2014 inter-Union Gas Conference
Held September 8-11 at the Disney Yacht Club in Orlando, Florida
Disney World fact of the day:
Disney World employs about 62,000 people making it the largest single site employer in the U.S.
The IBEW Caucus on Monday morning was hosted by Don Hartley. Don stressed the importance of all locals keeping up to date with their information on the Agreement Submission Management Database located on the IBEW.org website. Using the database, Don informed the audience that there are
306 locals representing 1632 utility agreements. 434 ( or 26.6%) of those agreements are expired which is an improvement from 28.8% in 2013. However, 55 of the 153 gas agreements are expired which represents 36% compared to 30.2 % in 2013. A delegate from each local in attendance filled out a 10 question survey about training and changes to work practices in their respective areas. The latter half of the report was information on legislation or other policies that could or would have an impact on gas workers. Of particular concern was the expected increases in energy costs as the result of the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Power Plan and the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards.
A couple of natural gas facts from Don's presentation:
Natural gas serves 67 million homes, 5 million businesses, 190,000 factories and 1,900 electric generating units in the U.S.
Leaking pipelines were responsible for 192 million dollars of lost Natural Gas in 2011.
Don finished by announcing this would be his last conference.
Famous Orlandonite quote of the day.
"Corn beef sandwich."
Astronaut John Young
on Gemini III flight informing Gus Grissom he had smuggled a sandwich into space.
The afternoon general session saw Mike Langford, President of the Utility Workers Union of America, talk about rebuilding infrastructure and the importance of voting. Mike was followed by Richard Trumka, President of the AFL-CIO, who gave a passionate speech about standing together to create a better America.
Next up, Labour Consultant Steve Wyatt gave a very informative presentation on the history of unions, showing parallels between today and the 1930's. He showed a video called "Americas Wealth Inequality" which can be found on YouTube. Steve mentioned if the American dream is defined as one house, one car, eating nutritiously, sending your kids to college and saving a little money for retirement the cost of that dream is currently $130,000 per year.
He provided several examples of unions getting involved in their communities to help everyone.
The afternoon ended with a panel discussion on pipeline safety and featured Carl Weimer of the Pipeline Safety Trust, Lynda Farrell if the Pipeline Safety Coalition, James Harrison of the UWUA and Jim Galvin and Doug Carter of Unifor Local 275 out of Ontario. They touched on a variety of pipeline issues and mentioned the gas explosion in Harlem earlier this year that killed 8 people involved a pipeline installed in 1887. There were many questions on gas venting which appears to occur throughout North America. Check out pipelinesafetytrust.org as they work both in the U.S. and Canada.
Song for the day: Thank God It's Monday
Artist: NOFX
Album: Pump Up The Valium (2000)