May/June 2006
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Western Membership Conference May 29-31, 2006 

International Vice-President Phil Flemming welcomed everyone and thanked them for their interest in attending the conference. Vice-President Flemming commended the organizing efforts, especially in the climate that we work under with the convenience unions, merit shops, and anti-union employers. It is the pushing forward of the organizing efforts that make it possible for the working people to live a better life.

The conference’s ‘meet and greet’ was well received and gave everyone an opportunity to meet each other and renew acquaintances. The conference had one its best ever attendance, with forty one participating in the program.

AFL-CIO Director Organizing Institute, Carol Edelson and Deputy Director AFL-CIO Institute of the Organizing Dept., Sam Luebke presented a program with a high level of participation from the attendees. The program is used to give the organizing system the ability to trouble-shoot and make corrections in a campaign and to achieve its goal, that being, to bring the target employer under a collective agreement. The one-on-one approach is a must in any campaign to achieve the result in a vote or election and has given us a higher level of skill than before we had this training. We owe a great deal of credit to Carol Edelson and Sam Luebke for bringing these skills to us and we should see better results in our future campaigns as a result of their combined efforts.

The 1st District is preparing the next program and welcomes your suggestions of training or ideas that you would like to see presented in the next program.

Thank you to the Local Unions who sent organizers to the Western Conference, particularly the eastern Locals. It is great that they could come west, and that the western conference allowed another time slot this year to receive the same program that was presented in the east.

The standing ovation given to the instructors was appreciated and they offered to work with us in the future to achieve successes in the problem areas such as construction organizing. Tom Reid and Larry Schell will continue to communicate with Carol and Sam on this effort.

Union's Conduct Code Gets Thumbs-Up
This article is a direct quote from a local New Brunswick newspaper article, Telegraph-Journal | NB Telegraph-Journal | Money; page C1/C2 on June 29, 2006 — by David Shipley

IBEW rules for workers and employers lauded as way to make companies more competitive

New Brunswick locals of an international electrical workers union are eyeing a new code of conduct that will help companies in the region be more competitive in a global marketplace.

Called the Code of Excellence, the initiative was developed by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) and is an agreement between union members and employers that spells out the responsibilities of parties to ensure work is done on time and on budget.

The IBEW is the largest electrical union in the world and includes a number of local unions in New Brunswick.

IBEW Local Union 502 in Saint John, as well as Local Unions at the Point Lepreau Nuclear Power Plant and NB Power, are considering adopting the code.  If they do, the local unions will be the first in Canada to sign on to the Code of Excellence.

The initiative is being supported by J.D. Irving, Limited President Jim Irving.  "The shared commitment by companies and membership to quality work, on time, on budget, done safely is what's going to keep us all in this global race we're in," said Mr. Irving to more than 200 delegates at the IBEW's 8th Annual All Canada Progress Meeting in Saint John.  "You're Code of Excellence will help make this happen," he said. "We're enthusiastic about this approach and we want you to know you can count on us, we're in."

After his morning speech, Mr. Irving said he attended the conference because of the long-standing relationship between the Irving companies and the IBEW through the pulp and paper mill in West Saint John and through work with IBEW construction workers.

Mr. Irving said the Code of Excellence, which first emerged in one of the IBEW's American locals in 2003, was "progressive and smart" as it puts more accountability on both management and union members.

Frank Brown, Business Manager for IBEW Local Union 502 in Saint John, said the Code of Excellence was brought forward by the IBEW's International Secretary-Treasurer Jon Walters and is now used by several large IBEW local unions in the United States.  "From my understanding, no local in Canada has yet adopted the code," he said. "We've looked at it, the concept is very good and it just has to be determined how we can integrate it into our program here."

Business Manager Brown said one of the goals of the code was to produce a better working relationship between labour, the IBEW, and the clients, contractors and business people. The initiative is also designed to help raise the profile and public image of the union.  Having Mr. Irving speak at the conference in Saint John about the Code of Excellence was "very significant," he said.  "Traditionally sometimes there's bad relationships between clients and unions, but I think it's a good thing to step forward and come here to offer some ideas and some praise for our history of working together," said Business Manager Brown.

He described the relationship between IBEW and J.D. Irving Limited and other Irving companies as positive, with on-going discussions on construction projects under consideration by that would employ union members. "The discussions have been good and positive and hopefully we're going to reach some type of consensus that these projects will take place and that all the building trades, the IBEW included, will be involved."

IBEW Canadian Vice-President Phil Flemming said the union sent Mr. Irving a copy of the Code of Excellence "some time ago."  "We just wanted to let him know we're interested in him being our customer, so we had sent it to him to show him what we can do," he said. "I was pleased with his comments."

The key element of the code is responsibility, he said.  "The worker's responsibilities on the job is to make sure they show up on time, to make sure they don't take long coffee breaks, to make sure they do quality work," he said.

"The contractor is to make sure that they have the tools necessary to do the job, that they have their schedules in place, that they have the proper supervision, the whole thing."

Vice-President Flemming said the Code was prompted by a decline in the amount of work going to union members.  "We had to do something to bring that market share back. It was just an attitude problem we had with some of our people and we just had to get the attitude better on the job site."   Each local union has to adopt the code on its own, he said.
"We don't force it on anybody because if you force it then it's no good. It's something they have to accept."

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL-CIO, CLC

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