Brothers and Sisters of Local 682,

We’re closing in on the end of 2021 and it’s been a challenging year. There’s still mystery swirling around what will happen with Covid protocols, but the case rate has been declining, which is a good step in the right direction. Regarding vaccination - we continue at every opportunity to express our desire to retain the right to choose. The overwhelming majority of you who have expressed your concerns have stated that you feel this way. A call went out this past week for volunteers to get on a Covid Teams call with The Company. U-8 blessed it off, and we have some Officers and Stewards planning to be on the call to offer up our thoughts from the ground floor.

The Executive Board is pleased to announce that as of right now, we plan on opening up regular local and sub-local meetings for January, 2022. It’s been a long hiatus, and we’re ready to open the doors up and get back to business as usual. It will be great to be able to get out and reconnect with you. The schedule will look exactly as it did before we broke for Covid. If anything changes, we’ll update you.

There has been no shortage of grievances of late, on topics ranging from discipline, termination, 90-day letters, call-out percentages, repayment of wages that were overpaid, Supervision doing B.U. work, contractors doing B.U. work, troublemen bypassed for storm, unilateral changes to terms and conditions, et cetera. We’re still out there working on these issues. If you see the contract being subverted, please reach out to your Steward and get the grievance filed.

We have a vacancy on the 682.1 E-Committee. If you have interest in the position, please contact me or Bob. Also, I’m pleased to announce that Tim Graham (682.2 Chairman) has appointed Tony Beaty as his Vice Chairman at the .2 level. Tim could use a few more guys up North to help fill the Recording Secretary position and his E-Committee. If you have interest, reach out to Tim, me, or Bob.

You’ll see a 3% jump in your monthly dues in December – it’s automatically tied to the GWI that was negotiated for the upcoming year.

Contract Negotiations will be taking place next fall. If you haven’t already, it’s time to start working on Contract Proposals. Get them filled out and submitted back to your Chief Steward or nearest Officer as soon as you can. If you don’t know who to contact, call us. Deadline will be around June/July so we can start the vetting process and present a complete package to the System Committee.

Please continue recruiting new membership so we can breathe new life into our Bargaining Unit and keep the Local thriving. It all starts at the ground floor in the day to day.

As we head into the holiday season enjoy the extra time with your families and continue working safely out there! Thank you for all that you do every day to keep this Brotherhood alive.

In Solidarity,

~ Chris Windnagel; President, IBEW 682