Your Plumbing System – Post Covid 19

After attending my fifth online conference/meeting/webinar the other day, the last one I logged on to was a Webinar provided by #IAPMO dealing with what effect would the workplace shutdowns have on vacant or close to vacant facilities. I think that this is very timely with everyone hoping that we can get back to work in near future.

I am sure that you can go to the IAPMO website to watch this informative webinar again. Representing Plumbers and Pipefitters throughout New England these workers and their contractors are aware of the dangers that lurk in stagnant water systems. Boston is a hotspot and almost most of the commercial operations have been empty for what may be now just around six weeks.

Stagnant water systems may promote the growth of Legionella in systems that sit. Water temperatures in systems have risen due to just the ambient temperature of the building. These temperatures may now be approaching the danger zone for the growth of theses dangerous organisms.

One of the presenters Dr. Janet Stout, an infectious disease specialist dealing with legionella, provides a very user friendly understanding of the way it grows and the potential for it in the building plumbing system. I think you are starting to get the understanding that wholesale flushing of the systems may be in order to safely reopen a building.

Tom Bigley, Director of the World Plumbing Council as well as the Director of Plumbing for the United Association, provides a really good roadmap for what really people should be thinking about in respect to this. A great point Tom made was that the general public needs to understand that Plumbing and Mechanical systems are designed for flow and use, not sitting Therefore the systems need to be moving.

Throughout New England the more densely populated areas have seen the most cases but much of the area has been part of a stay at home policy. So all property owners need to do an assessment of their plumbing and mechanical systems going forward. Larger properties may in fact have a water management plan, smaller places may not but commonsense should rule the day. IAPMO has a great tip sheet on their website that can show the way to address the concerns of reopening a system.

Across New England United Association members and their contractors are ready to assist property owners as they begin to navigate the new normal that is living with COVID-19. If you need a contractor to assist you, please visit http://nepipetrades.org/index.aspx.

May 18, 2020 0

Plumbers Local 12 Recognizes National Apprenticeship Week

This week, November 14th through 20th 2016 is National Apprenticeship Week. At Plumbers Local 12 in Boston every week is apprenticeship week. There is no better trained plumbers in eastern Massachusetts than the ones at Local 12.

Layout class led by Instructor Darren MacDonald

Just this week in our day school program we have first year, second year, and third year apprentices doing everything from academic classes to shop classes. Classes from Use and Care of tools, Plumbing Code as well training in the latest layout and co ordination technologies have been going on every day.

Local 12 Instructor Gregg Peterson, teaching Use and Care of Tools

Plumbers Local 12 has almost 200 apprentices in our apprenticeship program working in shops that range in size from 2 employees to some that have in excess of 300 plumbers and apprentices. It is imperative that we supply the most highly skilled and well rounded mechanics in the industry to support our contractors.

Apprenticeship is a proven method of skills training that goes back hundreds of years. The plumbing trade is no different. Our apprentices do 1200 hours of training in our program almost double what the Massachusetts laws require for training. “All of this training pays off for us because when an apprentice does an apprenticeship here they are embarking on a journey that will require them to be the best” says Rick Carter Local 12 Training Director.

First year apprentices brazing in the shop, led by Instructor Joe Kyne

“Plumbing is a career” says Harry Brett, Business Manager of the Boston Plumbers Union, “we do not provide jobs we provide careers and a rock solid foundation is the success to that career”. So as the nation recognizes Apprenticeship Week we at Local 12 live it every week and are committed to continue the fine tradition of Apprenticeship.

November 17, 2016 0

In With The New

2016-apprentice-class-rtfd

“Welcome Back” was the theme at the Local 12 apprentice orientation night last week at the Plumbers Union Hall. It was great to not only welcome the new apprentices but also welcome back all of the others as well. They came in after the having the summer off looking to pick up right where they left off. The program has almost 190 apprentices today.

Welcome back to all of the Local 12 apprentices

These apprentices will follow many career tracks in the industry including, but not exclusively, commercial, service, and wood frame residential. Our training facility is equipped to train for anything the industry throws at us. Technology is coming at us like never before and although it looks like at times that things will become easier, there are advances in plumbing that continue to demand more education. We are prepared.

