Tag: Boston

Plumbing is Great Industry in MA

I just left the annual Massachusetts PHCC trade show in Marlboro MA. This show continues to showcase what a great industry we have here. Plumbers and apprentices from across the state come to interact with the suppliers of basically anything that has to do with the business.

This year we, Plumbers Local 12 was the proud sponsor of the very popular code seminar put on by the Massachusetts State Plumbing Board. At least 700 people filled the conference room to exchange ideas, concerns, and to get clarification on a host of issues. Chairman Paul Kennedy did a great job answering or getting the right person to answer whatever the audience timg_2980hrew at them

The important take away is the fact that a strong license and a strong code is the key to keeping the plumbing industry here a great business not only for the license holders but the consumers as well.

Congratulations to all at the MAPHCC on another great show.

 

 

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.

img_2744
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.

img_2741
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.

img_2742
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.

 

 

 

0

The Plumbing Career

When one thinks of the word career, they usually equate it with a length of time at work. As young people go into the workforce they begin their careers, and if they are lucky its when they are right out of school. That career will have that beginning and an end, which will be over at retirement. At Plumbers Local 12 the career is a life long journey. We celebrate those careers annually at our Service Awards Banquet.

dsc_8413
Proud 30 Year Recipient

Just last week over 80 Plumbers from Local 12 were recognized for their years of membership. The “youngest” of which were celebrating 30 years of service, myself included. But this year had a very special guest, Brother George Cataldo, who celebrated 70 years of membership. Brother Cataldo joined Local 12 in 1946!

George is part of that great generation that after World War 2 helped bring the standards of wages and benefits up so that at the end of a working career a worker could retire with dignity. When I talk to people that inquire about the union I often ask them “Don’t you want to get the most out of your career?”. When they say yes, I refer to men like George who will tell you his career is not over yet. Local 12 is the vehicle for any plumber to get the most out of their career. Health insurance, training, brotherhood and most importantly the ability to retire. George has been collecting a pension since 1988, and he’s not the oldest retiree!

dsc_8547
Brother George Cataldo

We recently started a new tradition that has the most senior award recipient get up and reminisce about THEIR recollections of THEIR time in the business. George did not disappoint. He spoke about 1946 when the union operated out of an office with one creaky chair down on Essex St. downtown to an organization, that he is so proud of, that has grown to having its own building and beautiful training facility. “I can’t believe how far we have come as an organization, I am so happy!”

dsc_8539

Our Service Awards Banquet also serves as our “Class Reunions”. All of us remember the day we started our apprenticeships or the day we came in as new journeyman into Local 12 and its a great night for everyone to catch up. Last week we had over 200 people in attendance.

Over the past few years we have opened our doors and have brought in many new members, apprentices and journeypeople alike, and I know that future memories are being created everyday as time marches forward and there will be plenty of Service Awards Banquets in the years to come. Congratulations All!

 

pin-night-2016
2016 Local 12 Service Award Recipients

 

 

 

0

Out With The Old

DSC_4568

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.

DSC_4698
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!

 

 

 

0

You Won’t Read About This!

Dateline 5/13/2016

Location IBEW 103 Union Hall Boston IMG_2288

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.

 

IMG_2294
Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Steve Tolman with the scholarship awardees in attendence today, Good Luck!
0

They just do commercial……

 

residential bathblue hill view

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.

0

Where is the shortage of new plumbers?

As I write this blog applications to Plumbers Local 12’s apprenticeship program have just concluded. This year we have over four hundred applicants vying for approximately thirty positions. This flies in the face of what I hear is a shortage of people people entering the plumbing business in Massachusetts.

Maybe there is a difference between a job in plumbing and a career in plumbing. Local 12 has always given all applicants an interview and one thing we hear from them is that people are looking for a career. A place where they will be able to get health insurance and accrue retirement benefits during and after their career is done.

Maybe its the training that Local 12 provides apprentices as well as journeymen throughout their careers that provide them them many opportunities to work for the different contractors while maintaining the highest pay and best benefits in the industry.

Local 12 is a proud membership organization that wants its members to succeed all during their careers as plumbers. With at least sixty percent of Americans with almost no savings (according to an article in Boston Agent Magazine by Tom Ricci) these applicants have figured out that union benefits are a good thing and applying to the union training program is the way to go. No wonder over four hundred people have applied.

Plumbers Local 12 is about careers not jobs.

 

 

 

0

Water, what if there was none

Water, as a plumber it comes as no surprise that I think about it quite a bit. As a matter of fact I have been thinking about it a lot lately. The lack of it in certain parts of the country have me really concerned. Turning on my faucet and not having anything come out is almost inconceivable.

