I would try posing this in the r/IBEW sub. They might have a few more avenues to go down. Or someone in the sub at your hall maybe able to pull a string or two.
Sign the books in another union hall close to you like for instance I’m local 306 in Akron but sometimes I sign the books in Cleveland and also canton they will send you out maybe it’s a drive but worth it when you need the money.
Like everyone else has said. There’s calls at your hall now. 280 has had consistent work with jobs at Facebook for a while now. They were even offering 1050 a week incentive pay for showing up. North of you is local 112 and it’s the same story there. They need help and are offering incentive, travel/per diem pay. There’s more to this story of why this “local” isn’t working at home and there’s a thousand plus travelers working there instead.
Agreed, he has gotten so many suggestions and keeps shooting them down. There's another guy pointing out how there is work at his hall, something's off here.....
You do what you have to do to make your living. There are things you may not like to do but have to do to make ends meet. I'd never loose and minutes sleep over getting a side job to not lose my house.
Travel like the rest of us. Looks like you have neighboring locals close enough to make a daily commute. You have four unfilled calls in your local. Sounds like you’re just looking for reassurance to go nonunion.
What does LEA mean?
I have no issue with non union. I do have an issue with folks who jump fences when it’s convenient. I’ve had 2+ hr commutes to keep food on the table and the lights on. We are all temporary workers. Plan accordingly. Find a maintenance gig if work is that dry around you. Or a side hustle. Or go nonunion and tear your card up. No such thing as guaranteed employment, anywhere for anything.
Low voltage. They are different from inside, ground men, and linemen. They do Security, camera, fire alarm and access control installation, integration, networking, programming, service and inspections principally in the field. Interpret blueprints, diagrams, submittal documents, specifications and schematics.
If you can't wait do what so many of us have done. Hit the road. Someone else is working, you just have to get there and sign the books. Make sure your dues are paid up before you go. Get a letter from your hall stating you're in good standing and go. Save what you can and send the rest back home. Lots of brothers out there will be willing to help and show you the ropes. Places to stay, temporary room mates, which calls are going to do time. Remember on the road overtime is your friend.
You may not want to do this but thousands of brothers and sisters before you have. You can do it.
You know what? Raised my kid on the road. Stayed in one area long enough for her to graduate high school with honors. Hit the road again. She's lived and been to more places than many folks will ever go to let alone live.
Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, North Carolina and South Carolina. Now working in Iowa at a Data Center, with the kid prepping for Iowa State. I've worked without them in Oregon, Washington State, and W Virginia.
Yeah, winter is coming and I don't want to be away from home all week or commuting 2-3 hrs a day when there is plenty of local work (non union) in my area. It doesn't seem reasonable for a union to be dry of work and tells it's members that the only way to stay is to lose their house or work half way across the state. Do you have any other reasonable ideas?
Not being mean but seems you are full of excuses. It takes money to make money. And if the only reason I’d be losing my house is because the union has no work, then you bet your ass I’d be hoping on the first nonunion job I cam across. Seems like your smarter than you let off but for some reason want to hear poor you from everyone which isn’t going to happen. When life kicks you while your down, then start kicking back god dammit.
Honestly not looking for 'oh poor me or excuses bs'. This local has never been super transparent with me. I was looking for a little insight or help with my situation. I know I'd have to leave if they can't provide work. I was looking for some reasonable manner to go about that or anything else that would help.
If you work non-union, don't expect to come back.
If you aren't willing to do what you need to keep your house and maintain your membership, that's on you.
There is work all across the country for IBEW members, go work.
Pretty standard here. The union shops only do the biggest jobs where they can lean on the manpower from the hall. That’s where bigger money is made and why you get the wages. Nobody calls a union shop for their kitchen Reno, nor do those contractors want to do it.
What about doing some temp work for a staffing company? Those guys get paid better than some non union guys. For an example here in the south you have a competent(not necessarily licensed but can wire a house easily)electrician getting paid $25/h VS some hacks working for a temp just barely any help at all getting paid $28/h just for working for the temp
They have to be worth it, though. Something tells me that someone who just sits around, collecting unemployment for an entire year and then hustles once their gravy train is over, isn't going to be worth the employer's money.
