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National Electrical Contractors Association President Rod Borden, Jr.

October/November 2001 IBEW Journal

Good morning. President Hill, thank you very much for that kind welcome, and I want to assure you that our partnership will continue to grow. On behalf of the 17,000 IBEW signatory electrical construction firms that NECA represents, I'd like to congratulate you on your 110 years of serving the electrical construction industry, the electricians, the many other workers which you now represent, and the countless unorganized workers who have also benefited, whether they appreciate it or not, from your efforts.

I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate your new officers: International President Hill, International Secretary-Treasurer O'Connor, your International Vice Presidents, and your IEC members. Their outstanding leadership bodes well for your union and our industry.

It is a privilege and an honor for me to be addressing this convention. Last month, NECA held a special meeting in Buffalo, New York, commemorating the formation of our association 100 years ago. A unique aspect of that meeting was that we met in the very same building on the grounds of the 1901 Pan-American Exposition where the first meeting of forward-thinking electrical contractors took place.

Next month, we will celebrate our centennial in grand fashion in our annual convention and exposition in Washington, D.C. Thousands of today's forward-thinking electrical contractors will gather there to educate themselves on the latest tools, technologies, and techniques to keep organized electrical contractors the leaders in the construction industry.

One hundred years of NECA, 110 years of the IBEW, our two organizations share a long storied history, and I am sure we will share a bright future. Although this is my last year as NECA's president, I know that my successor, who will be elected as president at our convention next month, will enjoy the same effective cooperation from your leadership as I have over the past four years.

I consider myself quite fortunate to have been able to work with your International President Emeritus Jack Barry over most of my term. And my good fortune continued when Secretary-Treasurer Ed Hill was appointed to fill out Jack's unexpired term. Both men have served you well and are a credit not only to the IBEW, but to the union movement as a whole.

We have entered this new century in far different and much better shape than we entered the last. Instead of two fledgling organizations struggling to gain a foothold in a new and quickly evolving industry, we are -- and this is no idle boast -- the recognized leaders in our industry. But, unfortunately, we don't have any time to relax and enjoy our position.

As was the case when the 19th century turned into the 20th, our new century offers changing technologies and challenges and opportunities. The 1901 exposition was renown for its use of electric lights, the largest such display to that time. It heralded the change our nation would see in making that amazing new form of energy an everyday commodity.

The 21st century is beginning with widespread acceptance of the Internet, fiber optics, photovoltaics, and even newer technologies as novel to us as electric lights were to the gas lamp and candle generations of the 19th century.

Our predecessors not only accommodated the changes they faced, but led the way in turning novelties into the very basics of our current lifestyle. It is our job to help make the installation of current and emerging technologies as simple and cost effective as possible so that we remain the installers of choice.

It is my sincere hope that at the turn of the next century other workers and contractors will be able to gather in St. Louis and in Buffalo to celebrate the bicentennials of our two organizations.

The relationship of NECA and the IBEW stretches back over the past century; and I represent a firm, as Ed mentioned, that has been a part of history for more than half of that time. My company, Tri-City Electric, has been a union shop for 55 years, ever since my father founded it in 1946. I'm proud of our history as a union shop, and NECA is proud of its history of partnership with the IBEW. Together we've accomplished a lot, together we will accomplish much more.

Over the years we've jointly adopted a number of programs, which continue to this day to be benchmarks other organizations strive to meet. I can recite a shopping list of joint programs and projects, but I will only mention a few: The National Electric Benefit Fund forming a foundation for a dignified retirement after a career well spent in our industry; the National Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee offering both the training of a lifetime to new entrants into the industry and training for a lifetime to journey level workers; and perhaps our proudest achievement together is the Council on Industrial Relations.

The CIR is the oldest disputes resolution body in the construction industry; and although others have attempted to copy it, none works better than ours. As well as it works and as much a part of our industry as it is today, it is instructive, even inspiring, to reflect on how it came to be.

In 1919, the construction industry was racked with unrest and distrust between labor and management. Strikes were the order of the day. Construction buyers and the general public were tiring of the problems associated with unions.

Two men, L.K. Comstock of NECA and Charles Ford of the IBEW, looked at the turmoil in the construction industry and they saw a solution in the chaos. They envisioned a forum where labor disputes could be quickly settled and fairly without work stoppages. That solution became the Council on Industrial Relations for the electrical contracting industry.

Today we call those two men visionaries. In their day they were probably called other things. But they persevered and left us with a legacy and an institution that has served us well.

Since its first decision, issued March the 15th, 1921, the council has rendered more than 7,200 decisions that may have averted strikes or other job actions. After a work stoppage there may appear to be a short-term benefit, but it is more apparent than real. In the long-run work stoppages and lockouts don't help us. They don't create jobs or weekly paychecks to feed our families or profits to keep the employers going or the good feelings with our customers to ensure future work. They only create potential job openings for the non-union to fill.

NECA strongly supports the CIR; and we believe that the current level of 85 to 90 percent of agreements that contain full CIR language is too low. All NECA and IBEW agreements should contain this no-strike language.

CIR is not perfect. Its decisions leave both sides disappointed. But any settlement is better than a strike because we can keep working, we can keep working together to craft a long-term solution that both sides can embrace. Long-term solutions are one of the goals of another of our successful joint programs, the National Labor/Management Cooperation Committee.

