District 5 Report — September 2021

A tip of the hat to my brothers and sisters. We hope you are well through these trying times.

As we enter the fall season, work continues to grow in the High Desert. District 5 has Ferreira Construction working the 25 MW solar project at Lockheed. Rosendin Electric is working the 25 MW solar job in West Lancaster. We continue work at several schools throughout the Palmdale School District. We have Taft Electric, among other contractors, working at Antelope Valley College Sage Hall, Discovery Lab and Student Services buildings. Pacific Industrial Electric is working at AV Hospital, and several of our contractors are working at the Kaiser facilities throughout Antelope Valley.

Work at Northrop, Lockheed and Boeing continues to hold steadfast, with more projects coming up. The new Lancaster City Hall renovation project was awarded to Performance Electric and we should see hiring from them soon. The high-speed rail, Bakersfield to Palmdale, is nearing its final approval which will bring several jobs to the Antelope Valley.

Because of Community Workforce Agreements, we will have several major projects in the Antelope Valley: the Green Hydrogen project in Lancaster, the Antelope Valley Hospital Medical Village, more solar, battery storage and vehicle charging stations, to name a few. We are on the verge of another Community Workforce Agreement with the Antelope Valley Union High School District.

Thank you to our business manager, Brother Joël Barton, Brother Rusty Roten, and Business Development for all their work in securing these agreements. Thank you to our members for attending city council, planning commission, water board and school board meetings when needed. Through all our hard work and participation, great things happen!

We recently finished an LAQSP class here in District 5. If you are interested in attending classes and keeping your state certification up to date, please call District 5 to put your name on the list. Our Unit 5 meetings are the second Tuesday of every month. Come and enjoy the camaraderie and be informed. Remember, our Local 11 picnic will be October 23. District 5 will work the children’s games, and any help we can get would be greatly appreciated. The picnic is great fun for the whole family.

Thank you to our officers and members for all their hard work in making District 5 and Local 11 the great local it is today!

God bless the IBEW.

Mitch Klein