VOLUME 24 - SEPT 2013 2535 Old Galveston Road, Houston, Texas 77017 (713) 644-5521
UNION MEETING
Please make plans to attend the union meeting on
Tuesday, November 5th at 6:00 pm at the Union Hall.
The members of Local 211 voted in favor of the following wage changes by a vote of 200 to 14:
MCA and Local 211 are mutually agreed to the following journeyman total economic package increase asfollows:
An increase in the gross taxable wage of $1.05;
A further increase of $0.05 in the tools allowance;
An increase of $0.15 in the JATC dedicated to a building fund, which will be created for thepurpose of building a new apprentice training center to replace the present one. The buildingfund can only be used for the construction of the new facility. The building fund shall beadministered by a joint committee of Local 211 and MCA of Houston employers. The buildingfund contribution shall end upon pay off of the building loans and shall revert back to the originalsource;
An increase of $0.04 in the MCIF.
• The total package increase of $1.29 is effective with the first full pay period following the 10/1/2013effective date of the new agreement.
• There shall be a $1.20 increase in the gross taxable wage effective with the first full pay periodfollowing the 10/1/2014 effective date of the new agreement;
• There shall be a $1.20 increase in the gross taxable wage effective with the first full pay periodfollowing the 10/1/2015 effective date of the new agreement.
Additionally Paragraph 17 is amend further to add a new Paragraph 17 (J) as follows:
All hours worked as a U A journeyman (including as a foreman or as a certified welders), as an apprenticeand as a building trades tradesman working on an industrial facility shall have JATC fringe benefitscontributions made on those hours of work at the rate of $0.65, $0.25 which shall be dedicated to the buildingfund for the new training center which will be created for the purpose of building a new apprentice trainingcenter to replace the present one. The building fund can only be used for the construction of the new facility.The building fund shall be administered by a joint committee of Local 211 and MCA of Houston employers.The building fund contribution shall end upon pay off of the building loans and shall revert back to the originalsource. This shall not apply to HVAC work within an industrial facility.
An industrial facility is defined as any oil or gas refinery, chemical plant or power house. Any question raisedas to whether or not the nature of a project is industrial will be answered by a joint committee made up oflabor and management.
For additional contract language changes, please go to our website at www.pipefitterslocal211.com.
OUTCOME OF WAGE OPENER VOTE
PIPEFITTERS LOCAL UNION NO. 211 Page 2
Nuke OutageI would like to begin my report with the hot topic of
the Nuke outage coming up at STP.
There have been some changes on the incentives for
this Fall outage. Especially for the welders. There have
also been some changes on the hiring-in process.
The hiring will begin early this year starting around
September 23rd and will continue until November 4th.
The outage is scheduled to begin November 18th and run
until December 18th. As of right now, the request is for
100 pipefitters and 30 welders.
The main change to the hiring process is that CBI will
no longer accept paper form PHQs. All PHQs must be
completed online.
The dates to be at the Hobby Hilton for this outage are
Friday, October 11th and Saturday, October 12th. Hours
are 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Please call Janie Sparks at
361-972-7808 to reserve a seat for this pre-screen. This
pre-screen will also allow 8 hours of pay on your first
paycheck as was done in the past.
Other changes are:
* Long sleeve shirts are now mandatory for all
employees in the plant.
* The outage will rotate from 6-12’s to 5-12’s.
* New Hires must show up by 9:00 a.m. or they will
have to hire in on the following day of work.
* PHQ must be submitted 5 days prior to hire-in date
or you will have to wait till the 5th day to hire in.
The per diem will remain the same at $75 a day and will
begin 3 weeks prior to breaker date. In order to claim per
diem, you must live 50 miles or more from the plant.
These changes, along with the work being so good at
this time, are going to make it even harder to man this
outage. I am not in agreement with most of these changes,
but at least we were able to hold on to the per diem.
Getting 30 welders will be extremely tough this time,
but I am confident that we will be okay with the help of
our other Locals.
Mike Trahan will be manning all nuke outages from
here on, so anyone that is interested, please give him a
call here at the Union Hall. 713-644-5521 ext. 625.
Mechanical WorkThe mechanical work is still going strong with several
big projects starting up and more
on the way.
The John Sealy hospital in
Galveston is finally getting off the
ground. DSI just started hiring for
this job a few weeks ago and will
continue to hire for the next several months. This job is
about a 3 year job now and it seems to be growing in
size.
