Well, to tell you the truth. I brought my small company into the IBEW Local union by choice. My shop wasn't organized. I had been a small electrical contractor for almost 10 years when I decided to join and called them up. I had been hiring men off the street for years, all of them with book smarts, but most of them had no "work" smarts. The quality of work I could get from them was not the craftsmenship I was looking for. There didn't seem to any emphasise on work "quality" at any of the trade schools they had attended. When I signed up the Local took the two youngest men that worked for me, and placed them in the apprenticeship program; the remainder were required to take wireman night courses at the apprentice school, twice a week for a year. The courses were paid for by the Local but on the mens time. The men were then given the Journeyman Wiremans exam after one year. If they passed they received an "A" card and were classified as Journeymen. The one man that didn't pass the exam had to attend review classes until the next testing period. He passed that exam and was given his "A" card.
The wage scale was close to what I was already paying but benefits were higher, to me it was well worth it. I have no complaints about the IBEW Local workers at all. The men that I pulled out of the hiring hall were good mechanics, they gave me a good days work and with craftsmen quality in the installation. I had a heart attack later on and the Local did it's best to help me stay in business. It sent a man to run my work while I was in the hospital and other union shops sent me small jobs to keep things going for me while I healed. When I finally closed my shop down it was no fault of the union. All of my remaining men were given work at other shops. I was given work at a medium sized shop, were I was a foreman for 4 years, until I quit that shop.
My problems are with the present administration of the Local. They managed to get themselves elected into place by an extremely small majority and have managed to stay in office with that small majority. They are hard core Democrats, straight party supporters and voters on all issues. They dislike the NRA immencely; though many of the wiremen in the Local are NRA Life members. I have to admit I also haven't done anything to endear myself to them. I've worked for and supported union members that have run against them in the past two elections.
I personally vote for who I think will represent me better on issues I beleave in. That may be a Republican, a Democrat, or an Independent. When they do not do as they say they will; I work to vote them out of office. If they work and do as I like , I work hard and support them to keep them in office. We had a Democratic State Senator that I voted for and supported for many years. He was extremely pro 2nd Admenedment, more so than many Republicans. He retired and we lost a doggone good man to represent us on firearm issues.
I also know of several Republican workers that do the same things, that have been done to me, to Liberals that they work with or around. It isn't just a one party thing going on.
Gramps