Although most NECA chapters and their local unions enjoy a positive relationship, some areas face seemingly unsolvable problems. Through the NLMCC, we can send in specially trained facilitators to help the local parties examine and analyze their relationship and develop strategies to achieve our joint goals.

About 15 years ago, NECA's membership adopted a long-range plan that included the goal of encouraging and promoting a progressive labor/management effort of mutual trust and cooperation on all levels of the industry and to use this effort to enable signatory contractors to move forward and regain lost market share. This strategic plan reflected both our past accomplishments together and our belief that our future prosperity was tied to that of the IBEW.

We do not regret our decision. In fact, that part of the strategic plan has been reviewed and reaffirmed by the association's membership. At our last year's convention, our contractors voted to continue to make the monetary contribution that enables the NLMCC to educate the construction purchaser about the value of using IBEW/NECA contractors to perform his electrical and technical construction work.

Our commitment to the organized electrical construction industry is as strong today as ever, perhaps stronger. The last couple of years have seen all of us benefit from this relationship as more IBEW members have been at work in the electrical construction industry than anyone can remember.

But we cannot allow ourselves to be fooled. The high volume of work will not last forever; in fact, signs of a slowing economy are all around us. The key is to cement our gains, to maintain those practices that make us competitive and attractive to both the owners and skilled craft workers, and to eliminate restrictions and practices that make the non-union appear more attractive to our customers.

We must take advantage of our strengths, one of the greatest of which is our apprenticeship training programs. No trade in construction anywhere in the world has a program that is more complete or effective than ours.

But a study conducted for our NLMCC by the Construction Labor Research Council shows that we are not bringing in enough apprentices to maintain, let alone increase, our organized workforce. Despite the fact that the number of apprentices we have indentured has grown by over 50 percent in the last ten years.

Without a larger, qualified workforce, we cannot hold on to the gains that we have made. We must remove the barriers that prevent us from making full use of this program, whether those barriers stem from labor or from the management side of the table. We believe that through cooperation and open communications, we can find ways to be competitive with any contractor whether he employs non-union workers or is signatory to unions other than the IBEW. This is especially true in the exploding field of voice/data/video installations.

Much of the growth that our industry has enjoyed has come from the VDV segment. Whether we call it teledata, telecom, sound, VDV or other names, it is a field where we should be able to command a significant share of the market; but it is also a field which will demand a significantly different approach.

We have already recognized a need to train differently for this segment and have registered a telecommunications installer/technician apprenticeship program. Just as the technology demands specialized training, the VDV marketplace demands special conditions in order for our industry to compete successfully.

We must be willing and able to discuss what our customers need and then address these needs. Whether new technologies or old, new markets or traditional, we must continue to deliver the highest quality construction at the most cost-effective price.

Businesses in this country have more options than whether to build union or non-union. They can choose to build that new plant or not, they can place it in this country or overseas. To a degree, the cost of construction is like the cost of a raw material and has led many construction buyers to view workers as a commodity as well.

I can assure you this has never been our view and we will continue to work with you in changing this mindset in the consumer. Recently, the owner community has become aware of the fact that you cannot attract and retain skilled craft workers without offering them a career with wages and benefits befitting the skill levels of these workers. But even so, they have tempered their statements by demanding that increases in wage cost must be offset with productivity improvements.

We are positioned to meet this demand if we listen to the customer and if we think of our collective bargaining agreements as tools to meet the market's needs and if we, craftsmen and contractors alike, fully utilize the training opportunities offered by our JATCs and NECA to learn to work more efficiently.

Of course, not all of our challenges are market or technology driven. As business owners, NECA contractors do not always see issues the same way that our workers do. While we share the same goal, fair job opportunities, fair wages and fair profits, we will at times see different paths to arrive at that goal.

This sometimes comes to the fore in the political arena. Even so, there are many areas where we can agree. One of these is the Davis-Bacon Act. NECA is firm in its support for this worker protection.

As other issues arise, we will continue to examine them not just with an eye toward how they affect business bottom line, but how they affect those who work for our companies.

This occasional difference in perspective between contractors and employees should not obscure our shared joint vision. The key to our continued success is to recognize that these differences do not stem from ill will or bad faith but from a sincere interest to do the best that we can for our own.

We must never let these differences prevent us from talking, from seeking a resolution that benefits both of us. The term "win-win" has become somewhat overused and has lost some of its immediacy, but it is still a valid and valuable concept.

The NLMCC sponsors several seminars a year to teach members of local unions and chapters to conduct their labor agreement negotiations using "mutual gains" bargaining techniques. Another term for this process is integrative bargaining.

But, as one of the instructors points out, it is not important what you call it, what is important is that you use it.

That is the message I would like to leave with you. We have many tools to secure and improve our position in the marketplace. Let's be sure that we use them all.

Ours is an industry born of abrupt changes. While others can trace the evolution of their trades back hundreds, even thousands of years, as the ancient Romans, after all, had piped water, heated indoor pools, central heat, elevators and steam baths, ours was born a little more than a century ago.

Since then, we have seen an almost uninterrupted stream of changes. Yet, beginning with the founding of the CIR in 1920 there has remained a constant commitment between NECA and the IBEW to work together to create a better industry for the craftsman, the contractor and the customer. As long as we continue to work together, we will continue to prosper.

Thank you for your time, and I hope you have a successful and enjoyable convention. God bless.