Holiday TIME

Hello again. Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. Sorry it's been so long since my last blog. It's amazing how busy things have been for me the last couple of months. I've been trying to backtrack on my first and second year experiences since I started this during my third year. Unfortunately, I could talk for days about that, and I haven't had the time for that. So, for the time being I'm only going to talk about what I'm doing now.

Time, it's something that the apprenticeship is going to take from you! My class just finished a take home test/project. We're studying motor control (LOVE IT), and our project was to design

and draw a diagram for a manufacturing process. I feel like I have a good handle on the subject, but let me tell you something. I had a total of two weeks for that project, plenty of time, right? My rough final draft was done two days early, giving me plenty of time to draw and label everything neatly. I was even lucky enough that the day before it was due was a holiday, so I had a whole day to work on it. With no exaggeration, I can tell you that going from rough draft to finished test took me about nine hours of solid work(10 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. with short breaks to change diapers, eat, and such). What makes it really bad is that I wasn't even close to satisfied with what I turned in, and I only put in about twenty minutes on what I thought was the easiest part of the assignment. All I needed to do was list the number of wires that would be needed in various conduits for our circuits, but at 2:30 in the morning, nothing matters but sleep. I could have stayed up a little later, but then I ran the risk of oversleeping, and missing a strict deadline.

I've got nine days to finish all of my homework and study for the next test, and I guarantee that I'll be up late on the eighth night trying to finish. It seems to me that this program is designed to be hard to fail. Go to class, do your homework, study, and get tutoring if you need it. If you don't have the time for all of those things, you can probably get by, but you're going to struggle all the way.

Still working for Dyna in D.C.. I think I've worked the last six or seven Saturdays, which is NICE. I always say yes to overtime, because you never know when you'll get it, and if the bosses know I want it, maybe they'll ask me first. It also seems wrong not to take it when there are a thousand men (and women) in our local that are out of work.
Right now, I am running pipe for space heaters in a loading dock. It's not exciting, but it's good work for me, and I'm enjoying it. Since I've been working here I've done a lot of things that were new to me, like tying in switch gear, transfer switches, and other gear. Hopefully my luck will continue!

That's all for now, good night.

Go get me some quarter inch drop ins. That was my first task on my first day in the apprenticeship. Now let me remind you that this was also my first day in construction as well. The only anchor I ever set was attached to a boat! "Yes sir, I'll be right back, but- What's a drop in? Where are they? What's a sea can?" And that was how my workday started, with my new boss.

It's hard to believe that was only two years ago. This program is one of the smartest things I've ever done. I would love to tell you that every day was fantastic and I loved everyone I worked with, but I can't. Let me tell you some of the more memorable things I hated doing as a first year apprentice. Carrying wire in 100 degree heat. Carrying wire in the freezing cold. Carrying ......... Cleaning up other peoples' tools and materials. Learning how to feed/push wire with one hand and soap with the other. Now that I think of it, that stuff wasn't so bad, and it gave me a lot of good opportunities to show my new employers that if nothing else I'll work hard at whatever my task is. In any job I've always found that people would rather teach a hard worker than push a skilled lazy one.

My first contractor was Heller Electric. My first job site was Parkdale H.S. in Riverdale, Md. Any job with free parking is a sweet job! The foreman assigned me to work with the sub-foreman, Dwayne. That guy intimidated me from jump. I would have never let him know that, but he did. We must have worked together for a week straight before he had anything not job related to say to me. I remember it well, he said"Mornin' ". It took Dwayne a while to warm up to me, but once he did I finally felt like part of the crew. Dwayne started to teach me things and explain stuff. Being new to the trade made any and all tips, advice, and instruction INVALUABLE. A lot of the things he taught me have made me look good again and again. Take my advice, listen to any anyone who tries to teach you. You don't have to agree, just take it in and store it away.

I only worked at that school for about two months when our crew finished. All that I really remember is that it was hot that summer, and that I had everything to learn.

After Parkdale, we went as a crew to Walther Johnson H.S in Bethesda, Md. Any job with free parking is a good job. I was really lucky to be on that job. I got to see a renovation and addition from the ground up. We had a great foreman there, Rick Jackson. Nice guy and a hard worker. I would definitely say that he set my standards for a foreman very high. For the most part, I worked with Dwayne until I was transferred for the apprenticeship. We did a lot of temporary wiring and demo work for about a month, and then the sea cans showed up. Sea containers, for those of you who don't know, are the big metal boxes you see on cargo ships and trains. They are used in construction for secure,cheap, on site material storage. Anyway, the cans coming wasn't a big deal, but filling them up was. For two months, people would drop pallets of material outside one of the cans, and then I got to fill those containers up one by one. It was hard to stack that amount of material neatly. I did alright, but some material piles I've seen since would have put mine to shame. After we finally had a fully stocked job, I was assigned to pre-fab. My job was to make boxes with short pieces of conduit to install in block walls. It might sound funny, but I almost enjoyed that. No one really ever bothered me, and I never had any worries. Most days I made it a game to keep running counts in my head of how many assemblies I made, trying to do better the next day.