There is no organization in Massachusetts that trains for the challenging trade of plumbing like Local 12. Almost 500 people applied to the program this year and did so mostly because we provide a career path and not just a job. Local 12 provides benefits and retirement plans that although some of those in the picture above don’t really grasp yet, when they pass the thirty year mark it will become clear that as they grow in age as well as career, Local 12 will be there for them.

Welcome and Good Luck to our new Brothers and Sisters!

September 21, 2016 0

Out With The Old

On May 13th Plumbers Local 12 in Boston graduated their first apprentice class in two years. These new journeyman plumbers have raised the bar for what an apprentice class should be.

After five years of attending a program that started out at night and finished as a day program they sang the praises of their training. They also represented the changes that Local 12 has been championing. There were commercial, residential, and service apprentices graduating together.

Also in this class were three apprentices that competed in national apprentice competitions. One in Connecticut, one in Ann Arbor, Michigan,and one in Hollywood, Florida. These apprentices were so inclined to participate because of their confidence in the training they received at Local 12s training facility by our instructors.

One of the most important jobs that the plumbers union has is to provide the best trained apprentices and plumbers the industry has to offer. There is nothing else like this in regard to training in Massachusetts. Now with a special attention to all wood frame construction with 12R we are training to all aspects of the residential industry. Not that we weren’t before before but we are in it to win it.

We also have our focus on service as well. All apprentices take part in service training but the ones actually doing it train with the journeyman as well. That along with quarterly in service training with the vendors of the industry puts us head and shoulders above everyone else.

The day school also brought some unsolicited comments from the class. Class President Danny Palimeri spoke about how their personal relationships changed after they went to day school. “When we started at night we were acquaintances but once we started day school we all became very close.” For me that compliment was confirmation that day school is the way to go. “We were supportive of each other to make sure that everyone was getting whatever the teachers threw at us” said Danny.

Class President Danny Palimeri addresses over 200 people that attended the graduation at Venezia Restaurant in Dorchester, MA.

Some that read this may not appreciate that trade training is that important, but when you put in five years and over eleven hundred hours of training this group of new journeymen will forever consider themselves Local 12 Class of 2016! Congratulations!

June 20, 2016 0

You Won’t Read About This!

Dateline 5/13/2016

Location IBEW 103 Union Hall Boston

As I write this post I think about all of the kids across not only the Boston area, but across the country, attending awards nights getting scholarships that will help them with the costs of college. Creating many happy parents as well.

As parents we sit in these awards nights and wonder “where does all this money com from?” Imagine if you went to an award night where they gave out almost $590,000 in one setting. Well one happened today. Given the amazing amount of money given out you would think that maybe the press would be curious.

You see today was the 58th Annual Massachusetts AFL-CIO Scholarship Breakfast and indeed all of that money was given out to hundreds of children of union members. Through the hard work of the fundraising of its members their college “Dream” is a little bit more achievable.

I am happy to say that just my union, Plumbers Local 12, was able to give out over 30,000 dollars to our deserving college bound children. These amazing hard working students are headed to community colleges right up to ivy league institutions.

This is just another way that unions give back. As being part of the solution to give access to college we are helping to keep the middle class dream alive. I think we can all agree that the college dream is becoming harder to achieve because of the crushing debt that these young men and woman are being saddled with.

For many of the proud tradesman and tradeswoman in attendance today college was never part of their plan but being able to send their children to college, the dream of having their next generation do a bit better is very rewarding. Totally Amazing Morning.

Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Steve Tolman with the scholarship awardees in attendence today, Good Luck!

May 16, 2016 0

They just do commercial……

If you look on a clear day from a high spot on the Massachusetts – New Hampshire border or from the west on a hill in Worcester County or from a high spot near Foxboro you can see the great Boston skyline.

From many a plumbers perspective that are not members, thats where most of the members of Plumbers Local 12 work. Building or servicing large commercial projects. We know thats not true. But there is something really great happening in the Local. A place for residential plumbers.

What I mean by residential plumbers is the men and woman that are out in the suburbs everyday building those local skylines, thinking that Local 12 has nothing for them. As the building boom continues through out the Greater Boston area plumbers and apprentices need to know there is a place here for you.

