You won’t want to miss all the great content inside our annual IKORCC magazine. Inside you’ll find a letter from EST Mike Kwiatkowski with an exciting announcement, updates from hubs across the council, important information on your pension and healthcare, updates on the solar market, training updates, and stories on the incredible IKORCC members.
2022 was a BIG year for the Indiana Kentucky Ohio Regional Council of Carpenters. Take a look at our annual magazine for a letter from EST Mike Kwiatkowski, hub updates, healthcare and pension updates, ITC programs, Sisters in the Brotherhood, training updates, recruitment efforts, and stories of the incredible impact IKORCC members have in the […]
Applications are now open for the IKORCC scholarship program. Forty $1,000 scholarships will be awarded in 2023 to eligible member’s dependent children. Twenty of the scholarships are awarded based on scholastics, and twenty others via a random drawing.
The Indiana/Kentucky/Ohio Regional Council scholastic scholarships are awarded based on 60% high school grade point average and 40% on
SAT or ACT scores. Twenty scholarships will be selected by random drawing.
The scholarship is to be used solely for the purpose of education in the form of tuition, room and board, and or books.
Indiana Kentucky Ohio Regional Council of Carpenters Representatives spoke with state and local officials on April 13th and 14th to learn more and speak out about construction industry tax fraud in Kentucky. Events were held by IKORCC across the three states and sponsored by the United Brotherhood of Carpenters across the United States and Canada.
More than 50 Senate and House Representatives stopped by our setup in the capitol building in Frankfort on April 13th. The statehouse was in session and full which opened the door for IKORCC to make new introductions with lawmakers who were unaware of construction industry tax fraud were made. All 200 meals and toolboxes were handed out.
On April 14th, over 25 officials including area mayors, State Representatives, judges, code enforcement officers, tax clerks, and local business owners attended a lunch and learn about tax fraud.
A new partnership in Louisville is breaking down barriers & growing membership. This innovative partnership with the Louisville Urban League’s Kentuckiana Builds Program reduces the time it takes to enter the apprenticeship from six months to only six weeks for participants. Students will gain direct entry to the apprenticeship once they complete a six-week construction training program that includes: First Aid/CPR, OSHA-10 and the core construction credential.
One week of the program is hosted in the IKORCC Training Center where students learn hand and power tools, soft skills and safety. “The partnership between the IKORCC and the Urban league is important for everyone to know that there are endless opportunities to build your future and your family’s future,” said Kentuckiana Builds Instructor and Local 175-member Michael Greathouse. Two cohorts of classes have completed this program with more classes scheduled in 2022.
There couldn’t be a better time to grow the membership in the Louisville-area. Louisville Senior Business Representative Waylon Isaacs says the work forecast for 2022 is strong. He’s estimating a large growth in manhours with work on projects like Baptist Hospital, Blue Grass Army Depot, Joint Forces HQ, Nucor, Ford Battery Plant and the VA Hospital in Louisville.
In addition to growing membership, the Louisville hub continues to build their community. They are currently working with the Jefferson County Public Schools and Louisville Metro Council on building community lending boxes to place in neighborhoods across the city. The boxes will be filled with food, toiletries, books and more.
Just like a structure, relationships are built one step at a time. In Ashland Kentucky, relationship building is a fundamental aspect of their day-to-day operations. Thanks to that dedication, they have secured more local work for IKORCC members.
Ongoing meetings over three years led to a signed Infectious Control Risk Assessment (ICRA) agreement with King’s Daughters Medical Center. This ICRA agreement made the contractors with ICRA trained UBC members the obvious choice for their $100 million expansion in Ashland.
Senior Representative Jerry Yates says using real-world hospital equipment at the local training center pushed the partnership over the edge for success. Based on the current projection of work, it is expected at least 60 members will stay busy on this project.
