IBEW Local 363 Electricians Install LED Lighting On The Walkway Over The Hudson

If you look just north of the Mid-Hudson Bridge and see another set of lights across the Hudson River, you will be looking at the new LED lights that have been installed by IBEW Local 363 Electricians on the Walkway Over the Hudson.


The new lights are now being tested by those same Union Electricians who installed the lighting over the 1 ¼ mile southern railing during the last several months.

The LED lights will complete the overall electrical installation on the bridge, which will activate security monitoring equipment and include electrical outlets across the entire span.

The State Office of Parks and Recreation, which operates the Walkway will use the new LED lighting system for events that request permits.

In the spring of 2010, the lights will be formally unveiled in a special public ceremony.

Thank you to the trained and talented union electricians of IBEW Local 363!

IBM - Non-Union Employees Get Ready For Another Layoff

IBM Corp. showed off their financial report Tuesday, showing the company as a whole with record-breaking profits in 2009 of $13.4 billion, earnings per share of $10.01 and and predicting an improved outlook for 2010.

At first glance the regular, middleclass worker would think, "Hey! This looks good for jobs in the area!" Maybe they are done with the recent history of substantial downsizing and job cuts.

However, Mark Loughridge, chief financial officer, told brokerage analysts that there will be more reduction of costs through "work-force rebalancing." That invariably means disappearing jobs in IBM.

While Loughridge put a 2009 number of $3.7 billion on cost reductions, including job cuts and consolidating work in various centers, he did not give a specific number for 2010. A year ago, he gave a more detailed report.

"How should we think about additional cost and expense savings?" asked David Bailey of Goldman Sachs. Let me guess - Cut the working people out of the equation and give yourselves huge bonuses??

"It's not going to be at the $3.7 billion spend takeout that we saw last year," Loughridge said. But such reductions, he said, will be an "ongoing part of our overall business model."

IBM cut about 10,000 jobs in the United States in 2009, according to various company disclosures - get ready for more. Hundreds of those jobs lost were in Dutchess County.

Profits are good - jobs are a cost to those profits - no matter how high those profits get - they can't get high enough.

The IBM workers should have organized into a union ten years ago - now they are paying the price of being at-will employees for a corporation that couldn't give a shit less about them or any "American" job.

Newburgh Orange County Community College Project Built With A PLA

The big new building north of the foot of Broadway in the City of Newburgh will be bustling with college students in about a year from now.

The campus, which will house facilities for health studies and science programs, will be ready to start classes for the spring 2011 semester.

College President Dr. William Richards said the facilities will include a three level underground parking complex with labs on the top floor with offices and a student center on the lower levels.

County Executive Edward Diana, a SUNY Orange alumnus, said that he was very proud of the project and the fact that it is being built completely with local labor and under a project labor agreement. He said that this project is the seventh project that Orange County has built using a PLA. He also said that the local union trades have saved the county money and built each project on time and within budget. He spoke of the job opportunities it created for existing local workers and the new apprentices entering the trades because of that opportunity.

Local Union Ironworkers lifted and bolted the top beam into place Tuesday at the new SUNY Orange campus, marking the ceremonial placement of the final beam on the multi- million dollar building which will become home to over 2000 students.

This project is a great example to all municpalities of how to really get the most return on their investment for their constituents.

Too many times the local construction workers and the jobs that are created are LOST to out of state and non-local workers and contractors. Orange County did NOT let that happen on this project.

Thank you Orange County Executive Edward Diana and to all Orange County Legislators for leading by example and demonstrating that economic development can be done in such a way that NO job opportunities are wasted. Too many of our elected officials waste those opportunities by turning a blind eye toward the construction jobs created by our taxpayer financed capital projects.

Thank you again Orange County for a true shining example of smart growth.