Yes, if you are contractor you can access the same types of benefits that you may have thought were unattainable for your loyal workers. For the plumbers and apprentices there is the access to the benefits and free training that the Local has always provided. The one thing that we all have in common is that plumbing is our Career. Lets make the most of it together.

We have created a new division that makes this affordable. For Real. Its all about cost and we know that what we have done is in line with whats going on in all parts of eastern Massachusetts.

I can’t tell you how excited I am about this opportunity and I want to encourage any sole proprietor, small shop, developer or any one interested to call the office and get the correct information.

Our business development representatives will be all over eastern Massachusetts visiting job sites this spring and summer spreading the word so we look forward to talking with you.

Remember, plumbing is our career, making the best of it includes being able to provide health insurance for our families and retirement benefits for ourselves. We look forward to talking to you.

April 3, 2016 0

The Glass Half Full, thoughts on Boston 2024

The Olympics coming to Boston? Well I hope so. Now before people get mad I want them because I love everything about Boston and want the City to be on a pedestal. Even if that means nine years of planning for two weeks of games.

Yes, we had a terrible winter that exposed some of the shortcomings of the antiquated MBTA, but seven feet of snow in a month, come on for its age it did pretty good. But like the misery brought on by the weather it also brought out a lot of negativity that got directed right at the Olympic bid.

First off I am not an employee of Boston 2024, but I am a Union Leader. I am also one that has not yet attended any of the public hearings. I do want good jobs for my members as well as everyone else that I think the games will bring. I really want it for other reasons.

One, it is a great city, by the way I don’t live in the city but have spent most of life in it. This city has been on an upward swing for some years and I don’t think we have even got real momentum yet. As a matter of fact I feel that Boston was a city that changed little over the previous one hundred plus years. It has been roughly over the past twenty or so that things have taken off.

Infrastructure upgrades over this time has been huge, some unknown or unnoticed but yet instrumental in the growth of not only Boston, but the whole Metro area. The Big Dig, Water Supply Upgrades, Waste Water Treatment Facilities, Logan Airport Expansion among others has helped to bring development to areas that could not be built before. The Convention Center has put Fan Pier on the map.

As someone in construction of course I think all of this is great and I can tell you that there were people that we very vocal about probably all of these projects. But after they were done the common good has outweighed the negatives. Yes I certainly have been a proponent of some jobs that certainly did not work out for the best interest of me and were killed or changed for the right reasons.

The No Olympics group out there bring an important element to the conversation. It is groups like this that will force change along the way and I encourage them to push forward. In the end though, I want the games here.

I heard Mayor Walsh speak about the fact that there has been no Master plan for the City since 1963. That is too bad because development and progress in general may or may not have had a sense of direction. I commend him for starting the process again. As a plan takes shape there will no doubt be a great focus on the needed infrastructure upgrades. As the conversation goes it will be these subjects that will get more interest than things such as open space, etc. Maybe rightfully so.

With that being said since we live in Boston some of those upgrades are coming with or with out the games. This is where I think the games are a positive for the city. If through a plan the citizens agree that certain trains and roads need to be fixed over the next twenty five years then lets use the games to push the changes here sooner than later. Have the games become the catalyst for the things we need.

I have heard that traffic will be a nightmare, it already is a nightmare. The T is running at capacity, time for a changed system. We have been living in a state of change in Boston for many years and the major changes we have invested in are only going to benefit those younger than us. The games put a time frame on changes that need to be done and in maybe a romantic way, an end or at least a break from this state of change.

I would love for the world to tune in for that month in 2024 and think wow what a beautiful city. I would love for people from around the world to come to Boston and walk this city as a venue like none other. I would love all Bostonians to welcome and enjoy the changes that the Games brought to the city not just as a sporting event but also as a deadline for the needs of the future.

I love the idea of Boston 2024, I respect the people of NO Boston 2024 for bringing out the hard and uncomfortable questions but as someone who sees this as a glass half full I say, Let the Games Begin.

People enjoying the public art of Boston recently

May 26, 2015 0

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