Business Manager Tony Sapienza
After Contentious Negotiations
December 9, 2021- Members of IBEW Local #1837 at WGME-TV 13 in Portland have approved a new 3-year contract agreement with substantial raises in 2022 for all members in all job classifications, ranging from 5.2% up to 49.9%. Most members will see a wage increase of at least 7% in 2022, followed by an additional 5% over the next two years. The contract vote took place on Wednesday, December 8, in a church basement near the Portland studios of the CBS affiliate.
President Biden appeared at the Electric City Trolley Museum in Scranton on October 20 to promote his domestic agenda and the hundreds of thousands of jobs that will be created to rebuild the nation’s degraded infrastructure.
There to meet him backstage was Scranton Local 81 Business Manager Mike McDermott.
Scranton Local 81 Business Manager Mike McDermott met President Biden when he visited the city in October.
After nearly five years without a confirmed leader, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is headed by worker safety advocate Doug Parker.
Continuing a trend of filling labor-related posts with experienced pro-worker nominees, President Biden has selected Susan Tsui Grundmann and Kurt Rumsfeld for seats on the Federal Labor Relations Authority.
IBEW members like this employee of the Army Corps of Engineers will benefit from pro-worker nominees on the Federal Labor Relations Authority.
September 24, 2021 - The Covid-19 pandemic has forced the relocation, postponement or cancellation of some meetings. Please contact your steward, the union office, or log on to www.ibew1837.org before driving.
IBEW 1837 has moved some meetings online via Zoom for Units that have lost their meeting locations or have chosen not to meet in person. Union staff is available to meet on an as-needed basis where meetings are cancelled.
Each year, the Union Plus Scholarship program offers college scholarship money to union members and their dependents. Applications for the 2008 program are now available and the deadline to apply is January 31.
July 19, 2021 - The Maine House of Representatives failed to override the veto by Governor Janet Mills of a consumer-owned utility bill 68- 65, far short of the necessary 2/3 margin. That means that voters will not see a referendum question creating Pine Tree Power on the ballot this fall. If approved by voters, Pine Tree Power would have replaced Central Maine Power and Versant Power with a consumer-owned utility. The bill’s proponents pledged to collect enough signatures to place the question before voters in November 2022.
The legislature convened on July 19 to consider vetoes including LD 1708.
June 4, 2021 - In a tremendous victory for working people and their unions in the Granite State, the New Hampshire House of Representatives soundly defeated “Right to Work” legislation on Thursday, June 3, by a vote of 199-175. That was followed by a 197-178 vote to indefinitely postpone the bill, effectively killing it until at least 2023.
Hundreds of Union members turned out to line the streets outside the NH Sportsplex in Bedford the morning of the final House vote.