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520 Signs Companys December 2001 IBEW Journal Across Texas, Heggen Electric, Inc. is the focus of a statewide IBEW organizing campaign. The company, based in Mercedes, employs approximately 150 electricians and operates throughout the state. Employees of Heggen unanimously elected IBEW Local 520 in Austin to be their collective bargaining agent in Travis and Williamson Counties last spring. Local 520 organizer Michael Murphy said Local 520 is now in tough contract negotiations with the contractor following this first victory. The statewide campaign is going on at the same time. The four IBEW locals participating in the statewide drive are Local 520, Local 278 (Corpus Christi), Local 60 (San Antonio), and Local 602 (Amarillo). Local 60 held a representation election for Heggen employees in Kerr County earlier in the fall. That election was unsuccessful; the local has filed an unfair labor practices objection and in early November was still awaiting results of the appeal. The Heggen drive is funded in part by the IBEW Fifth and Seventh Districts petrochemical organizing campaign along the Gulf Coast and is headed up by Seventh District temporary organizer Ralph Merriweather, said Murphy. A Heggen Electric jobsite was targeted for a labor-wide rally last spring. IBEW locals joined with the AFL-CIO Voice@Work campaigns 7 Days in June event, where community activists and union members mobilized to assert the rights of workers to freely join a union. One big rally took place at a Heggen jobsite in the Rio Grande Valley, where IBEW members stood side-by-side with representatives from Valley Interfaith, and members of the United Farm Workers, Teamsters and American Federation of Teachers and others in support of workers rights to union representation. In McAllen, Texas, in the Valley, the scorching heat did not stop over 50 union and community leaders, who rallied in front of the Heggen Electric work site at the local police department, reported the AFL-CIO Field Mobilization Department. UFW members joined in, waving their bright red flags that caught the attention of drivers, who showed their enthusiastic support. After the demonstration, IBEW members and other union supporters paid a visit to Mayor Leo Montalvo to communicate their message.
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Heggen Electric Targeted Across Texas
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