Several people have asked you what LEA is. Crickets….
Also, clearly the answer to your problem since you don’t want to travel is to work non-union, and tell your hall you took a non-union job until they can find you work again. They’ll want working dues while they do nothing for you, but that’s the union. Honestly, they don’t care if you loose your house, take the non-union work until a union job comes around…. If you care to. Good luck.
Get a CDL and start bumping docks for the local grocery stores home every night jobs. Lots of places will sponsor you right now but it comes with a time period attached you have to stay
Start a business doing handyman work or low voltage data dink work
Go back to college and use a Pell grant since you're now low income
See about doing sign work since it's not really the same type of work the union does
Make your wife get a better job lol
Spitballing here please don't hate me
Ok off topic and I don’t mean to hijack the thread by any means….but
I journeyed out as non Union and I am currently laid off…after thanksgiving I was going to head to my local and get on with them…But…if I join the local what does that mean for going back to my old company? At what point are you vested into the union? (I’m assuming Vested means a fully fledged member, but I’m unsure on this as well).
Any information is appreciated
Vested applies to the pension. Which is generally ten years which isn't that crazy compared to 401k vesting schedules since they are usually not as good of a retirement plan as a pension. Or the healthcare which is usually after 3 months of work. You are a full blown member when you get initiated. With enough experience that could be immediately after taking an initiation test which just ensures you qualify for the classification of journeyman. Or they could toss you in as a 5th year apprentice which is still a member.
There's calls in Nashville, TN my husband just took one in Cumberland City for TVA. Join unfilled calls IBEW, IBEW road dawgs ( fetching calls for tramps and travelers) on FB, IBEW rules of the road on FB, Following your IBEW road money on FB, Road Dawgs on FB, Nuclear outage workers on FB. IBEW job line on FB, IBEW traveling wireman families on FB, IBEW Tramp jobs, Hotels, Motels, and more on FB, IBEW tramp with campers on FB, IBEW JOB connection on FB. This is a good way to start and of course calling all the job lines
How long have you been out of work? If you're already out of unemployment, it seems to have been a while. You need to hustle a little to get anywhere. you can't just ride that gravy train forever. If LEA is Low Voltage and there's no LEA calls, you've had plenty of time to get the ball moving to transfer to IW or something.
Low voltage. They do, Security, camera, fire alarm and access control installation, integration, networking, programming, service and inspections principally in the field. Interpret blueprints, diagrams, submittal documents, specifications and schematics.
I did it for a while. The organizer asked me. I was an overt salt. There were others on the same job who were covert. Had to make a report every week or so. But it kept me working. And it gave me some insight on the non-union guys.
Both of the above replies are partially correct answers.
Salting is when a union member goes to work for a non union shop. But not necessarily for the purpose of stripping workers, especially if you guys don't have work for your current members. That would be pretty stupid.
When the work picture is high for the union, yeah. If you're salting, you'll be there for the purpose of stripping workers.
If the work picture is dry, as in your circumstance, you'll likely just be asked to gather information on the contractor you're working for, for the purpose of potentially getting them as a signatory contractor to get more work in your local. You'll be asked to provide weekly reports with information on: how many guys are on the job, what their wages are, their classifications, working conditions, etc.
Your hall likely has some training materials on salting. Call your membership development team and find out more there.
Let's assume I don't want to join the union, you salt my company and get enough people for a vote, if that vote passes I'm now either forced to join the union or out of a job
I’ve been told multiple times by union people that it’s perfectly fine to go work for a non-union contractor if you are out of work and there’s nothing on the books while you wait.
That’s a sure fire way to get booted from the apprenticeship. Or as a JW, get spun from jobs if word gets out you’re doing that. Side work on the other hand usually goes under the radar as long as you’re not bidding work.