Relationships are tested through tough times, but they usually emerge stronger in the end. Eastern Kentucky saw several weeks of historic flash flooding in the Spring. When two nearby partner trade schools experienced this detrimental flooding in March, the Ashland Hub knew they wanted to help. They coordinated donations from the council to help repair a flooded carpenter shop and assist students whose homes had experienced flooding. Local 472 also donated a commercial gas stove to a community senior center cooking food for the elderly and families in need.
Our country is experiencing an unprecedented labor movement not seen since the 1940’s & 50’s. Every labor union in the country should be capitalizing on this momentum, but at some point, every union member has to ask themselves…what can I do to help?
Members like you, have and always will be the UBC’s most valuable asset. To reach the UBC goal of 70% market share & the regional council’s goals, we need you engaged.
Throughout our history carpenter to carpenter & community-based organizing have been the most effective tools we have as a union. Many of you are familiar with the IKORCC M.A.C program. The regional council has set up Membership Action Committees and holds meetings in multiple areas in IN, KY & Ohio.
Unlike regular monthly business meetings, this is where you have the opportunity to get involved in our organizing efforts. Activities range from community events, helping our neighbors with small construction projects, but most importantly showing up in force to collectively voice our concerns on carpenter issues.
We are the community, and we will hold elected officials, owners and developers accountable when they let unscrupulous contractors come into our community and steal the work that puts food on our tables. We are putting a schedule of events together for the 2022 M.A.C. agenda & we need you there.
Please contact your local or regional council office for more information & how you can make a difference.
Fraternally,
Ken Lyons
Director of Organizing
Indiana
2021 has been another successful year for Indiana politics. The IKORCC managed to harvest a great relationship with the Indiana Association of Public-School Superintendents (IAPSS) and received an invitation to go on tour with them for all eight of their district meetings. During the tour, we were introduced to public school superintendents in all 92 counties. In addition, we were given the opportunity to talk about our Door Safety Inspection (DSI) Program and Career Connections.
One of our many focuses was on getting more “Responsible Bidder Language” added into front end bid specs with school corporations. During the 2021 year, we were able to obtain an additional two agreements with the Metropolitan School District of Boone Township and Concord Community Schools.
Other events worth mentioning that took place during the 2021 year are several successful meetings with political figures regarding laws being introduced to support ICRA training requirements being put in place if any work is being done in occupied health care facilities or schools that may have students present. Also, the City of Indianapolis has promised to make tax fraud and worker misclassification its number one priority for 2022. This commitment came directly from Mayor Joe Hogsett during a public speech that he gave to the city.
During the Delegates conference, Senator Fady Quadra (left) spoke to the membership and explained his level of respect for the Carpenters Union and other organized labor affiliates. He affirmed that he would carry the Carpenters ICRA legislation in 2022.
Due to line redistricting, a Senate seat for District 46 has come up for grabs. We have successfully sourced a candidate that is a card-carrying member of AFSCME whom we helped get elected to the Indianapolis City County Council, to go after this open seat. The candidate has confirmed they will make it known that this seat will be a union held seat if elected. This seat will be won during the primaries due to it being a largely held partisan district.
Kentucky
2021 was a busy political year in Kentucky. Even with the COVID-19 restrictions we’ve been able to build great relationships with local lawmakers and state legislators. Our goals in Kentucky are to address tax fraud and ensure we are in the best position to secure our work with the influx of new solar projects coming to the area.
With solar, it is our hope to introduce language similar to legislation that exists in other states that would protect our work and put our contractor base in the best position possible to secure solar work. Our solar committee, headed up Jeremy Welch and Wallace Turner, has done a tremendous job working with developers and owners to provide information to the political team. That info is vital in working with our lawmakers to sell our training and the importance of the upcoming work.
Tax fraud is a major problem in Kentucky. 1099 worker misclassification and the cash under the table business model used by non-signatory contractors has put our contractor base at huge disadvantage. Working with our Director of Organizing Kenneth Lyons and our political team, we’ve been taking local and state legislators to job site visits to show them the impact and loss of tax revenue that is currently going on.