That seems to be the case in California these days and why the news does not pay more attention or devote more time to this is beyond me. A few years back there was another troubling drought situation in Georgia which seems to have corrected itself, thankfully. Recently the PIVOT Network just had a lot of programming around World Water Day.

Here in the greater Boston area there seems to be ample supply of water. Seven feet of snow and a very slow melt hopefully will replenish the reservoirs and aquifers for the upcoming summer. But looking at it from a plumbers point of view it is a commodity that is taken for granted.

When looking at California I become concerned that over the next fifty years this may happen here but more importantly it is an issue that will pit people against other people. Water wars seem like something out of the old west but if some have it and some do not, then watch out. We need to, at a time when we can, try to come up with ways to save water.

Plumbers Local 12 is a leader in water reuse technology. Our plumbers and apprentices receive hands on training in water re-use technology in our state of the art training facility. The Greater Boston area has numerous locations where plumbers have installed these water saving technologies. We have buildings that recover rainwater and reuse it for the flushing of toilets and irrigation. we also have full sewage treatment systems that employ grey water for some of the same purposes. At Gillette Stadium and Mall one such systems exits. as a mater of fact i have always suspected that this system would be used also as a source of water to help economic development near the stadium.

As we see the installation of these system increase one has to wonder when these types of reuse systems will be used in single family homes. it is my understanding that in places like Australia, where drought has been an issue, that many individual homes have at minimum a rainwater collection system. Did anyone know that for every inch of rain that falls on a one thousand sq. ft. roof, six hundred gallons of water can be collected. Over the course of a season that can add up to a lot of water. I think it would make a lot of sense to start to encourage this. This along with many other breakthroughs in technology will provide more work in the Green Economy.

Thinking of six hundred gallons, a visual could be having almost eleven fifty-five gallon drums. To someone in California today that most likely looks like liquid gold and it should as water means life. For something as important as water the technology has been slow to come. ROI on solar thermal has lagged behind compared to the PV panels and desalinization is tremendously costly and uses much energy. As a matter of fact some plants have been built and been taken off-line as water supplies returned to certain areas. Hopefully the new one in San Diego will provide product as well as complement their existing systems when adequate supplies return.

Soon the Environmental League of Massachusetts will have something on the Boston Globe editorial page that speaks to jobs in the Green Economy. Massachusetts being somewhat of a progressive state should embrace these technologies and support solid legislation that addresses water conservation through smart energy policy.

The Plumbers Union is ready to work!

0

E. M. K.

Tonight I am going with my wife to the opening of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute in Dorchester. When I was thinking about writing something I thought back to when the Senator passed away and some of the impressions I had of the time.

As a guy who grew up in a politically involved family Ted Kennedy was already at the top as the Senator from MA. As a matter of fact the Senator was elected the year I was born in 1962. But it was what came out about the Senator after he died that reaffirmed to me what Congress should be about.

All of the members of Congress that spoke about the Senator said a lot of the same things. That outside of being on one side of an issue he genuinely cared about his colleagues and their staff. I remember hearing from Senator Hatch that as much as they fought for position he was always a friend. Shouldn’t that be at least some of the way in Washington. Wouldn’t all Americans be better of if it wasn’t a game of kill or be killed.

I know that he at times frustrated a lot of his own side hear in MA on occasion but maybe it was the cost of compromise for something better for the country as a whole. To really see him in action just you tube “Ted Kennedy Minimum Wage” it is one of the funniest, passionate,and caring clips of him.

I had the chance to be seated with him at a business lunch and he came back to his seat after his remark and asked us “well what do think” about his remarks. I said to him it was great. He promptly looked and replied “Well I could have used some applause with the unemployment comments”. He then laughed and talked to us plumbers and electricians like he was from the neighborhood.

One thing is for sure about him and his family. They probably never had to work but they spent their careers trying to empower many who had none and quite frankly it lives on today. I guess caring is what comes to mind and thats what I will be thinking about tonight at the event.

In my position over the last 15 years I have come to appreciate the man who knew how to work the art of the game.

0

Hello All!

Good Morning, My name is Harry Brett and I am from the Plumbers Union in Boston. Known as Local 12 we have over 1700 members and its my goal to be able to share with you the many great things about the local, its members, and the plumbing industry in general.

I really look forward to writing my (many) thoughts about this great industry and expose to any plumbers that have chosen plumbing as a career that to have it truly fulfilling, you belong here.

Thanks, and as I get beyond this first post (hopefully i can find it somewhere) i will post pics and make it as interesting as i can.

Thanks for reading,

Harry

0

Start a Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