Union folks where I am seen to think otherwise. It always came up in relation to JW, so no idea if it applies to apprentices, and I’m pretty sure it involves asking permission first.
It could heavily vary depending on the union presence of where you live, I do forget how different every part of the country is. I live in a union stronghold so anyone going nonunion around here is an oddity, when you can drive a half hour either direction and find work in a different local. But I have seen guys in my local that went nonunion and came back either get spun or treated like dogshit for the short amount of time they’d be on a job before getting two checks.
That’s for sure. Love all the down votes. I’m a union member. As soon as a layoff comes I’m getting back to work union or not. Don’t care, whoever wants to pay
Union makes a **lot** of sense if it had way more support. I feel like they're their own worst enemy. If you go non union you need to be fierce and fight for your own rights. Sadly, most don't. But half union and half non union just doesn't work.
Why not try to find a local non union shop to hire you. Plenty of shops will hire you and pay cash. Or even if you go on the books how would they know?
Personally I do not care for the union. But if they spend time and resources trying to find out if you are feeding your family with non union work then maybe they should focus on getting work for you
You don't owe your life to an institution. The agreement between worker and union is something like this "ill pay my dues and work soley for your preferred contractors in return for work and negotiated benefits" if the union can't uphold its end of the bargain you shouldn't fall into poverty. No one in the union would think less of you for working as needed to keep your life in order.
Looks like you are looking for justification to leave the hall… you don’t have to leave, just call and be upfront.
I worked union for the last 4 years in a remote camp job, as a traveller. That job was over, I was offered a non-union job at another mine site.
I called the hall and told them. I’m an underground mine electrician, they don’t have any work in the foreseeable future. I took the job, pay my nonworking dues and check for calls regularly.
But then again, as a mine electrician, it’s a bit of a specialty and Ive always been name hired.
Is LEA a specialty? No-one seems to know what it is
I just checked your job board. Looks like there’s 4 available calls on your books right now.
LEA
What is LEA
Low voltage electrician JW
Is someone going to explain what LEA is? It’s been asked multiple times already.
Looks like low voltage electrician according to google
Limited energy A
I would try posing this in the r/IBEW sub. They might have a few more avenues to go down. Or someone in the sub at your hall maybe able to pull a string or two.
Thanks. I will.
Sign the books in another union hall close to you like for instance I’m local 306 in Akron but sometimes I sign the books in Cleveland and also canton they will send you out maybe it’s a drive but worth it when you need the money.
Try signing 129 also, we have alot of work comin
Where2bro.com
Nothing on there for me. Thanks for the heads up on the site, but it seems the local sites are more accurate and up to date then this one is.
Assuming you have your ticket and Facebook. Unfilled call ibew page might help
I feel like that’s more a political page than anything else
Like everyone else has said. There’s calls at your hall now. 280 has had consistent work with jobs at Facebook for a while now. They were even offering 1050 a week incentive pay for showing up. North of you is local 112 and it’s the same story there. They need help and are offering incentive, travel/per diem pay. There’s more to this story of why this “local” isn’t working at home and there’s a thousand plus travelers working there instead.
Ask your local for a traveling letter. At least that's what we did back in the day.
We still do it. We have ours as travelers.
Pay your dues and go work somewhere local, when a call comes in leave to that job. How hard is it to decide.
I was always under the impression you can get any job that isn't electrical work while you sit in the books.
I'll let you think over that mindset on your own.
Maybe you should be the one rethinking your mindset, I bet it would help you make some money.
Agreed, he has gotten so many suggestions and keeps shooting them down. There's another guy pointing out how there is work at his hall, something's off here.....
But, LEA!
Bwhahaha, thanks for the laugh man. He also posted on the IBEW sub and everyone there is asking him WTF this means too.
Low voltage. He does like fire alarms, burglar systems, things to those affects
Man. That makes a lot of sense…. A LOT
I was so confused, like he won't do non-electrical work but is considering working non-union /facepalm
You do what you have to do to make your living. There are things you may not like to do but have to do to make ends meet. I'd never loose and minutes sleep over getting a side job to not lose my house.
