Local 487 Pension Fund, you would have a total of six vesting credits. You would be vested in both funds, and would be eligible for a benefit from both funds upon reaching retirement age. The benefits you received from each fund would be based on a pro-rata basis under the benefit formulas for each particular fund. However, you would have to earn at least one credit in a fund in order for the reciprocity agreement to take effect. In the Local 487 Pension Fund, you must have accrued at least 1,000 hours in a plan year in order to earn one credit. Upon application for retirement, all earned credits will be considered. Any questions regarding the IUOE Local 487 Pension Plan should be directed to Associated Administrators, LLC, at 1-877-291-2387. The phone number for the CPF is 202-362-1000. Remember, if you have any trouble getting the information you need, please call the Union Hall for assistance. As I mentioned in my earlier remarks, the Obama administration is bringing change, although it is not coming as fast as we might like. The change we need is being vigorously obstructed at every opportunity by those who are just fine with the way things are now. They are happy with the tax cuts for the ultra-rich which started our deficit woes. And they are fine with the continuation of the two wars which have exacerbated our deficit problems. They have no problem with corporations polluting our water and air, as long as the corporate campaign contributions keep rolling in. They have little concern for the almost 10% of Americans who are unemployed. They have no objection to denying basic protections to immigrants who are taken advantage of by the corporate meat cutting and construction industries. Again, more corporate profits mean more campaign contributions. It is our responsibility to do everything we possibly can to make real the changes that we hoped for when we voted in November 2008. The job is not finished. Every member of this Local Union, who is not legally denied the right, has an obligation to be registered to vote, and to vote in every election. You have an obligation to your Brother and Sister members, as well as those other workers who have no union representation, to do everything you can to advance the interests of workers and their families. The most effective way to do that is to vote in the 2010 elections, and to vote for those whom you believe will promote the change we’ve hoped for. Fraternally yours, Gary Waters Home | Calendar | News | Benefits | Apprenticeships For comments about this Web site, contact webmaster@unionwebdesign.com. |
