When someone is accepted as an apprentice is it usually a full time job?
Are apprentices laid off once accepted?
Do aprentices get unemployment, medical, etc. from basically day one?
Anyone familiar with local 48 in portland, OR?
Any other insights into what it is like to be an apprentice especially compared to a 'regular' job.
Unions are like any other company. You take a call and go out to a job. You will work until the position is no longer needed. As a first year grunt you will probably stay longer than some of the journey men. You make less and you will be eager to do anything where the older hands will not. (sometimes) As you progress from first year to 4 year, work should be pretty steady, our ration here was usually 3-4 apprentices to a journeyman. (high) Once you turn out you will be put on book 2 unless book 1 is not filled. (for getting work) I know one guy that has worked for the same contractor since turning out and that has to be over 12 years now. It is a good way to get the education and experience you need to work in the trade. Pay attention and learn all you can might not hurt to specialize in Telco or communication areas, especially fiber
i can't speak for every local because i'd say every medical plan is differnet. but our plan when i was a apprentice took us 700 hours to qualify for medical. once we were on it we were locked in but you had to stay employed to maintain your insurance and we banked hours so when you were laid off you had insurance till your banked ours ran out. requardless of what some anti or non union people think it's good experiance going through the Ibew's apprenticeship as long as you work with good people. Learn all you can and try to learn all you can in instrumentation,PLC's , drives, programming and take extra classes if you need them.
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NO
YES
MAYBE Depends on local rules.
IBEW union electricians are the trained labor pool for NECA, the National Electrical Contractor's Association. As such you are used at their disposal. When they win contracts and need manpower they call the union hall for employees. When the job is finished and they have no additional jobs you are laid off and go back to the hall to wait on a list for the next available job. Some contractors have enough jobs that they keep the better hands for many years. When there are slow periods these employees may "lay in the bushes" until work picks up instead of going back to the hall. Apprentices are generally not allowed to quit a job without repercussions. They are periodically shifted from job to job to get the experience they need to become a journeyman if one contractor cannot provide this experience. Additionally, apprentices are required to attend apprenticeship school for about six months. This schooling may be at one time or broken down into several sessions. While attending school the apprentices are usually not paid but many states allow them to receive unemployment benefits while in school Many other employers that are not members of NECA use IBEW electricians. There are jobs in maintenance and power houses that use IBEW electricians where work is steady. But the primary focus for employment for IBEW electricians is in construction. As such they are primarily installers of electrical equipment including conduit, EMT, wires and cables, cable trays, panels, luminaires, fire alarm systems, control systems, and switchgear. Work may be 90 feet up in the air requiring that you wear a fall protection harness and cold weather clothes while working off a manlift or down in a ditch requiring shoring to keep the ditch from caving in. You may have to work in rain or in subzero temperatures. You may have to work on bridges, on high towers, or in dirty coal plants where you have to wear a respirator. You will be required to crawl in dirt and work for persons younger and less knowledgeable than you while you do it. You will have to know many safety rules and apply them as you work. Safety has become a big issue in electrical work in recent years. The work lasts until the job is finished. There is a rule of diminishing returns that applies: The faster one performs their job the sooner they are out of a job and the more profit the contractor makes. A construction electrician must always save for the next job. You may make $3,000 a week, but you have to live like you might face a six month period of unemployment in the immediate future. This means you have got to constantly save for the next job. You cannot be too concerned about being unemployed - it is part of the occupation! Persons that are paranoid about not working or finding a job have a hard time adjusting.
After becoming a journeyman if work in the geographical area where you live becomes slow you may want to go to another local to work. This is done by getting a travel letter from your home local. You then travel to another local where there might be an abundance of work. You present your travel letter and in some cases get your local BA to call the new local's BA and then sign book 2. The local Book 1 hands get first crack at the work calls then they go to book 2. In some locals there is a great separation between the two books so the book 1 hands go into a room and take their calls then leave. Then the book 2 hands go into the room and take the calls that are left. In general book 2 hands on the jobs are expected to take the first layoffs before book 1 hands are laid off. Traveling is fun and a lot of electricians travel almost all the time, seldom working in their own locals. Unfortunately, about 90 percent of these hands are divorced by the age of 50. So if you are married or are planning to get married and having children, and plan to be a union construction electrician plan on paying child support. Today, almost every state has strong child support payment laws and they can track you with computers. Many travelers are called tramps because they have no real home or home local or home life. Many seldom work in one area long enough to get into a local and some never get vested in any local's pension plan.
Divorce you said. You forgot to tell him that (almost) all our members are either alcoholics are former ones. :)
How about the life span of a construction worker is less than the national average?
The pay is good. Everything else sucks.
Want to travel? See new places? Meet new people? Fuck up around here one more time or just join IBEW.
IBEW local 613 Atlanta 15 years. Disabled
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