One day, around December or January, the masons showed up, and it seems like I've been running ever since! Public schools are generally constructed of concrete blocks, brick, and steel. As the masons(block layers) build the walls one course (row or layer of blocks) at a time, an electrician will install boxes in the wall at varying heights, and run their conduits up and out of the walls. It's easy work until you have three or four walls being built at one time. After a few months I was let loose on my own. For each wall being built, I had to look at five sets of drawings! Power,lighting, low voltage, mechanical, and architectural drawings. It felt nice to be trusted with sort of thing, but it was hard dirty work.

I could talk about my first year forever, but I won't. It was hard, dirty work, I learned a lot, and had a lot of fun. I think that I will remember the people from that job for a long long time.

First Days at Dyna

On the road again! I just got transferred to Dyna for the third year of my apprenticeship. Honestly, I still get a little nervous whenever I start a new job, or go to a new job site. Luckily,I'm working with a good bunch, so settling in was easy.
I wish that I had exciting stories about the work I've done at Dyna so far, but, I don't, and that's not really a bad thing. What is exciting (at least to me) is Dyna's SERIOUS commitment to safety. During my first week with them, I was paid to sit through about nine hours of various safety classes and training. While they might not have been thrilling, it's a good feeling to know that there are people working to ENSURE that everyone leaves the job site in the same condition that they arrived. On the other hand, sometimes it's really uncomfortable to wear a hard hat, gloves and safety glasses for eight hours. BUT- Clark Construction and Dynalectric make it easy. Do it, or go home. Speaking only for myself, sometimes I need to be saved from myself. I always forget that I don't know everything until it's too late! I didn't need that stupid hard hat, until I rammed my head into a piece of rod in a ceiling. OOOUUUCCCHHH! Sometimes, on a quiet night, you can still hear my cries. So, maybe it is a good thing to have mandatory protective equipment use. Some men are born safe, and some have safety thrust upon them.
Anyway, after all of my safety classes and such, I met my foreman, and got a quick tour of the site. The first question I was asked was, "Are you good at running pipe?". Boy o' boy did I drop the ball on that one. My only answer should have been HELL YEAH, but what came out of my mouth was,"I can do it, but I don't know if I'm GOOD at it.". All I saw in the building up to that point were three and four inch pipe, which intimidated me. Maybe my answer to that question is why I'm hanging lights and pulling wire. I can tell you for sure that I won't make a stupid mistake like that again. Hopefully my foreman will see that I work hard and that I'm conscientious in every task that I do.
Well that's it for today, I've got to study for this #%**@!# test on Thursday. Have a good week all!

HELLO 26 !

Hello to all my IBEW brothers and sisters! My name is Greg Nicolas, I'm a second,almost third year apprentice. Hopefully I will be able to give anyone who's interested a realistic idea of the JATC apprenticeship.
First things first! I would like (need) to thank some people who helped me get here. My good friend, brother John Voden, who encouraged and convinced me to apply to the program. Brothers Rick Jackson and Dwyane Ladd at Heller Electric, who took the time to teach a VERY green rookie. Brother Mark Thompson-thanks for always showing me the bright side and just for being contagiously up-beat when I was feeling beat-up. I definately need to thank all of the insructors at the Lanham hall for the experience and knowledge that I'm actually getting paid to take! I'll need just one second to wipe this brown stuff off my nose. Last, and ABSOLUTELY LEAST, thank you to the few foreman who thought I wouldn't make it this far. Thank you for treating me as a sub-human. Thank you for not having the will or drive to teach, because you are one of my strongest motivations to succeed. You will be the subject of my first toast at my graduation. Surely I could go on with the thanks and what not for days, so let me just say that in my time in this union, I have met and worked with many, many fine people, thanks to all.
Before I became an apprentice, I was a journeyman meat cutter in local 400. After ten years of working retail hours and topping out a few dollars over scale, I realized that the opportunities for advancement were limited. When I learned about the apprenticeship(and A journeyman wages), everything became crystal clear. The only thing that kept me from making a change, was my fear of change. It was scary for me to think of leaving the comfort of a good paying job that I was very good at. But, with the support of my family and friends(thanks again John), I went from being the big fish in a little pond, to a tiny bottom feeder in the deep blue sea.
Well, I'm two full years in now, and I'm getting better every day. Alot of the pieces are fitting together, and things are starting to make alot more sense. What do ya' know, the program works! I just wish that I started this work a long time ago. All Ihave to do from here on out is learn and earn, no sweat.
Please tune in for the next episode where we'll learn about my school and work experience up to this point. Good-night.