In late October, Local 150 held its annual dinner to celebrate 45 and 50 years of membership at a banquet in Countryside. This year we had record attendance honoring 79 members marking 45 years of service and 50 members with 50 years, totaling 129 members. Financial Secretary David Fagan and I were proud to be recognized for our 45 years alongside such a remarkable group. I couldn’t help but think that having such a packed house was a true testament to our exceptional pension and healthcare programs.
The presence of members and their families was a reminder of the purpose behind all our hard work. Local 150 is a community that builds lifelong friendships. Retired members shared how Local 150 has been a supportive second family, emphasizing our collective strength and unity. As we celebrated our 45 and 50-year members’ individual milestones, the overwhelming sense was one of solidarity with the sole purpose of ensuring a strong legacy for future generations of operating engineers.
This message of solidarity is an important one for us as we navigate the wake of the most polarizing presidential election in our nation’s history.
I’m writing this before the election, so although we don’t know the outcome of the presidential election, by the time you read this, we will. I can share with certainty that elections have consequences that impact our union and our work; and in the end, that is what matters most.
If Vice President Kamala Harris takes office, all indicators have shown she will support the rights of working men and women and will make unions a priority. Over the last few years, I’ve shared this many times, but President Biden has been the best U.S. President for Labor. It can be our only hope that Vice President Harris picks up President Biden’s mantle and runs with it.
On the other hand, if former President Donald Trump wins, working men and women and unions across the country will need to brace themselves to see if Trump follows through on the things he has said along the campaign trail, like the elimination of overtime for workers, pushing through “right to work” laws, attempting to dismantle the National Labor Relations Board as he did in his last term, and more. These would be devastating to our members’ livelihoods if pushed through.
We know our membership doesn’t see eye to eye on every candidate. At the end of the day, we’ve fought too long and too hard to get where we are today to let any one candidate divide us. In every other interaction with contractors, politicians, municipalities, and organizations, Local 150 consistently demonstrates that when you come to our house, we stand united. This is why we have had the incredible success over the years, as well as highlighted each month in my reports with the over 150 contracts being negotiated, NLRB elections won with asphalt plant operators at Niblock, treatment operators at Republic Industrial Energy Solutions, and transfer station operators at Envirite, as well as the strikes with Republic Services and Clayco. Even our relationships with other locals, like that of the Teamsters Local Union No. 731, demonstrate the importance of working together to address immediate challenges and lay the groundwork for future success.
The same principle applies to this election. Local 150 will not allow politics to create divisions within the solidarity that our members have tirelessly built over generations of hard work. You’ve always got to have the backs of your Brothers and Sisters. Regardless of the election’s outcome, Local 150 will remain undivided.
Another issue that I consider to be political that has resurfaced in the press is the attack on natural gas. This should not be a partisan issue, but unfortunately that’s how it has developed. Local 150 was called out for a series of mailers that were sent to every ward in the City of Chicago letting residents know where their Alderman stood in relation to the Clean and Affordable Building Ordinance (CABO), which would ultimately eliminate natural gas hookups in new construction and majorly renovated buildings. The mailers point out the serious effects of forcing the electrification of buildings and homes in Chicago that highlight the real costs for reliability risks to decarbonization plans, compromising jobs, and hurting consumers.
Local 150 was part of a coalition of groups and individuals that felt it was necessary to bring the issue front and center again. Local 150, other trades, and at least 32 Aldermen all agree that banning natural gas is not a viable option for Chicago. For now, it seems that CABO will not leave the Rules Committee. Yet, it doesn’t mean that the Citizens Utility Board (CUB) and other environmental groups are backing down. They’ve instead turned their attention to taking on the elimination of natural gas hookups in buildings with ordinances at the municipal level throughout Illinois.
On top of this maneuver, most recently, CUB issued a study to the press, outside of the Illinois Commerce Commission’s (ICC) protocol as it relates to the Future of Natural Gas Workshops, to once again push their criticism of natural gas. According to the report completed by an out-of-state, anti-natural gas group, the anticipated costs of the natural gas replacement program indicate that consumer bills could potentially double in the coming years. Yet, just days before the article was in the Chicago Tribune, the governor’s office released a letter signed by five governors stating the price of electricity has surged to levels ten times higher than usual. We are grappling with electricity prices that are off the charts, and that’s before we even tackle the much-needed grid upgrades, which most definitely will hit consumer’s wallets even harder.
Not only are the claims in the report unreliable, but it also tries to undermine the need for critical updates and replacement of natural gas pipeline as part of the Safety Modernization Program, which the ICC put on hold last November leaving hundreds of Local 150 members without work before the holidays. This infrastructure is tied to an extensive natural gas system that is relied upon by over 80 percent of Illinois residents to heat their homes. CUB wants to eliminate any use of natural gas across the board and instead move everything to the electric grid. Simply put, this plan will not work anytime in the foreseeable future. The grid itself is in serious need of updates, and it still sources its power from nuclear, coal, and natural gas. Although many projects are underway, renewable energy sources will not come online fast enough to fill the void left by the elimination of natural gas.
This supply issue is also strained by all the large data centers and AI that require massive amounts of energy. Even the governor’s office couldn’t refute these numbers: with the data centers alone already on the books, Illinois now requires 40 percent more energy. To be clear, this excludes new projects like the Quantum Computer slated for Chicago in the former U.S. Steel South Works site. The tech industry, to avoid this debacle, is going nuclear. Companies like Google and Amazon made announcements that they are investing in small nuclear reactors to help power their AI projects.
Being swept aside in this debate are the new studies and technologies emerging almost daily. The focus is around making natural gas a cleaner energy source and include innovations capable of capturing carbon prior to combustion or being combined with hydrogen. While we cannot afford to postpone the replacement of natural gas pipelines, the elimination of natural gas before exploring every option to make it cleaner could wreak havoc on the entire energy system.
Local 150 will continue the fight for our members jobs and a common-sense approach to decarbonization. From the start, we have been banging the drum against campaigns that zero in on ditching the entire natural gas system. These claims are counterproductive for every home in every community throughout our state, especially at a time when each moment we delay repairs, the price to upgrade climbs higher and the safety risks related to outdated, leaky gas pipes increase exponentially.
No matter what we are faced with, remember it’s the dedication and resilience of our members that have been our source of strength. This Thanksgiving, let’s take a moment to appreciate the hard work and commitment of each individual who contributes to the success of Local 150.
I am grateful for my family, my 150 family, and the many lives we have been able to positively impact along the way. I take great pride in knowing that Local 150 will pass the torch to the next generation, leaving them with a legacy that is larger, stronger, and more prosperous than ever before in our history. Here’s to a very Happy Thanksgiving.
United We Stand, Divided We Fall.