r/IBEW

I wanted to post this a shout out to a solid brother who I think is on this sub if you are here shoot me a DM and I’ll take you out for a beer before you leave town. This week on our job we had a bad safety issue one of the general contractors employees caused an injury to one of our guys. The Hansen rice safety guy tried to do something about it and something to correct the other safety problems that were plaguing the job site. He was then asked what side he was on. He chose the members and was asked to leave the job. I just want to say shout to you Mr Justin Case you know who you are. (Not his real name). Thanks for standing up for safety and the brotherhood. In Brotherhood Everyone Wins. If you are here I didn’t want to give to many details.

Last night I parked in a rest zone/trucker stop, drank a few beers at the casino to waste some time and then slept in my car. It wasn't bad, I made a pillow out of sweatshirts, I also just so happened to bring a blanket along, and I slept in my clothes. I figured Nevada is a desert and I'm in an insulated box, I'll Crack open my sunroof a little to let the heat out just in case.

Well 7:30am rolls around and I wake up not only to see grey clouds but rain coming down. My front seats are wet, my dues recipt is wet, and I pop up to fix this before it gets any worse. As soon as I slide my key into the ignition my car alarm goes off, honking over and over in the early morning while I assume others are also sleeping. I didn't even know I had a car alarm but thankfully a press of the unlock doors button managed to silence it first try.

Great start to my day.

Time to calm down. I lay my head down and hit snooze on my alarm 5 times too many but I'm up, get some pastries and coffee from the convenience store and head on over to the library. I've got OSHA 10 to grind out.

Now when I took the job from dispatch they said that the contractor would contact me, and then around 4 pm Thursday I confirmed that one last time. My friend, also union JW, got into my head that I had it backwards. Cleared that up.

So today I'm awake, phone in hand from 7:30 am ready for a call. I get to the library 9:00am, no call. I think maybe I'll just try the contact number again, new day, proper working time, let's see. No ring, straight to voicemail, inbox is full. Goodbye, click.

Cool. Maybe I'll call dispatch instead, stay ahead of this. Ring, ring, ring, voicemail, inbox is full. Goodbye, click.

Cool. Go inside the library, set up laptop, get to lessons, try again at 10. Same thing. Then 11. Same thing. Then noon is lunch hour so I try again after 1. Same thing. 2. Same thing. Now it's 3, smashing out OSHA, I'm seven hours down and the library is open till 6 but the hall closes at 5.

I decide to cut it there. There is a problem here, no call from the contractor, no response from the hall. I did at one point call the front desk, I think at 10, and was advised to continue calling dispatch. That clearly wasn't working.

So off to the hall I go, get there just before 4 pm. I let them know what's happening. No call from contractor, no response from dispatch. Please help.

I do get answers, the contractor was calling the wrong number, adding a 5 where there was a 7? Idk. So they verify the phone number, correct the problem and tell me they'll call me shortly. Perfect, I'll stay here in my car and wait it out.

4:45 pm​, nothing. Silence. Concern.

Back inside I go. "Could you call the number I provided on my work slip as it's written, I'd like to confirm it's correct." She types in the number, my cell phone immediately rings in hand.

Cool. What the fuck is happening here? Get told the contractor had just tried again while I was there and it didn't go through. 😐

Oh man, what a day. Tomorrow is Saturday, hall won't be open, but I'll be available so just before I leave I tell the front desk lady, they can call me tomorrow if they want, I will be available. And out the door I go.

By the time I sat down and buckled my belt my phone rings. Hello? It's dispatch, verifying my phone number works because even after we supposedly corrected the wrong number, they still can't get through to me.

I don't know what to say, I tell the guy, "well clearly my phone works and so does the number I provided. Something goofy is going on." He agrees.

So now if nothing happens again tomorrow I'll have to wait until Monday to get back on track. Thankfully there is a library open tomorrow, I'll finish my OSHA 10. But I'm not so sure what is gonna come from this job call.

