Greetings Brothers and Sisters,

I hope you and your families are doing well as we head into spring after a long winter.

I was happy to be in attendance at the Winter Meetings held by the International in January. It was a great opportunity to network with other locals to compare how they operate, especially on the training side. One of the overall themes of the meeting was that there seems to be a lot of gas work coming out all over the country but particularly in the Northeast.

Over the winter months, the Training Center has held gas worker Operator Qualification classes for both recertification as well as for members getting their OQ’s for the first time. The need for OQ’d operators remains, especially those that are fully OQ’d. The recent classes have been for the EWN OQ’s. Any members that either have these OQ’s or are interested in obtaining them, please reach out to the Training Center.

The application process for a new apprenticeship class continues through April with interviews currently being conducted. Thank you to the Training Center staff for all their hard work during this busy time, as well as the Trustees for giving their time to interview the applicants. We are looking forward to offering apprenticeship opportunities to the most qualified applicants in late spring or early summer.

Journey member classes continue throughout the year and are updated frequently on our website. Please sign up for the Mobile News Network and check the Training Center website as new classes are being added often. Please feel free to reach out to the Office if you need assistance with something you don’t see listed on the website – we will do our best to accommodate you.

CDL training and testing has a lengthy waitlist especially with the new Entry Level Driver Training Requirements. Our priority during the school year must be to get first year apprentices their CDL B license, which is a requirement of the program. We have been holding a CDL A training every month, typically the first week of the month. We will continue this going forward, feel free to check back in with the office if you are on the list and are still interested in getting the CDL.

Lastly, it was great to see everyone up in Portland for the March Body Meeting. It is a great venue for the meeting and a nice opportunity to see some new faces. Have a safe spring and please reach out if there is anything the Training Center can do to help you.