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From: ashur1@cox.net
Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003
Subject: [ibew] A little story about the Carpenters/Laborers national union!

I'm very sorry for the rant but this story must get out.

Last year a large utility holding company, MidAmerica/CalEnergy announced that they were planning a large geothermal power plant addition to their existing units in the Imperial Valley. (see this LINK: http://www.calenergy.com/html/projects2_imperial.shtml). Of the 10 existing units, only one (the first) was built union, none are operated union. In fact, the company has spent a fortune over the last years to defeat IBEW efforts to organize the work force. The planed new project is to be the largest geothermal plant in the world and is called the Salton Sea 6.

They held a meeting and invited local building trades unions to attend. A gentleman named Paul Preast put on a very slick presentation. Talked about the enormous benefits (their words) to local residents, the economy, the environment, building trades, and (last but not least) the benefits to CURE (California Unions for Reliable Energy). One thing that they didn't realize was that there was one of the founders of the group called CURE in the audience. Mr. Preast reported that CalEnergy was willing to strike a deal with the building trades unions on this project. He would be willing to assure that about 45% of the construction work would be done by members of these unions. He had a preliminary drawing of the plant site with a horizontal line drawn down it separating the generation facility from the geothermal field.

After the presentation, in the question and answer session, there were a number of questions about the plant. A person in the audience that had some CURE experience(me) asked if this new plant would be covered by the CURE agreements (BTW: CURE agreements insure 100% union construction, a guaranteed period of time for 100% union maintenance work. Usually from 15 to 30 years, most are at the 30 year mark. And agreement from the company to be NEUTRAL in respect to their workers forming a union. Every power plant permitted in California except one has been signed to these agreements.) The CURE questions caused Mr. Preast to lose some of his jovial enthusiasm and the session ended shortly after.

Later that evening I got a call from Mr Preast. Mr. Preast wanted to know if I would meet him for coffee at a hotel in San Diego before he headed back to his office in the MidWest. I showed up at the meeting location (a large NON-UNION hotel in the San Diego area). While at the table with Mr. Preast another gentleman walked up to the table and was introduced by Mr Preast as one of the key persons in the Carpenters union. The Carpenter's were holding a periodic officer's meeting at the hotel. Mr. Preast told me that he was there to meet with a good friend of his, Doug McCarron. During the meeting Mr. Preast talked about how there could be a compromise cut between CURE and CalEnergy but in no case could the job ever be built completely union or would they even consider the other CURE agreements. The meeting ended with a handshake and a "hearty highho" .

It was about a month later that we heard a rumor the both the Laborers union and the Carpenter union had signed a "PLA" with CalEnergy. In the mean time we were scheduling meetings with CalEnergy at our first meeting we discussed the scope of construction, there desire to use local Imperial Valley people at much reduced rates and little or no benefits. We ended the meeting without progress. It was a short time after our first meeting that I got a copy of the "rumored" PLA that was signed by Carpenters/Laborers in Washington DC.

This was a very interesting [sic] agreement. The agreement allowed for a large number of the workers on site to be paid $7 per hour without any benefits. In fact, the agreement appeared to protect only one group of workers. Workers in the Washington DC office of the Carpenters and Laborers. The agreement had strong Union Security language, language that made collecting dues from these low paid (with no benefit) Carpenters/Laborers easy, and language that gave these two unions preference for all of the jurisdiction on the job.

NOTE: All of the CURE agreements cover ALL crafts and require the signing of their full local agreements! No one is left out even though there are only 5 trades supporting CURE.

From that point on CalEnergy was unwilling to consider the full CURE agreements.

In this case the Carpenters/Laborers have cut the "knees" out of all of the other trades and have effectively made coming to agreement with this company much more difficult. They have short changed their own members, abandoned the labor movement, and have made labor seem like a group of cheap prostitutes.

Why this rant??

Last week Mr. McCarron (it IS IMPOSSIBLE to use the word brother with this man) met with the Governor of California, Gray Davis. It is told that the meeting was centered around the Salton Sea 6 project and the fact that the only reason that CURE is involved is to insure that the IBEW operates the plant. Mr McCarron is a cancer on working people, he has no interest in any kind of union solidarity. His interests are in collecting dues money from as many under represented workers as he can find.

I was going to scan the original "PLA" that the Carpenters/Laborers signed. The copy is not very good so I will transcribe the whole document and include signature pages and everything that will prove it's origin.

I will try to post this document to the group tomorrow no later than Monday.

Share this with the Carpenters/Laborers that you know, post it on the internet, help the good union folks take control of their union and their destiny. Help STOP this cancer from weakening the rest of organized labor.

LINK to the California Energy Commission web site with the Salton Sea 6 and CURE documents:
http://www.energy.ca.gov/sitingcases/saltonsea/documents/

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