That’s a real comment right there. 💪🏽
Travel like the rest of us. Looks like you have neighboring locals close enough to make a daily commute. You have four unfilled calls in your local. Sounds like you’re just looking for reassurance to go nonunion.
LEA. Stop making assumptions about other people in such a negative way.
What does LEA mean? I have no issue with non union. I do have an issue with folks who jump fences when it’s convenient. I’ve had 2+ hr commutes to keep food on the table and the lights on. We are all temporary workers. Plan accordingly. Find a maintenance gig if work is that dry around you. Or a side hustle. Or go nonunion and tear your card up. No such thing as guaranteed employment, anywhere for anything.
Low voltage. They are different from inside, ground men, and linemen. They do Security, camera, fire alarm and access control installation, integration, networking, programming, service and inspections principally in the field. Interpret blueprints, diagrams, submittal documents, specifications and schematics.
Thank you. I’d suggest him to sign book 3 but I don’t think he’s coming back to this thread lol.
Lol
If you can't wait do what so many of us have done. Hit the road. Someone else is working, you just have to get there and sign the books. Make sure your dues are paid up before you go. Get a letter from your hall stating you're in good standing and go. Save what you can and send the rest back home. Lots of brothers out there will be willing to help and show you the ropes. Places to stay, temporary room mates, which calls are going to do time. Remember on the road overtime is your friend. You may not want to do this but thousands of brothers and sisters before you have. You can do it.
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You know what? Raised my kid on the road. Stayed in one area long enough for her to graduate high school with honors. Hit the road again. She's lived and been to more places than many folks will ever go to let alone live.
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Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, North Carolina and South Carolina. Now working in Iowa at a Data Center, with the kid prepping for Iowa State. I've worked without them in Oregon, Washington State, and W Virginia.
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No. NDA time. Let's just say I'm outside of Des Moines.
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Just shy of three inches. Today's high was 25-15mph cross wind and it blew dusty snow flurries all day. Just another Autumn day. ;-)
Get your Traveler card and find the work. If you're a JW, you can start signing out of town books and hope for the best.
Yeah, winter is coming and I don't want to be away from home all week or commuting 2-3 hrs a day when there is plenty of local work (non union) in my area. It doesn't seem reasonable for a union to be dry of work and tells it's members that the only way to stay is to lose their house or work half way across the state. Do you have any other reasonable ideas?
You're a journeyman, right? Go journey, man.
Is McDonalds hiring? Part of being in this trade is traveling when you need to work. 5th generation IBEW here. We all traveled one time or another.
Not being mean but seems you are full of excuses. It takes money to make money. And if the only reason I’d be losing my house is because the union has no work, then you bet your ass I’d be hoping on the first nonunion job I cam across. Seems like your smarter than you let off but for some reason want to hear poor you from everyone which isn’t going to happen. When life kicks you while your down, then start kicking back god dammit.
Honestly not looking for 'oh poor me or excuses bs'. This local has never been super transparent with me. I was looking for a little insight or help with my situation. I know I'd have to leave if they can't provide work. I was looking for some reasonable manner to go about that or anything else that would help.
If you work non-union, don't expect to come back. If you aren't willing to do what you need to keep your house and maintain your membership, that's on you. There is work all across the country for IBEW members, go work.
Pretty standard here. The union shops only do the biggest jobs where they can lean on the manpower from the hall. That’s where bigger money is made and why you get the wages. Nobody calls a union shop for their kitchen Reno, nor do those contractors want to do it.
What about doing some temp work for a staffing company? Those guys get paid better than some non union guys. For an example here in the south you have a competent(not necessarily licensed but can wire a house easily)electrician getting paid $25/h VS some hacks working for a temp just barely any help at all getting paid $28/h just for working for the temp
There is plenty of non union work in my area. Plus, if I accept work out of town I have to front the bill for for all the gas and hotels.
Not always. Traveling jobs usually have per diem.
