For the Good and Welfare - July 2008
Pension changes effective this month
By Russ Burns, Business Manager
By now, most of you know the new Pension changes went into effect the first of the month to begin the process of restoring our Pension Fund. The Board of Trustees, the officers and myself are confident these changes will provide the safe and secure Pension we are all counting on for our future retirement. Moving forward, we will continue our close monitoring of the changes and keep the membership updated at district meetings, through the mail, Engineers News and online at www.oe3.org.
I want to express my appreciation to the members who attended the Pension Presentations during our first-quarter round of district meetings. These members were given the opportunity to question the officers about the upcoming changes, and we had numerous positive and informative discussions as a result. The truth of the matter is, it is never easy delivering unpleasant news, but this administration vowed to be honest with the membership when we were elected, and that is exactly what we have done and will continue to do. Although no one is happy about the changes that had to be made, I know the membership appreciated being informed with the facts.
Thank you to all the members who have been so supportive during this difficult time. At the time of this writing, the market is slightly up, and we are seeing improvements in our investments since changing our consultant to Investment Performance Services (IPS), LLC. During the course of 2008, our Trustees took steps to achieve a greater level of investment diversification of the Pension Trust assets. With the assistance of IPS, the board elected to make allocations to value-added real estate, hedge funds and dedicated, high-yield bond managers. These new mandates are expected to be funded beginning June and into July, at which time we will be able to report our numbers; stay tuned.
Protecting our work
During the last couple of months, our business agents have been out on jobsites investigating reports directly from members in the field of other crafts running our equipment. As a result, we have been able to remove these crafts from our equipment and place operators back in those seats. This has been a successful group effort by all accounts, and I want to thank the members who have taken an active role in this issue. We will need to continue to protect what is rightfully ours, and remember it is up to all of us to police our work.
In addition to field policing, Local 3 recently met with several employers and employer associations regarding the importance of proper work assignments. We informed this group that Operating Engineers will file grievances under the manning violation section of the contract if employers continue to assign our work to other crafts. We also met separately with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 1245 and reached an agreement with them regarding our covered work; this is a huge success we hope to build on with other locals. Operating Engineers continues to meet with employers and employer associations regarding industry issues that are affecting or will affect our members, such as the San Francisco Sick Leave policy modification, the Department of Industrial Relations Wage Order 16, changes to our Job Placement Regulations, Meal and Break periods and the 13th check issue for retirees.
Valley Power Strike continues with strong support
The overwhelming support from Local 3 members, staff and the labor community continues as we mark the one-year milestone of the Valley Power Strike in San Leandro this month. Since the strike began July 10, 2007, our supporters have helped these members walk the picket line, written letters to the company and contributed nearly $125,000 to the Strike Fund, which is being used to provide health-care coverage for our strikers and their families. I want to thank everyone who has been involved in this campaign, especially Operating Engineers Local 12, Local 302 and Local 612 – the West Coast Wall of Operating Engineers.
Hats off to our strikers and their families for keeping the picket signs up for so long. Local 3 supports you 100 percent, and we are committed until the end. Last but not least, I want to congratulate this year’s OE3 Scholarship recipients, featured in this issue of Engineers News on page 17. We had a competitive pool of applicants again this year, and our winners deserve to be commended for their outstanding academic achievements. We wish each of them the best in the upcoming school year. Work safe, and have a great summer.