I would try something different but the benefits of housing, café food, and transportation is such a good deal for a homeless traveler like myself. I really want this to work.

I type this from car, sitting at the same rest stop. I've got food in my belly, lots of water, and a Nintendo 3ds with a full charge. I might grab another brew but the casino is filled with cigarett smoke from the patrons, not my thing.

Just gotta keep my head and push through. It helps that these kinds of odd scenarios follow me everywhere. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've had similar crack slipping events happen. When I mention I had a feeling something bad would happen, that was intuition from experience, an lo and behold.

Kinda funny, makes for a silly story. But at the moment I'm a bit frustrated. I think I will take that beer. At least I've informed the right people, I'm working on the right things, and I have a safe place for the night.

Here's to better luck tomorrow. 🤞

I got my provisional acceptance letter in early February and still haven’t heard anything since. Called for my rank or estimated start time but they couldn’t give me anything.

I’m wondering if anyone has been called or has any info or guesses as to when I may be called for orientation?

Hey future Brothers & Sisters, I am starting as an apprentice in Local 252 in a few weeks. I'm starting green without an apprentice card yet, and I want to make sure I do everything by the book and I'd like to grasp some concepts about how this all works.

1. Licensing & W2 Hours: Since I don't have my apprenticeship card yet, do my hours immediately count towards my 8,000 hours for my Journeymans license, or only after the paperwork is filled out at the Hall?

2. JATC Schooling: I have 150 hours of RTI time with Michigan State however I would be happy to start training with JATC - when you're hired on as an Apprentice with the union you are guaranteed this training, right?

3. Joining: My shop mentioned taking me down to the hall within the first month. Does this involve taking the entrance exam and doing the interview? Am I "Organizing in" or is there a different term for being hired as an apprentice at a union shop?

4. Long-term question: If I complete the 3 year residential apprenticeship (*which I am only assuming that I'm in, I could be inside? Not sure how that works!). Is it possible to switch to inside wireman say 5 or 10 years down the road? I'm thrilled to join the IBEW either way, but I'd like to continue my education further after the 3 years residential program is complete - and I'd like the opportunity to work both if possible.

Thanks for any insight. I am excited to get to work and I intend to represent the union to the best of my abilities!

I was tasked today with creating a new logo for our business, to put on sweatshirts, t-shirts, etc. And am lost in a direction to go. Are there any designs or ideas you liked or thought of? I don't want to copy anybody else, but I want to have some type of inspiration or idea to work with. Thanks.

freshly topped out last summer. took a call for a newer shop recently, been running a small solar job with 4 people under me making foreman scale. shop owner asked if I'd take on another job, small commercial job with 2-3 JW. it's about 2 hours away and he said he'd give me a company truck and only expect me to be onsite 1 day a week to check in. it would start in a couple weeks and run concurrently with the job I'm running now.

he also has several smaller jobs located in the warehouse the current solar job is on. lighting retrofit, moving some gear, demoing out some old gear, and he's hoping to be the maintenance contractor for this company. these would also run concurrently.

at what point do I talk about general foreman scale? he's mentioned getting other foremen on and having me in charge of them with GF pay, but depending on how the jobs line up (bidding being finalized) there might only be a couple weeks overlap on a given job so he might not mess with getting foremen for each one. I'm new to the jobrynning aspect of the trade.

he's also asked me about getting my master's and my instrumentation certification. these were both things I was interested in before (I do well academically) but haven't actively pursued because there hasn't been a reason. what kind of benefits would I negotiate for myself? it seems like masters tend to go for 115% scale, all bonding an insurance paid for, guaranteed 40, company truck and so many paid vacation days. and instrument techs seem to go for $100/day per diem and guaranteed so many instrument tech hours per year to maintain the license. is there more I should be asking for?

never been one to pledge allegiance to a contractor, but he does right by me and I see this as an opportunity to get the masters and instrument tech for future work.

With the impending wave of data centers to come, what are some skills we should focus on to have an edge wiring them?