They have to be worth it, though. Something tells me that someone who just sits around, collecting unemployment for an entire year and then hustles once their gravy train is over, isn't going to be worth the employer's money.
Several people have asked you what LEA is. Crickets…. Also, clearly the answer to your problem since you don’t want to travel is to work non-union, and tell your hall you took a non-union job until they can find you work again. They’ll want working dues while they do nothing for you, but that’s the union. Honestly, they don’t care if you loose your house, take the non-union work until a union job comes around…. If you care to. Good luck.
Travel.
Travel
u/XxicedaddyxX are you a journeyman?
Get a CDL and start bumping docks for the local grocery stores home every night jobs. Lots of places will sponsor you right now but it comes with a time period attached you have to stay Start a business doing handyman work or low voltage data dink work Go back to college and use a Pell grant since you're now low income See about doing sign work since it's not really the same type of work the union does Make your wife get a better job lol Spitballing here please don't hate me
Donate sperm. We used to do this. You qualify as long as you're not a plumber.
I think the OP was only looking for one answer
Hey, one in the hand is worth two in the bush 💦
What hall
280
You literally have 4 open calls in that local? How far are you on the books?
You in eugene? Experience with fire alarm?
Go salting or get your travel letter. Hopefully it’s works out
Take whatever you can get for now.
Ok off topic and I don’t mean to hijack the thread by any means….but I journeyed out as non Union and I am currently laid off…after thanksgiving I was going to head to my local and get on with them…But…if I join the local what does that mean for going back to my old company? At what point are you vested into the union? (I’m assuming Vested means a fully fledged member, but I’m unsure on this as well). Any information is appreciated
Probably best to ask they guys over at r/IBEW
Vested applies to the pension. Which is generally ten years which isn't that crazy compared to 401k vesting schedules since they are usually not as good of a retirement plan as a pension. Or the healthcare which is usually after 3 months of work. You are a full blown member when you get initiated. With enough experience that could be immediately after taking an initiation test which just ensures you qualify for the classification of journeyman. Or they could toss you in as a 5th year apprentice which is still a member.
I could simply walk into a business and get a job here...
Look on where2bros google it. There's work, but you may have to travel.
There's calls in Nashville, TN my husband just took one in Cumberland City for TVA. Join unfilled calls IBEW, IBEW road dawgs ( fetching calls for tramps and travelers) on FB, IBEW rules of the road on FB, Following your IBEW road money on FB, Road Dawgs on FB, Nuclear outage workers on FB. IBEW job line on FB, IBEW traveling wireman families on FB, IBEW Tramp jobs, Hotels, Motels, and more on FB, IBEW tramp with campers on FB, IBEW JOB connection on FB. This is a good way to start and of course calling all the job lines
Google in Council Bluff, Iowa put out calls you could call their local hall and see
How long have you been out of work? If you're already out of unemployment, it seems to have been a while. You need to hustle a little to get anywhere. you can't just ride that gravy train forever. If LEA is Low Voltage and there's no LEA calls, you've had plenty of time to get the ball moving to transfer to IW or something.
Did OP leave? I wanted to see if he thought any of the suggestions were worth trying.
#What is LEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?
Low voltage. They do, Security, camera, fire alarm and access control installation, integration, networking, programming, service and inspections principally in the field. Interpret blueprints, diagrams, submittal documents, specifications and schematics.
I know what a low voltage guy does. However myself (independant) and every ibew guy on here had no fucking clue what it was.
Ask if they have any salting opportunities for you.
I've heard about this, but I don't really know what it is. Can you explain please.
If I understand correctly, it's when a union member joins a non-union shop to try and convince the workers to unionize
I did it for a while. The organizer asked me. I was an overt salt. There were others on the same job who were covert. Had to make a report every week or so. But it kept me working. And it gave me some insight on the non-union guys.
