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July/August 1998 IBEW Journal

Ed. Note--In the June 1998 issue of the IBEW Journal, our Letters to the Editor column featured a letter from a member of Local 111, Denver, Colorado, asking why we had never featured the work of the Traffic Signal Division in the Journal. So, we obtained information about this facet of electrical work and are pleased to present the following story. 

Getting Our Work Back

The traffic signal construction market in the Denver metropolitan area has had a variety of contractors over the past several decades. Until recently, nonunion contractors, with little or no training, were doing traffic signal construction work. This went on for several years. And the two local unions in Denver--Inside electrical construction Local 68 and outside electrical construction Local 111--could not agree on which local should control the work. Each felt that traffic signal work was part of their jurisdiction. In addition to the jurisdictional issues, neither union contract could provide workmen at a rate that would have been competitive in the industry.

In lean times, there wasn’t enough work going on to worry about, so both locals ignored the fact that nonunion contractors were doing more of the work than IBEW contractors.

Concurrently, many local municipalities were enforcing tougher bid qualifications seeking to correct the poor quality of work they were getting on their signal installations. Sometime during the late 1980s and early 1990s, both Local 111 and Local 68, Collier Electric and Sturgeon Electric decided to correct the situation. With a Memo of Understanding covering the jurisdiction, put together by Eighth District International Vice President Jon Walters, a pact was form among the parties to reorganize the Traffic Signal Industry in Colorado. A standardized agreement was negotiated between the parties and with the cooperation of the Mountain States Apprenticeship Director, S.K. Pelch, a corresponding Traffic Signal Apprenticeship Program was developed. Several knowledgeable and experienced craftsmen, from both the nonunion and unionized labor pool were solicited to begin the task of training a work force dedicated to compete strictly with the Traffic Signal Industry. Then Assistant Business Manager Mike Ward and Sturgeon Electric Service Department Manager Steve Kimsey cooperated to recruit bargaining unit members--Scott Delaroy and Jim Bushnell, who became instructors for the apprenticeship program. The program took off rapidly, with the donation of traffic control equipment and input for developing lessons and tests.

After five years, Mike Ward resigned as Construction Agent for Local 111 and shortly thereafter, Dana Crownover was hired as Construction Agent under Business Manager Mason. The Colorado Statewide Traffic Signal and Low Voltage Agreement was negotiated with pay scales and conditions that were competitive in the traffic signal construction market. The agreement also created a classification of workers specific to traffic signal and street light work. Since that time, 10 Journeyman Traffic Technicians have graduated through the program and there are presently nine people in various steps of apprenticeship.

In early 1992, IBEW contractors were already performing a small amount of the work in the area. Initially Collier Electric and Sturgeon Electric were bidding the work under the terms and conditions of the Colorado Statewide Line Construction Agreement, with a Letter of Understanding, that allowed workmen, classified as "groundmen," to act as foremen on traffic crews. Members of outside Local 111 and inside Local 68 were jointly established and worked together. They did basic construction work, building traffic systems from the ground up, including trenching, laying conduit, wiring traffic signal boxes, signal repair and are now performing work on various municipal and state traffic control systems across Colorado. The volume of work now in Colorado has ballooned to such a level that IBEW contractors, Sturgeon Electric and Kimsel Electric are now experiencing a severe shortage of qualified manpower.

Locals 111 and 68 members are proud of their accomplishments and even prouder of the fact that they combined their efforts to get the work and now have more than they can handle.