Posted:
Thursday, May 7, 2020
Please note that the May meeting has been canceled due to the ongoing restrictions due to the Coronavirus. The Executive Board has been and will continue to meet weekly to stay current on any new developments and to conduct the business of the local union during this time.
Please remember that face masks are not meant to allow for relaxing our social distancing guidelines. In the course of your work, you are not expected to breach these guideline unless it is absolutely necessary due to an emergency or for continuity of utility service. In any event, we need to find alternate methods to get things done that will respect the distancing guidelines, regardless of whether these methods take more time, more effort, cost more, or are simply inconvenient. If the job must be done, then all the protocols must be followed. I realize this message is redundant to our last Conduit email, but I just want to be clear that whether you have a mask or not should not matter to how we are doing our day to day business-the proper PPE is available when needed, which should be rare. Spreading this virus to our fellow sisters and brothers by violating the guidelines will only make things worse.
All that said, I do continue to meet with management during this pandemic to be sure we are guiding things in the right direction and getting the proper equipment. Demand is high for all this stuff and is inevitably leading to delays in procurement, but it remains a priority. IBEW Third District International Vice President Welsh has been hosting biweekly Zoom calls with all the local unions to stay abreast of things and allow for sharing of information and ideas between them on how to cope with the crisis. So far there has been only one positive COVID-19 case in our membership; our sisters and brothers centered around the metropolis of New York City are facing a much more difficult situation than we do in relatively rural upstate New York. I do not know when we will be able to resume our monthly meetings; at this point we will gauge it month-by-month going forward.
I am proud of how well our membership has and is continuing to deal with this unprecedented crisis. Thanks for your work and dedication to serve our communities with continued safe and reliable utility service-just as we as IBEW members do day in and day out, regardless of the circumstances.
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