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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (July 20, 2012)
assistant business managers: Mike Scarminach, to replace Ellis; and Banjo Reed, to replace Chris Murphy, who re- signed. Ellis is the seventh business manager since Local 659’s founding in 1937. Ellis said his priorities will be effi- cient use of union resources, and organ- izing new workers. Local 659 repre- sents about 95 percent of the linemen in its jurisdiction, but only about 40 per- cent inside wiremen. And right now too many members are out of work. The lo- cal has about 45 inside wiremen and 18 linemen awaiting dispatch, and many members have left home to find work in other areas, including over 50 who are shacking up near Hillsboro to work at Intel’s massive expansion project. Lennie Ellis succeeds Ron Jones at IBEW Local 659 MEDFORD — Southern Oregon’s as part of the First Signal Brigade, do- International Brotherhood of Electrical ing radio relay at Long Binh and Workers (IBEW) Local 659 has a new Danang. Returning home in June 1969, leader. Business manager Ron Jones he spent three years at Western Oregon retired June 30, and the Local 659 Ex- College in Monmouth, working line ecutive Board appointed Assistant construction in the summers. Jones de- cided he made more Business Manager during those summers Lennie Ellis to serve than he would with a the rest of his term, university degree, and which runs through opted for a career in the June 2014. IBEW, first in construc- Headquartered in tion, and later as a line- Central Point just north man. In 1992, after 11 of Medford, Local 659 years at Pacific Power, represents 2,060 mem- during which he helped bers from the Santiam negotiate the outside line River to California’s agreement, Jones was northern three coun- hired as a union repre- ties, and from the Pa- L ENNIE E LLIS sentative by business cific Coast to Harney County. It includes outside utility line- manager Jim McLean. He was ap- men and tree-trimmers as well as in- pointed to succeed McLean as business side wiremen (construction electri- manager in 1998 and was re-elected to cians), municipal workers, water four three-year terms. During his tenure, Jones says, line district employees, gas company work- ers, and about a hundred manufactur- work got safer. When he started, line- ing workers at Pacific Crest Trans- men climbed poles to do their job; now they use bucket trucks. But manage- formers in White City. Jones, 64, retires after 45 years in ment culture at Pacific Power also IBEW Local 659, including 14 years as shifted, Jones said. Faraway financiers its business manager. Fresh after gradu- now call the shots, at a company that ating from Lebanon High School in used to be run by local managers who’d 1966, Jones followed in the footsteps of risen through the utility ranks. In retirement, Jones plans to explore his dad and uncle, IBEW members. He worked as a groundman, an unskilled the lower Rogue River, retracing the helper, assembling electric towers in steps of his wife’s grandfather, who Eastern Oregon. He studied engineer- mined for gold during the Great De- ing at Oregon State University. When pression. He’ll also spend time with his he skipped a term, he got a letter from kids; his oldest son is a journeyman President Johnson, drafting him into the lineman at a Bonneville Power Admin- U.S. Army. He spent a year in Vietnam istration electric substation in Harris- Ron Jones, business manager of IBEW Local 659 for the past 14 years, retired June 30. He has been a member of the union for 45 years. burg, Oregon. Ellis, 57, was born and raised in Bend, and worked for his dad as a resi- dential tree-trimmer after graduating high school in 1972. Lured by higher wages, he became a union tree trimmer at Northwest Tree Expert in 1973 and later, Asplundh — clearing tree limbs away from power lines. He worked nonunion in the early ’80s as a supervi- sor for Trees, Inc., in Texas, but re- turned to Oregon in 1985, and to union work in 1987. About a decade ago he sat in on a bargaining team, then became a union steward. When a union staff representa- tive (assistant business manager) posi- tion became vacant in 2004, Jones in- vited him to interview. Ellis was hired and spent the next eight years negotiat- ing labor agreements, handling griev- ances up through arbitration, and help- ing out in public and private sector union organizing campaigns. Now, as business manager, he oversees a staff of eight: three assistant business managers and an organizer, a dispatcher/office manager, and three administrative sup- port staff. Local 659 also hired two new Broadway Floral for the BEST flowers call 503-288-5537 1638 NE Broadway, Portland K now Y our r ights I f your employer forces you to work In dangerous work condItIons you can make a confIdentIal report to osHa by call - Ing (800) 922-2689. JULY 20, 2012 NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS PAGE 3
