Testimony of Brendon J.

Lydon:
Here is a copy of the testimony I gave at the Referral Appeals Committee on February 26th. For the record, how long have you been a member of Local 103? It will be 15 years in August of this year. 1)Have you ever heard the referral agent tell a member that they must return to the hall when they accept a two week job and go to the bottom of the list? Yes, I have. 2)Were you present at the union hall for referral on January 27, 2010? Yes, I was. 3)Do you confirm that there was a job call update the morning of January 27, 2010, for Alphonse Electric with a stated duration of two weeks ,the first week to be spent on one job and the second week would be spent at a prison after the required CORI check results came back? Yes, there was. 4)Would you tell us what happened at referral on January 27, 2010 with regard to the jobs dispatched to work? I recall there was an unchargeable request for one journeyman to last for 2 weeks. The unwritten rule about 2 week calls, which is regularly stated by the referral agent, requires any member who takes this type of call to return to the union hall after 2 weeks have passed and sign the bottom of the Out-Of-Work list. Therefore, the first member willing to accept these terms was positioned at about 1320 on the list. This type of situation, even though no refusals are being given, somehow allows any applicant at a lower number on the Out-Of-Work list to utilize a solicit. On this particular day, approximately 40 or so electricians below this number exercised the use of solicitation to obtain employment. 5)Have you been to either Dispatch hall and ever seen the Rules of Referral posted anywhere ? Not until a couple of weeks ago, when I noticed a posting in the Business Managers Office with something called "Referral Guidelines". 6)Have you ever asked Union representative where the rules were posted, and what was their response? Not exactly. I did however make an inquiry to the referral agent about obtaining a copy of the referral memorandums and he directed me toward the newly posted "Referral Guidelines" as being them. He then went on to say that they do not provide copies of them to members, upon request. 7)Do you recall a two man 1 week call being reported as an update on the morning of January 18, 2010, and that the referral agent did not dispatch that call morning because he said that the conference call system was not working properly? Yes, I do. 8)Do you also recall that this call was held over until the next day, was not listed on the recorder again, and that no refusals were given on January 19, 2010? Yes, I do. 9)Do you recall that on December 9, 2010 during a snow storm ,that there were two people who were on the conference call,1 claiming to be in New Hampshire and 1 claiming to be in Vermont that were soliciting jobs but said they could not get to the hall until the next day to pick up their referrals. Yes, I do. 10)Did the referral agent say that would be alright for those two people to come in the next day for their referral slips? Yes, he did. 11)Have you witnessed local 103 referring members to work out of order of their place on the out

of work list? Yes, I have. 12)Have you ever been done a favor by a representative of Local 103? First of all, I've never thought that I was entitled to anything that isn't available to all members. I do recall being done a favor that I didn't realize was a favor at the time, when I was given a solicit, by then agent Mike Monahan, for what would be considered by most to be a preferred job, being an all hours paid at Overtime Rate second shift. I was in my second year of being a journeyman and had only gone through the referral system once before. I had no idea how solicitation worked, as the rules were never posted, and trusted I was being guided by our leadership in a common practice that is afforded all members. Once on the job, when asked how I got hired for this job, I stated in front of the whole crew that Mike Monahan gave me a solicit. Some faces cringed at my response and when I asked a fellow electrician what the problem was with what my reply was, I was told that it kinda makes Mike look bad. My thought was that it kinda made me look bad, as it seems as though this type of solicit is not supposed to be talked about openly. My stance is that I would not do anything in this local that I would not share with all members freely. 13)Do you think that the current referral system is discriminatory and unfair, and why? I absolutely do. To me, it would be a farce to try and say that it gives us all an equal chance to obtain a job. Over the past several years, through conversation with other members that I associate with and as witnessed through my own observation of the referral process at the union hall, it became apparent to me that the way jobs are dispersed has morphed into something very foreign from what I had come to anticipate since becoming a member and that there has obviously been a behind the scenes scheme to skirt our agreement rules, giving the current administration an almost complete control over how our signatory contractor's need for manpower will be filled. I feel as though the process has been manipulated (through special request calls, such as Market Recovery solicits & Foreman Call By Name, along with the "2 Week Call: Must Return to the Hall" contrivance) to favor certain members gaining employment, while others are left waiting to be referred out (as per Article 5.13 of our Agreement) and being passed over by members that we are just as capable as at performing our job requirements. Although the specialty calls I mentioned are allowed, there has been a blatant disregard (whether intentional or unintentional) to police that this mode of hiring's stipulations are being followed, simply by comparing the name's of those members being referred out in this manner to the contributions that are made on their behalf to the Health & Welfare office. Under our agreement, there is no mention of a requirement to fill out a resume and solicit a job for ourselves, nor was the membership ever notified that this was essentially the only way to gain employment and that Article 5.13 no longer applied. I'm a firm believer that a good product sells itself, but not if every measure is taken to block it from being given the opportunity afforded to others to prove itself. Lastly, while our local AS A WHOLE is touted as "The Most Skilled and Productive Workforce in the World" - why must some of us be left feeling that we must not be worthy of this distinction because we don't have the right connections? Thank you for allowing me to share my view on this topic.