Now that the November local elections are over, we will actively continue to educate local elected officials about our issues. We use our training facilities to conduct tours and plan to ramp up job site visits. Do not discount the importance you have in actively participating to successfully reach our goals.
If you are not registered to vote please do so. You can register online at vrsws.sos.ky.gov. Moving into 2022 there will be very important races all across Kentucky.
Ohio
2021 was a challenge, politically. Our approach in building relationships with lawmakers became more difficult as a result of the COVID-19 mandates throughout Ohio. Thankfully, we found creative ways to continue building relationships with our local and state lawmakers. We use our four self-funded Ohio training centers as our main selling point with politicians. We continue to take elected officials out for jobsite visits to showcase what we do and also highlight the bad jobsites where tax fraud is rampant due to the lack of legislation in Ohio.
As a result, we continue to build support from both sides of the aisle – Democrat and Republican. We have been successful in protecting our core issues such as Prevailing Wage, Right to Work, and Unemployment Compensation. We are now using our relationships to introduce language to address tax fraud. Our tax fraud bill will create a Tax Fraud Commission to study the impact that paying cash under the table and worker misclassification abuse is having, not only to us but every taxpayer within Ohio. We are aggressively lobbying on current issues to protect our work within all four refineries in the state.
Our motto has always been to Educate, Agitate, and Organize. These very same principles are used when working with any elected lawmaker. Our Ohio political team covers all corners of the state and we will keep every UBC member informed of legislation that may affect us.
With the 2022 election cycle upcoming we will be very busy working for current lawmakers we support and going through a vetting process for any open seats to ensure that the right lawmakers are elected. If you are not already registered to vote, please do so.
You can register online at ohiosos.gov. Remember that when a recommendation is made to support a candidate they are soundly in support of protecting your work, your career, and your ability to provide for your family.
The Indiana/Kentucky/Ohio Regional Council of Carpenters has two Health & Welfare Funds, one for Indiana/Kentucky and another for Ohio. Both Funds are healthy with growing net reserves.
As of June 30th, 2021, the Ohio Plan’s net reserves are at seven months of reserves, up from five months last year. Net reserves are monies in the fund, which have no obligation against it and are used to pay our healthcare costs and fund expenses. The Indiana/Kentucky fund as of June 30, 2021 has 9.9 months of net reserves, up from 9.1 last year (a month of net reserves is equal to the average cost of healthcare expenses for one month). Both funds are operating well and expect continued growth of net reserves.
Effective September 1, 2021 the trustees of both funds were pleased to announce, that regardless of the amount of contributions received, all apprentices will be credited for all hours s/he attends school to receive training required by a training program affiliated with the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America. The apprentice shall be credited with an amount equal to the actual number of hours the apprentice attends school per week.
The Indiana/Kentucky fund’s Board of Trustees is pleased to announce that effective September 1, 2021, it has reduced its bank threshold (point at which monthly contributions received above required premium are allocated to participant’s bank) from $200 to $150. The ability to do this is a direct result of improving net reserves.
The UBC continues to work to provide the best prescription drug program available in the marketplace. Currently, the IKORCC and Ohio Health plans participate in a pharmacy benefit program negotiated on a national basis with Express Scripts, known as Level Care Pharmacy Program. This program covers over 30 participating Carpenter Funds throughout the country. In early 2021, after many months of review, analysis and negotiation, a new five-year agreement was finalized covering mail order, retail, and specialty drugs. The program is projected to save over $362 million over these 5 years for the participating Carpenters Funds, with over $40 million in projected savings for the IKORCC and Ohio plans.
You won’t want to miss all the great content inside our annual IKORCC magazine. Inside you’ll find a letter from EST Todd Pancake, updates from hubs across the council, important information on your pension and healthcare, infrastructure information, Sisters in the Brotherhood, training updates, recruitment efforts, and stories on the incredible impact IKORCC members have […]