IBEW 567 Members Ratify New Contract with $7 Wage Increase Over Three Years

Electricians with IBEW 567 have ratified a new contract that increases wages by $7.02 over the course of the three year contract. The agreement also includes a $1 increase for apprentices on their pension and an additional percentage of any allocated money out of their wage increase to their pension.

“The committee and I thought it was a good contract,” said IBEW 567 Business Manager Denis Lehouillier. “There were guys who didn’t like it, but you’re get that with everything. Sure, we wish we could have gotten more money, but $7.02 over three years isn’t that bad.”

During the recent round of negotiations, apprentices expressed an interest in being involved in bargaining so they were appointed to the negotiating committee. As we covered in a previous story, IBEW 567 RENEW apprentices Kilton Webb of Durham and Phil Joseph of Auburn successfully advocated for apprentice pension improvements during the recent round of negotiations.

“They want to be involved, so we said let’s let them get involved. They’re dues paying members, they should be able to sit on the bargaining committee,” said Lehouillier. “We picked our team out of the members who were there the most and the apprentices were there the most.”

In addition, the contract includes language to allow members to work ten-hour shifts, four days a week. The union also has a memorandum of understanding (MOU) around journeymen-in-training licenses and improved contract language for helper’s licenses. The agreement also provides a wage increase from 110 to 115 percent for foremen and 120 to 125 percent to general foreman.

Previously, the contract required a foreman on jobs that had more than four journeymen. Since four journeymen can have up to eight apprentices there could be up to twelve members on a crew. The union won an improvement to their language to require a foreman for five workers, so that way it could be two journeymen and three apprentices.