union meeting - pipefitters local 211 · a further increase of $0.05 in the tools allowance; an...

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

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


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!


�

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.


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


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


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:

union meeting - pipefitters local 211 · a further increase of $0.05 in the tools allowance; an...

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