President’s Report – July 2021

Obtaining Balance to Better Our Union

Brothers and sisters,

With the recent IBEW Local 11 election behind us and all the officers sworn in for the next three years, I thought I might comment on a few items. First, I would like to thank our Election Judge, Ormond Brown and our Tellers, Katie Haugland, Ray Vasquez and Andrew Lopez. They did their best with the situation that was thrust upon them and they did an outstanding job. Also to all the election day ballot letter openers who were asked to serve on election day, thank you for a job well done!

The next item I would like to address is a need for all of us to obtain balance.  We need balance between what we want and what we can get!  We also need to balance respect for one another and working together as a cohesive group. The local is looking into more industry-promoting programs like Code of Excellence, Skilled and Trained Work Force, and top shelf, state-of-the-art new industry technologies. The more multi-talented we are, the stronger our position will be in the upcoming contract negotiations.

I always end my article with an invitation to our members to ask our Agents or call my office with questions about anything related to IBEW Local 11. Rather than guess or speculate about how something is done or operates, please ask the question. Good discussion can result in a broader understanding of how things work! Let us all try to be the best we can be, understand as much as we can understand and work to change things for the betterment of all!

Thank you again for the privilege to serve you. I remain respectfully yours,

Gaylord “Rusty” Roten
President/Senior Assistant Business Manager