| 2-24-10 HazMat refresher & MSHA refresher Please be advised because of a typo on the refresher course mailings, we have made arangements to have the HazMat instructor and the MSHA instructors bbth available Feb. 27 and March 6. Because some individuals need refresher courses in both categories, we have made both of these refresher courses available two Saturdays in a row. Class will begin at 8:00 AM. HazMat recerts. should bring their old cards to submitted for updating. Sorry for any confusion or schedule problems. The third year apprentices attending the 40 hour HazMat course will meet their instructor at 7:00 AM. Lunch and break items will be provided for all attendees. 2-8-10 Just a reminder, we will be having pizza before the meeting tonight. Come early, food will arrive about 6:00. 2-7-10 The general membership meeting is Monday, February 8, 2010 starting at 7:00 pm. There will be a MSHA recertification class on Saturday, February 27 starting at 8:00 AM. There will be a HazMat refresher Saturday, March 6 starting at 8:00 AM The 40 hour HazMat course for the apprentices will start Saturday, February 27, at 7:00 AM. 1-25-10 On February 28, Local 444 will be sending two instructors to attend the Francis Tuttle training program for wind turbine training in Oklahoma City. This will enable these two individuals to offer training and certification for mechanical, electronic,and hydraulic bolt torque. In addition to this specialty torque training, we will now offer a course in high angle rescue for our workers seeking employment in the wind turbine industry. The training offered will greatly enhance the work opportunity for our members in the erection and maintenance of this new and fast growing wind farm work sweeping across the area. We hope to offer the pilot course sometime in late April or May for those of our members that have an interest in attending. There may be a limit of 10 individuals per course. We will post an information and sign up list soon. It is our pleasure to announce that it has been confirmed that we will be hosting the 2010 Chicago District Council Apprentice competition at our Local 444 training facility in August. Two apprentices from each local union will be given the opportunity to compete for their home local. At the end of the day, the 4 top scoring apprentices will move on to compete at the national level in September. That competition will be held in Seattle, Washington in conjunction with the International's conference on apprenticeship and journeyman training. There will be more info to come. The drywall and taping should be complete this week. The additional rooms inside the existing building are moving along very well. We have added a silencer to the weld shop filtering system that has lowered the noise level considerably. This new system has all the features that we were looking for to control the air quality in the shop. Increased air flow, advanced filtering down to 5 microns, and the noise level is controlled by the motor speed control and the silencer installed in the return duct. We should be able to maintain a clean and safe shop for all of our members with the continued help of all that use the facility. 1-15-10 We had a recent change in contractors working on the union hall addition. Pasch contsruction will be finishing the interior carpentry work. Hopefully it will be completed in the next 6 weeks. Thursday, January 14, we hosted a rally for Pete Piazza for sheriff. Secretary of State , Jesse White was present, along with many other elected officials, to endorse Pete to be the Democratic candidate for sheriff in this primary 1-4-10 Hope you had a great holiday. Our next union meeting will be on January 11, 2010 starting at 7:00PM There has been a slow down with the inside construction of the new classrooms, storage, office, and washrooms. We hope that we can get back on track and complete this addition in the next couple of months. The new fume extraction system for the weld shop is installed and working. These new filters will provide a much cleaner environment for the welders working in the shop with far less maintenance than the old units. There are weld booths available for practice during the day. So if you find that work continues to be slow into January it might be an opportune time to brush up on your welding skills. For those interested in testing, again, we have CWI's on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings. It looks like we will probably be having the HazMat refresher towards the end of February this year. We will post the date and mail the participants as soon as we have confirmation on the date. Also, the MSHA refresher will be late February to early March and as soon as we have a firm date we will post it and contact the members requiring an update. 11-2-09 This morning, Nov. 2, 2009 the last of the Manteno Veteran's Home project material left the union hall. The recreational lake project is nearing completion after 2 years of work from all of the many volunteers. This November 11, 2009 there will be a dedication at the Manteno Veterans Home. This dedication is tentatively scheduled to take place at approximately 2:00 PM on Nov. 11 immediately following a 1:00 PM service in the chapel. On behalf of Ironworkers Local 444, we would like to thank all of the members, the retirees, and the apprentices that took the time to volunteer their labor for this worthy cause. Because of the construction at the union hall, access to the welding shop during the day will be limited. For those who are interested in practicing their welding skills, there are some booths available in the evenings Monday through Thursday from 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM. Also, if you are interested in taking your weld test, there will be a CWI available Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings and you can call for more information. 9-13-09 The election of officers for Local 444 was held Saturday Sept. 12, 2009 at the hall. The polls closed at 6:00 PM. The results of the ballot count as posted are as follows: President Ken Kobus 270 Vice-President Jon Stefancic 103 Steve Zier 179 Business Manager, Financial Secretary Treasurer Howard Norberg 277 Recording Secretary Rich Plese 268 Examining Committee John Sinchak 256 Dick Packley 244 Ron McMillin 256 Sargent at Arms Tony Sinchak 273 Conductor Howard Norberg 277 Executive Committee Paul Falasca 253 Tim Norberg 256 Bob Hray 249 Ron Zier 264 Dennis Bailey 247 Trustee Greg Verklan 157 Jason Bernicky 76 Jim Jadron 106 Jeff Crompton 113 Kevin Cummings 147 Mike Sinchak 176 Congratulations to all. For all the nominee's and officers past, present, and future, thanks for your interest and service to this local union. Election Judges were as follows: Bud Shiner Sam Persico Mike Arambasich Bob Ventura We would like to thank Sara and the judges for making this a smooth and successful election process. 8-28-09 On Saturday August 29, at 8:00 AM, we will have a work party at the Manteno Veterans Home to install the new handrail at their new recreational lake facility. Anyone wishing to help is welcome. We will be coring holes for handrail posts and bolting the new rail on the fishing pier. The building addition is moving along. The parking lot is in and usable. Work has started on the shop interior. 8-19-09 Again Any Local 444 member wishing to attend this Saturday's (August 22) OSHA-10 class can contact the hall for information or arrive at the hall prior to 7:00 AM for an available spot in the class. 8-12-09 A reminder to all apprentices:
8-11-09 Nominations for the offices of Local 444 were held at the August 10, 2009 meeting. The following candidates are listed in order as they will appear on the ballot September 12, 2009. President Ken Kobus Vice-President Jon Stefancic Steve Zier Business Manager, Financial Secretary Treasurer Howard Norberg Recording Secretary Rich Plese Examining Committee John Sinchak Dick Packley Ron McMillin Sargent at Arms Tony Sinchak Conductor Howard Norberg Executive Committee Phil Young Paul Falasca Tim Norberg Bob Hray Ron Zier Dennis Bailey Trustee Greg Verklan Jason Bernicky Jim Jadron Jeff Crompton Kevin Cummings Mike Sinchak Election Judges are as follows: Bud Shiner Bob Jadron Sam Persico Mike Arambasich Bob Ventura Elections will be held at the Local 444 Union Hall, 2082 Oak Leaf St., Joliet, Illinois from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM on September 12, 2009. A reminder to all members of Local 444. There will be two days of IMPACT drug testing coming up this month. The first day will be at the Illinois Valley Contractors building in Ottawa from 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM on August 21, 2009. The second day of testing will be at the Ironworkers Union Hall in Joliet on August 22, 2009 from 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM. All members are encouraged to attend. For those who tested last year, this testing will be needed to complete your annual and keep you current in the database. All apprentices are required to remain current within the IMPACT drug program throughout their apprenticeship. On August 22, 2009, there will be an OSHA 10 class held at the training hall in Joliet, 2082 Oak Leaf St. This class will start promptly at 7:00 AM. There are still openings so if you are interested you may call 815-725-0725 or show up at the hall Saturday. 5-27-09 We are continuing to look at an open welding night at the hall throughout the summer. This will be an opportunity to spend some time with one of our welding instructors or CWI's. The CWI will be offering time for individuals that want to take their weld test. There are a number of weld certification tests offered through the Ironworkers Welding Certification Program. One option may be Monday evenings from 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM. You can come right after work and it works with meeting nights. As soon as we confirm a day and time there will be an announcement. The new addition to the building is being erected and the steel framework should be complete this week. It will probably be a couple of weeks before the start of the new parking lot next door and the work inside the shop should start soon after that. May 21st was the last evening of class for the apprentice class. Regular scheduled classes will resume September 8,2009. There will be a formal mailing for all apprentices to meet for orientation on that first evening of class. We still need some volunteers to work on the handrail project for the Manteno Veteran's Home. If you happen to be free during the day, grab a buddy and come down to the weld shop. We can make arrangements for evenings and weekends. Apprentices required to do make up classes will report June 6 at 7:00 AM at the hall. 4-12-09 Meeting Monday April 13, 09 The excavation has started on the addition to the new building. They will start the concrete work the week of April 13. Work continues to be slow. 3-8-09 Meeting Monday night 3-9-09 7:00 pm There have been a number of members working on weld certification over the last month. We have added about 12 new welder certifications in the last few weeks. The last two weekends have been busy with the 8 hr. Haz-Mat recertification class 2-28-09. A 40 hour Hazardous Waste Workers course ended on 3-8-09 and MSHA training courses began Saturday morning March 7, 09. Friday, March 6, we met at the Manteno Veteran's Home for a job schedule update. The committee is pushing for a completion date this summer for the new lake facility. The handrail fabrication is more than half complete and AZZ galvanizing in Joliet has offered to do the galvanizing at material cost. The permits for the building addition may be in hand this week after the variance has been reviewed by the City of Joliet planning commission and sent to the City Council for approval. 2-16-09 Work continues to be slow as reported at the Feb. 9 meeting. There have been a number of our members working on getting their welding certifications. The shop remains open everyday for those who want to work on their welding skills. If any members are interested in attending a pre-access training class for the Exelon facilities, they can leave their name at the hall. The class dates offered are March 2 and March 4. The attendance specifics are posted on the board at the hall. The retiree's club will meet Wednesday February 18 at the hall for a late winter get together. 1-09-09 Next general membership meeting is Monday, January 12, 2009 at 7:00 PM. The building and parking lot addition is still waiting on building permits to be issued for construction to begin. We have taken delivery of the structural building package that will be the 40' by 100' addition to the existing training center. When completed this additional space will serve as a multi purpose training and storage area with secure outside storage to the rear. This area will also be serviced with an overhead crane that will enhance the training capabilities for structural, reinforcing, ornamental, layout work, and fabrication courses. When the weather breaks the additional parking lot proposed will include an additional 40 parking spaces to relieve the parking problems that we have seen on meeting, training, and regular business days. When the modifications to the existing building are complete, we will see three new second level rooms for training, conferencing, and storage. In addition to that we will install an elevator lift, office file and storage area, and additional restroom facilities. The retiree's club had a great turnout in November for their holiday luncheon. We are attempting to complete a mailing list of future events for the retirees that will be hopefully sent out soon. Until then, all correspondence will be through the office at the union hall or published in the "Labor Record". The welding shop is currently at full capacity on the regular week nights. Again, we invite any of our members wishing to work on improving their welding skills that the shop is normally available throughout the weekdays if needed for practice and weld testing. We have made some progress on the Manteno Veterans Home handrail project with our volunteers. |