The Letsos Company has a lot of work that is also
starting to break. Letsos just started hiring for the
Haliburton Building and also for the Exxon site in the
Woodlands. The Letsos Company also has the BP office
building coming up soon along with the U of H football
stadium. As you can see, Letsos is loaded with work and
should continue to hire for several months.
Brandt Mechanical also has quite a bit of work on the
way in the near future. Brandt has landed a job at the
Texas A&M campus in Bryan, College Station. This job
is supposed to begin in about 6 weeks and will last about
3 or 4 months. Brandt also landed 2 other jobs in the
Houston Medical Center that should begin in about 6
weeks as well.
Sigala is now starting to bid mechanical work along with
industrial. Sigala should do very well as a female owned
minority contractor. Sigala is looking to grow and they are
bidding a ton of work. About a week ago, Sigala met with
GE to possibly get a lot of work for their fab shop very
soon. There is also a bid out at the ice cream plant off 290
on the Northwest side of town. That is a 7 month job. I
should know if Sigala got this job very soon.
Organizing ReportLouis Hinojosa has been very successful in his efforts
as of late. Since our last union meeting, we have been
able to sign an agreement with 2 new contractors. One
of these contractors happens to be a general contractor.
One August 15th, I was called to a meeting at Building
Trades and was told to bring both Mechanical & HVAC
Agreements to the meeting with me. TFC Contracting
Solutions (which is a General Contractor) was at Building
Trades and ready to sign both agreements. TFC self
performs as well as subs out to other union contractors.
They are primarily a commercial contractor, but also are
going to bid industrial work as well. I explained our
FROM THE DESK OF BRYAN EDWARDS
continued on page 4
PIPEFITTERS LOCAL UNION NO. 211 Page 3
Local Agreement on the Mechanical side, and Louis
Hinojosa explained the HVAC Agreement. They were
pleased with both Local Agreements and signed.
Energy Mechanical Services also signed a Local
Agreement just after our last union meeting. They
already have work on the service side and also have a
job coming up in Galveston on the mechanical side. This
mechanical job in Galveston is scheduled to begin in
November.
Louis is in talks with 2 more contractors at this time
and I feel confident they will also be signing agreements
with 211 very soon.
I want to thank Brother Louis Hinojosa for his hard
work. It is definitely paying off!
FROM THE DESK OF BRYAN EDWARDS
Below: The TFC contract signing with Bryan and Louis.
Our Annual Kid's Christmas Party will be
December 7th from 11am to 2pm this year. This party
is for the children and grandchildren of our members
only. If you would like to donate toys, please bring
them to the union hall during office hours or on
meeting nights. We need toys for boys and girls ages
birth to 12 years old. Please bring your gift
unwrapped. Any and all donations are very much
appreciated! Thank you!
TOY DONATIONS NEEDED!
PIPEFITTERS LOCAL UNION NO. 211 Page 4
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As you all know, our system automatically adds fines to
your account if you become delinquent on the 1st of the
month. To try and prevent this from happening, we would
like to inform you that we are now accepting VISA,
MASTERCARD, and DISCOVER debit and credit cards.
There will be a $3.00 service fee added with every
transaction.
We are now also offering ACH, which will allow us to
directly debit your bank account once a month between the
15th and 20th for one month’s dues. No service fee added.
At left we have included an ACH enrollment form you can
complete, cut out, and mail to us or drop by the dues office.
Please cut out the application and mail to:
Pipefitters Local 211 Dues Office
2535 Galveston Road, Houston Texas 77017
With all of these options, there is no reason to be
delinquent! Please keep up with your dues! If you have any
questions, please call the dues office at (713) 644-2395.
Thank you.
DUES OFFICE ACCEPTS
CREDIT CARDS & OFFERS
DIRECT DEBIT FROM YOUR
CHECKING ACCOUNT
LOCAL 211 HAS A TWITTER ACCOUNT & WEBSITE!
Please follow us on Twitter! If you have a Twitter account, look for Pipe Fitters LU211. Link your Twitter feeds to
your cell phone for up to the minute announcements from your Local Union. Don’t forget, we also have a FACEBOOK
page and a website – www.pipefitterslocal211.com.
If you have a facebook page, search for Pipe Fitters Local Union 211 – Houston, TX and you will find our page.It should have a photo of the Union Hall in the upper left hand corner. “Like” our page so you can follow up onany news, announcements, or photos we will be posting on facebook.
FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK
“We Be Quin”
1st Place in Chicken
and 3rd Place in
Brisket.
Richard Shaw in
back, left to right are
Paul Puente of
Houston Building
Trades, Robert
Bedingfield & son
and Wayne Lord.
“Chillin’ Cookers”
2nd Place in Ribs.
Richard Shaw in
back, left to right are
Paul Puente of
Houston Building
Trades, Chuck New,
Willis Wells and
Wayne Lord.
PIPEFITTERS LOCAL UNION NO. 211 Page 5
Local 211 had some teams that were very successful in the cook-off this year. Bob Chase’s team “Bob Chase Cookers”
placed 1st in brisket & 5th in chicken. Mark Bedingfield’s team “We Be Quin” placed 1st in chicken and 3rd in brisket.
Chuck New’s team “Chillin Cookers” placed 2nd in ribs. Congratulations guys!
LABOR DAY BBQ 2013
PIPEFITTERS LOCAL UNION NO. 211 Page 6
We are currently acquiring names of those 211 members
who are interested in attending a UA HVAC STAR
certification exam or refresher course.
Please contact Donna Presley at the Apprentice School
to sign up: 713-649-0201 ext 9. Once the minimum
number of students are registered, classes will be
scheduled.
Left: A new sign went up at former Local 823. Mark
Moore welded the new Local 211 sign for the Harlingen
office.
HVAC STAR
On August 28, 2013 Local 211 celebrated our new 50 year members. These gentlemen initiated in 1963.
Congratulations!
L.W. Adams
Don Arnold
Edgar Cunningham
James Dudley
Charles Gillespie
Howard Goodell
John Hamilton
Arlan Hedrick
David Henderson
Charles Hooper
David Howison
George Johnson
George Kaiser
George Leland
Ralph Meyers
Lloyd Moore
Harry Odell
Conrad Prell
Charles Stewart
Charles Teer
Steve Troha
Milford Tucker
James Webb
James Young
50 YEAR MEMBER AWARDS – AUGUST 28, 2013
PIPEFITTERS LOCAL UNION NO. 211 Page 7
Congratulations to Rickie Roberts!
Rickie Roberts started a career with the Pipefitters in
1978. He completed his apprenticeship in 1982. After 31
years at the trade, he became an Instructor at the Training
Center in 2009. On August 16, 2013, after 5 years of
Instructor Training by the UA, Rickie was officially
bestowed a certificate from the United Association as a
Certified Instructor. Rickie is a UA certified rigging
instructor and a NCCCO certified signal person Instructor.
He is currently the instructor for our Local 211 Rigging
class.
Right: Rickie Roberts, Certified UA Instructor picturedwith his wife and Business Manager Kenneth Edwards inAnn Arbor, Michigan.
TRAINING CENTER NEWS
This is the second Accelerated Welding Class that Local 211 has put on through a grant from
the UA. This class started on June 17th and will conclude on October 24th. At the time of this
writing we have 6 weeks left.
So far the class has run SMAW beads on plate in all positions and successfully bent straps on
the vertical open root process. Then they progressed to SMAW pipe in all positions, and are
currently engaged in practice for a UA certification test. They have also completed assignments
in 5 of their 7 subjects: Job Safety and Health, Use & Care of Tools, Labor Heritage, Related
Math, SMAW and OXY-Acetylene welding, cutting and burning.
In the next 6 weeks they will complete GTAW and OSHA 10 training. With any luck they will come out of this
program with at least one UA certification, and then roll into the next apprentice class as a 2nd year apprentice.
The UA appears to favor another grant for one more class in January.
ACCELERATED WELDING COURSE – DON BOOTH
PIPE FITTERS U.A. LOCAL 2112535 Galveston RoadHouston, Texas 77017
DANIEL PROFFITTJERRY HIPPBILLY O'RAND
ROBERT PATRICKGRADY MOORE
WILLIAM LUNDAYJAMES GALLOWAY
BRUCE GILESDON BARNETTBOBBY MORRIS
DALE JONESR T WILLIAMS
JULIAN SHOEMAKESAMUEL HAGAMAN
EDDIE LONGGENERO ROBLESTOMMIE JACKSONW A PENNINGTONBENNIE PHILLIPS
WILLIAM STOCKTON
The Staff and Members of Local 211
wish to extend their condolences to the families of the
following Members who have passed away: