UWUA Local 304 Members Judge WV Skills USA Competition
On the weekend of March 25th, 2023, SkillsUSA held the statewide competition for West Virginia High School students who participate in career and technical education (CTE) classes at various career centers. This was a chance for the best of the best of career center student to compete for a chance to go to the National SkillsUSA contest in June at Atlanta, GA.
SkillsUSA is an organization that works to develop student for jobs in various career fields and strengthen the nation’s workforce by turning out young, ambitious, and employable young people who are interested in careers in the vocational and/or technical jobs sector. SkillsUSA is in 53 state and territorial education associations with nearly 14 million annual members since 1965, with 130 different job categories in over 17,000 classrooms nationwide.
Our country is facing a skills gap as “baby-boomers” retire, leaving a deficit of qualified workers to replace them. This is especially true in the skilled trades.
For the 2nd year, Fairmont State University hosted the competition at the Marion County Technical Center located on the North Marion High School campus. There were also competitions in other job classifications at MTEC in Morgantown, and UTC in Clarksburg.
UWUA Local 304 President Stewart Whitehair and UWUA member Ricci Bodkins are both electricians at Harrison Power Station and were asked to judge the competition with Michael Kenny and retired CTE Electrical Instructor Dave Lewis from Putnam County Career and Technical Center.
Stew and Ricci arrived at Marion County Technical Center’s campus on Thursday and helped Marion Country Technical Center instructor Jeff Greenly get set up for the contest.
Before beginning, all students had a safety briefing. There were two competitions held in Mr. Greenly’s classroom and Mr. Morris of MCTC’s Aerospace technology program was a great help in the layout and design of the competition and assisting the judges.
Friday’s contest was 6-hour timed event on industrial motor control. The students were given a project description, layout drawing, and schematic for a 3 phase 120/208V motor circuit with forward, reverse, stop buttons and limit switches.
Saturday’s test was a residential wiring project in which students had 4-hours to wire a Ground Fault Circuit 
Interrupter (GFCI) with a branch duplex receptacle, a pair of three-way switches and a keyless light fixture. The catch was that all receptacles had to trip with the GFCI but the light had to remain on!
The SkillsUSA program is proof of the great things that can be accomplished when education, industry, and labor work together. UWUA members were able to participate thanks to Local 304 and Mon Power’s Volunteer Paid Time Off Program, which is available to Harrison Power Station’s employees through First Energy to allow employees time-off to engage in meaningful activities in the communities we serve. It was a real privilege and honor to be a part of this great competition!
Good luck to all the finalists from UWUA Local 304!
What Is A West Virginia Workers Life Worth?
What is a West Virginia workers life worth?
According to the West Virginia Legislature, as stated in the narrowly passed House Bill 3270, a worker’s life is worth $500,00 total. The bill in question is to amend the deliberate intent statute in workers compensation to limit noneconomic damages to $500,000. Pulling back this thin veil reveals that this bill is yet another attempt to cheat West Virginians by radical tort reform which caps awards to employees injured or killed from an employers willful violations of safety practices.
The most serious of these violations fall under the category of “willful intent”. This is when an employer knows of a safety issue and chooses to ignore it, intentionally putting workers at risk and placing profit over safety.
Advocates tout this as a necessary pro-business step that would bring West Virginia more in line with our neighboring states and decry the high price of workers compensation insurance as burdensome to small businesses in our state. Proponents of this legislation paint a broad and misleading picture of greedy, high flying attorneys who reap the rewards of large verdicts that enrich them and cheat the victim.
This bill would restrict victims attorneys to a 20% cap on fees from an award or settlement. Many injury attorneys spend much of their own money in investigation, forensic tests, and expert witnesses, relieving the victim of these burdens. These same lawyers know that they often go up against industry titans who keeps a large contingent of legal talent on staff.
Maybe the most galling fact of this bill is the five-hundred thousand dollar ($500,000) cap. This amount is PER OCCURENCE. In other words, if you and a buddy get killed in the same accident, the capped amount is split between all those affected. In other words, your family would get two hundred-fifty thousand dollars ($250,000) for your life.
Consider this, using the metrics this bill would mandate; the 51 workers killed in the Willow Island Cooling Tower Collapse on April 27th, 1978, would’ve been worth just a shade over nine Thousand-eight hundred dollars per workers. Upper Big Branch miners killed on April 5th, 2010, would’ve fared a little better at 17K apiece, since there were only 29 of them, but the 78 Consol #9 miners killed in Farmington on November 20th, 1968, would only be worth a little over six-thousand dollars each. Thirteen Hundred dollars would’ve been considered a large amount of money in 1906, if you were one of the 362 miners killed in the Monongha Mine Disaster, but still not enough for a widow to raise kids on, even back then. Of course if you were one of the unfortunate workers who helped dig the Hawks Nest Tunnel, your life would be worth a paltry five-hundred dollars, based on the estimate of a thousand men who died from breathing deadly silica.
This bill would also be applied to Black Lung compensation, something miners fought for decades to win.
A public hearing on this measure was held recently at the Capital and many testified for and against the measure. If you watch the testimony, you may even recognize a familiar face. To watch the hearing, click this link.
Life has always been cheap here in West Virginia, and laws were enacted to try to level that uneven ground. They were paid for by the blood and sweat of workers. The UMWA has come out against this bill, as has every organization that holds the lives of workers above shareholder value.
Anyone who has worked in any decent sized industry know that an employer will chance a half-million dollar settlement if he can run a wore out machine that has a replacement cost of four-million dollars for another year.
Here is a list of how each West Virginia Legislator voted in narrowly passing this anti-worker HB 3270. We urge you to write, call, and/or e-mail them to let them know that YOU stand with working West Virginians!
Get the WHOLE story by clicking on the highlighted links!
NEW Collective Bargaining Agreement Online!
Our NEW 2022- 2026 Collective Bargaining Agreement is now available at 304 Resources!
UWUA Local 304 Adopts Guidelines for Charitable Donations
Your union has adopted guidelines for charitable donations from our union to other outside individuals and organizations.
Currently we have standing donations for the Salvation Army Angel Tree Program, The Ned Johnson Memorial Scholarship, and our late Brother Don Ganoe’s Hogs For Dogs Ride.
In the past we have elected, on an individual basis, to donate and support members in need, as well as those community activities our members may take part in, but it was felt that we, as a union, needed to have some kind of guidance for such contributions.
These guidelines are meant as a reference to delineate and define how we contribute. They are also available under the UWUA Local 304 Resources page.
Of course, the MEMBERS (in good standing) run this union, and always have the power of the VOTE in these decisions.
YOU ARE THE UNION!
Your Union Hall is YOURS!
Thanks to the UWUA Local 304 members, your union has made the union hall our own. Your union officers have been busily sorting and filing almost 15 years of records concerning bargaining, NLRB charges, grievances, and other accumulated correspondence that is a part of the work of serving and protecting our membership.
15 years is not a typo, though our union wasn’t certified until 2010, there is also of years of records from the switch from Allegheny to First Energy, as well as all the files from our organizing drive.
Having a union hall of our own allows us to do this, as a benefit to the membership, but, the hall itself is YOURS.
If you are a member in good standing, you can use the union hall for your own activities. Whether it’s a birthday, anniversary, a dinner, a business meeting, or other instances in which an office or meeting setting is needed. Your hall has Wi-Fi, a printer and FAX machine, tables, chairs, a kitchen, all at your disposal.
All you have to do is contact an Executive Board Officer to schedule the use of the hall. As long as your request doesn’t conflict with your union’s business needs on the date of your event, an Officer or Trustee who are key holders, will make sure you have access to the hall.
The only restriction is common sense in assuring that your use of the hall is for wholesome activities that do not conflict with the Union’s and Labor’s primary missions of representing workers, or are in conflict with the U.S. Constitution, the Constitution of the Utility Workers Union Of America, AFL-CIO, and/or UWUA Local 304’s By-Laws and collective bargaining agreement.
Anyone using the hall will be responsible to leave it clean and well-ordered upon completion of their use and that any member using the hall will be responsible for any damages caused by them or their guests.
Being a Union Is All About Making Things Better
At January’s Regular Meeting, we got our first glimpse of the process we have to follow to offer our membership healthcare through our union. The CEO, Mr. Elliot Dinkin, from Cowden Health and Welfare Consulting Services gave a presentation of what we can expect as we navigate through the process of being able to offer the membership a more affordable choice in their healthcare plans.
Senior Consultant, Jessica Grande, was also there to answer members questions, which there were some very good ones asked,
Cowden administers the healthcare plan for our brothers and sisters in UWUA System Local 102, and have for the last three (3) years. Even before Harrison went with the UWUA in 2010, we have always envied the healthcare plans available to 102 members as compared to what the company offered, and wondered why we didn’t have the coverage and options that 102 members enjoyed.
UWUA System Local 102 President Travis Beck has been very welcoming and helpful to Local 304 as we begin this journey, and we will owe 102 many more thanks before we are done.
The process itself is all about participation. You will be receiving a questionnaire from Cowden to fill out and submit so that they have the data to shop the multitude of healthcare providers for a quote and options for the membership.
It DOES NOT matter if you are a dues paying member in good standing or not, or if you opt out of our current FE coverage for that which is available to your spouse through their employer (such as PEIA). It is vitally important that you fill out the questions and submit them so that we can have an honest snapshot of our membership and their family’s healthcare needs and to offer you, as a UWUA member, a competitive choice.
What is important is that we get an accurate quote for whatever plans available to our membership.
Those who have opted out of their union dues obligations will not have a vote in this, when the time comes to decide if this is what we want to do, but will still have the benefit of whatever plans are offered and that they choose to enroll in.
We have said it all along that being UNION is all about participation and at no time has YOUR individual participation been so important. If you want something better, you have to take ownership of whatever things you CAN control instead of just riding along.
Talk to one of the members who were at the meeting, and take action to help yourself and your Brothers and Sisters.
Click the above highlighted links for more information.
Understanding Grievances
For some, the thought of filing a grievance is intimidating.
Some of the things members fear are:
1. Appearing disloyal or ungrateful for their job.
2. Painting themselves as a target for retrobution by management.
3. Alienating their immediated supervisor.
4. Unsure of the grievance process.
5. Not sure of how their issue relates to the language in the CBA (contract).
What is a grievance?
A grievance is any any dispute that reasonably concerns the application, interpretation, or violation of a collective bargaining agreement, past practice, company rules, or statutory law.
What is grievable?
Answer: anything that happens at work- whether it is in the contract or not- is fair game for a grievance. If it affects your pay, working conditions, seniority, or any other mandatory subjects of bargaining that are in the contract, as well as any local, state, or federal laws; it is probably a grievable offense.
Why are grievances important?
Grievances protects, enforces, and defines the collective bargaining agreement you work under. Grievances are the way a union holds an employer to their obligations and responsibility to their worker, as agreed across the bargaining table.
You could have the strongest and best defined union contract in the world, but it is not worth anything if the membership is unwilling to hold the employer to their word.
Inversely, a CBA that may fall short in some important areas to the membership can be further defined and enforced to the satisfaction of the membership through the grievance and arbitration procedure.
Collective Bargaining Agreements are negotiated every 3-4 years. In the meantime, it is the the grievance and arbitration process that gives any CBA it’s value.
Who should I talk to if I think I have a grievance?
Your Shop Steward has recieved special training concerning the CBA, latest talks between your union and the company on various subjects, and specifically on processing and handling grievances.
When a Member Gets Hurt on the Job
The following is used with permission and UWUA Local 304’s grateful appreciation for our union Brothers and Sisters of the the UE (“UE” is the abbreviation for United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, a democratic national union representing some 35,000 workers in a wide variety of manufacturing, public sector and private non-profit sector jobs).
UWUA Local 304 would like to point out that the Union Stewards in the UE do much of the heavy lifting of representing the members, whereas in our Local this has fell primarily to the Executive Board. As a young Local, that was a decision of our local, however, it is the duty and responsibility of EVERY member to safeguard the health and safety of each other, as well as protecting members when they are injured on the job.
The UE’s mantra is; “The Members Run This Union”. We of UWUA Local 304 agree with this philosophy , as well as the precepts laid out in the following UE article presented, unedited and in its entirety below:
Issues
- Safeguarding our members from potential workplace hazards
- Ensuring proper medical treatment/filing an accident report
- Warning against employer tricks to avoid workers compensation
- Negotiating a “light duty” policy
- Employer Obligation to Provide a Safe & Healthy Workplace
Your responsibility as a steward
In 1996, 6.2 million workers were injured on the job. That’s 17,000 each day. In that same year, 6,112 were killed on the job, 154 every day! On top of those grisly facts is another: 50,000 workers die each year from occupational diseases.
As horrible as those figures are, they show progress. The number of workers killed on the job has dropped 67% since OSHA was started in 1970. The injury rate has dropped 31%. These figures are for the areas where OSHA was able to set some real standards – manufacturing and construction.
In the service industry, where the Republicans have held up the setting of OSHA standards, there has been no real decline in accidents since 1970. Congress has stopped the setting of any standards on repetitive motion injuries and these have increased in all areas of work, manufacturing, service and construction.
UE stewards have an important role to play in safeguarding our members from potential workplace hazards or when they get hurt on the job. Here are some pointers on what to look out for when a worker gets hurt on the job.
What Should a Steward Do When a Worker Gets Hurt?
The steward must make sure that the worker gets the proper medical treatment, if any is needed.
In some places the steward has had to intervene because the employer wanted to have an injured worker drug tested before they received medical treatment. Medical treatment comes first.
The steward must also see that a proper accident report is filed when a worker gets hurt, even if no medical treatment is necessary.
Why? If a proper report is not filed and later on a worker begins to suffer because of a workplace accident, the worker may have a hard time proving that their problems are related to a workplace injury. Employers hate to have workplace accidents reported because often times their insurance rates are based upon reported accidents. If the employer acts like they are going to blame the worker for the accident, the steward should make a note of any potential witnesses.
The steward should see that the worker is not talked into applying for sickness and accident payments instead of workers compensation payments.
Many employers try to talk workers into taking S&A instead of workers compensation. In the long run it is cheaper for the employer. We have to remind workers that by taking S&A, they are cutting themselves off from future workers compensation payments if the injury proves to be long lasting or reoccurring.
NOTE: The employer is responsible for seeing that workers receive workers compensation in a timely manner. Don’t let the boss claim that the “matter is out of my hands, go talk to the insurance company.” Many times stewards have found that the boss was secretly telling the insurance company to hold up workers compensation payments in an effort to starve the employee back to work. Keep the pressure on the employer.
Health and Safety is a Grievable Issue!
What About Light Duty?
Employers have seized upon the idea of providing “light duty” for workers, mostly to get them back to work, and thereby lowering their reports of long-term injuries.
The employer should negotiate with the union over the establishment of any “light duty” policy.
Because of the employer attacks on workers compensation laws through out the country, many workers cannot afford to stay out on workers compensation. While we understand their desire to return to work quickly, a steward may also have to point out to workers the long-term damage that they might incur by returning to work too soon.
Where performing light duty jobs is not required by state law, the union should insist that it is the employee’s doctor’s decision that is the deciding opinion. Some employers have gone to the extreme of just providing rooms where injured workers sit all day, doing nothing. This is wrong. Often times what a worker needs to recover is rest, not just for the injured part of the body, but for the whole body. Sitting in a room doing nothing is not the same as being home resting.
The employer really is hoping that the worker will get so bored that he or she will beg to be allowed to return to work, even against the doctor’s orders.
If the union negotiates a light duty policy with the employer, it will be the steward’s job to see that it is equally applied. The union has the right to know who the employer wants to bring into work for light duty and who the employer lets stay home.
Many UE contracts have clauses that say that the employer must provide workers with a safe and healthy workplace. In these cases it is very clear what clause of the contract to cite when writing up a grievance about unsafe conditions. If the contract does not have a specific clause concerning health and safety, a grievance can always be filed under the Recognition Clause of the contract. A grievance can also be filed stating that the employer is violating the General Duty Clause of OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration). In some states workers are covered by state OSHA laws. They also have this General Duty Clause. The General duty Clause of OSHA simply states that it is the obligation of the employer to provide a safe and healthy workplace for all employees.
If a worker gets injured and complaints had been previously lodged about the problem with the employer, file a grievance. The union needs to have a written record on cases of employer negligence.
Can a Steward File a Grievance If a Health and Safety Committee Exists?
Yes. Sometimes it is best to try to get the safety committee to take care of the problem, but the Union always has the right to file a grievance over health & safety problems. A grievance should be filed especially if the safety committee ignores the problem.
The stewards must educate and organize the membership to stop employers from paying bonuses or giving out prizes for not reporting accidents.
Employers continue to try to bribe workers to not report accidents. Most times they set up “safety bingo” games, where the prizes get larger every day or week there are no reported accidents. The idea is to get workers to put pressure on themselves and each other not to report accidents. Other employers offer cash bribes to each worker who has no accidents. The outcome is the same. They hope to bribe workers into not reporting or seeking treatment for workplace injuries. Our position should be that safety is not a game.
The steward may have to warn workers who are out from work about employer tricks to cut them off workers compensation.
Many employers routinely hire private investigators to spy on workers who are collecting workers compensation. They sneak around trying to take photos of workers to prove that their injuries or disease are fake. What should workers do to protect themselves? If a doctor prescribes light exercise for a worker who is out with a back injury, that worker should get it in writing from the doctor. These private spies love to take photos of workers doing light work, such as raking leaves. They then use these photos to disqualify the worker or have them fired.
What about part-time work? Many workers have part-time jobs. Tell them to get written clearance from their doctor that it is all right for them to work their part time job. The doctor’s note should say that the part- time work is such that it will not aggravate the injury.
The steward may also have to let the worker know what their responsibilities are to the employer.
In most states workers have to regularly update the employer about their condition and any expected return to work date. The steward should let the injured worker know this, BUT also urge the worker to report to the union any harassment he or she receives when reporting in to the employer. The employee may also be required to see a doctor of the employer’s choosing to confirm the employee’s doctor’s diagnosis. The steward should make sure that the union member knows this BUT also make sure that they know that they have the right to keep seeing a doctor of their own choosing.
NOTE: Workers Compensation laws are different in every state. Whenever possible each UE Local should have at least one person who is an “expert” on the exact laws.
Moving Forward With a New Attitude!
Your union has a lot going on. While we have bargained our next contract, waiting for results of past arbitration and preparing future ones, filing unfair labor practices against the company for unfairly jockeying schedules, updating our union’s By Laws, and finding us a new permanent union hall.
Most of all, we are done apologizing for being UNION, and it’s time the membership adopted a new attitude and make this union what we need it and want it to be. The most effective weapon organized labor has in it’s arsenal isn’t the backing of the National, or the lawyers on retainer, or the right to file charges; it is and always will be SOLIDARITY!
You want a better contract, then you have to pull together with everybody else to make it a reality and give our Bargaining Committee the support they need to bargain from a position of strength, knowing the membership has their backs.
While workers across the nation are fighting to bring a unions into their workplaces, there are many union members shamefully taking the road offered them by union busting state legislatures who pushed Right To Work laws on workers. Laws handcrafted by the nefarious American Legislative Exchange Council in nice little ready made packages to kill unions, prevailing wage, and other protections workers have taken for granted for decades.
UWUA Local 304 has to get organized and active in this fight because all of us, collectively, have too damned much to lose if we don’t
Many members are familiar with the United Mine Workers, and lament that we as Utility Workers, don’t strike the same kind of fear in the hearts of corporate America that the UMWA has. That wasn’t gave to the miners, they fought for it for decades. They didn’t ignore the boss when they committed gross violations of the C.B.A., they filed grievances, arbitrated, went to court, jail, and marched in solidarity.
The unions that work in our plant are carefully shielded from 304 members. Why?
That’s because many of the contractors we host in our plant have been union workers for a long time. Management’s worse fear is that Harrison employees learn and start to act like real union workers.
You don’t have to disrespect management, or be hard to work with, but you don’t have to live in fear of them either. You have rights as a union member, but it’s up to you to know and exercise those rights. This begins by knowing your Collective Bargaining Agreement, attending union meetings, and raising hell if you have too.
Right To Work was passed to destroy unions, but we are countering by getting stronger through organization and education of our members, and through cooperation and collaboration with other unions.
UWUA Local 304 Has a Home!
In an overwhelming majority, UWUA Local 304 members voted almost 4 to 1 to establish it’s 1st ever Union Hall home!