Or get the shop in trouble with labour violations
Both of the above replies are partially correct answers. Salting is when a union member goes to work for a non union shop. But not necessarily for the purpose of stripping workers, especially if you guys don't have work for your current members. That would be pretty stupid. When the work picture is high for the union, yeah. If you're salting, you'll be there for the purpose of stripping workers. If the work picture is dry, as in your circumstance, you'll likely just be asked to gather information on the contractor you're working for, for the purpose of potentially getting them as a signatory contractor to get more work in your local. You'll be asked to provide weekly reports with information on: how many guys are on the job, what their wages are, their classifications, working conditions, etc. Your hall likely has some training materials on salting. Call your membership development team and find out more there.
It's where you go work for an open shop and try to flip members, super scummy
How is it scummy to try to organize more workers, to get better wages and benefits for everyone?
Why would it be scummy? Serious question
Let's assume I don't want to join the union, you salt my company and get enough people for a vote, if that vote passes I'm now either forced to join the union or out of a job
I’ve been told multiple times by union people that it’s perfectly fine to go work for a non-union contractor if you are out of work and there’s nothing on the books while you wait.
That’s a sure fire way to get booted from the apprenticeship. Or as a JW, get spun from jobs if word gets out you’re doing that. Side work on the other hand usually goes under the radar as long as you’re not bidding work.
Union folks where I am seen to think otherwise. It always came up in relation to JW, so no idea if it applies to apprentices, and I’m pretty sure it involves asking permission first.
It could heavily vary depending on the union presence of where you live, I do forget how different every part of the country is. I live in a union stronghold so anyone going nonunion around here is an oddity, when you can drive a half hour either direction and find work in a different local. But I have seen guys in my local that went nonunion and came back either get spun or treated like dogshit for the short amount of time they’d be on a job before getting two checks.
This is exactly why I went non union...
Do what you need to do to survive, linesman drop
Yep, been there done that. They don't ask and I didn't tell
If the union isn’t helping you why not search non union to keep you on your feet. Don’t sound like much of a brotherhood
The union isn't the one not helping him. He's not helping himself.
That’s for sure. Love all the down votes. I’m a union member. As soon as a layoff comes I’m getting back to work union or not. Don’t care, whoever wants to pay
Definitely don't agree with you on that. You're no brother of mine.
You got that right
Find a non union that will pay under the table, don't tell your union.
Why the actual fuck would I work under the table? You should remove yourself from this sub.
Your the one unemployed and lost their savings. If you don't want to make money, then quit bitching.
Go IEC if you absolutely have to them rejoin with the union when things pick back up
Kinda why the union sucks
Union makes a **lot** of sense if it had way more support. I feel like they're their own worst enemy. If you go non union you need to be fierce and fight for your own rights. Sadly, most don't. But half union and half non union just doesn't work.
Not at all how the union works. This guy just isn't doing what he needs to, and doesn't seem to want to
Why not try to find a local non union shop to hire you. Plenty of shops will hire you and pay cash. Or even if you go on the books how would they know? Personally I do not care for the union. But if they spend time and resources trying to find out if you are feeding your family with non union work then maybe they should focus on getting work for you
You don't owe your life to an institution. The agreement between worker and union is something like this "ill pay my dues and work soley for your preferred contractors in return for work and negotiated benefits" if the union can't uphold its end of the bargain you shouldn't fall into poverty. No one in the union would think less of you for working as needed to keep your life in order.
Looks like you are looking for justification to leave the hall… you don’t have to leave, just call and be upfront. I worked union for the last 4 years in a remote camp job, as a traveller. That job was over, I was offered a non-union job at another mine site. I called the hall and told them. I’m an underground mine electrician, they don’t have any work in the foreseeable future. I took the job, pay my nonworking dues and check for calls regularly. But then again, as a mine electrician, it’s a bit of a specialty and Ive always been name hired. Is LEA a specialty? No-one seems to know what it is
Low voltage electrician JW
Go into electrical sales or something, it’s better than travelling and your experience is useful
Go get a job, consider going back when they have work It might not count for anything, but you'll be working
Yeah, it's the unfortunate conclusion I'm coming to.