IBEW 280 votes in Frew as business manager

In a June 30 runoff to determine International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 280’s next business manager, one-time vice president Tim Frew outpolled former business manager Dennis Caster 278 to 219. Incumbent business manager Tim Nicol placed a close third in the first round of voting held June 9.

With headquarters just south of Albany, Local 280 represents about 1,200 construction electricians and sound and communications technicians in the Willamette Valley and Central Oregon.

Frew, 51, is a 25-year IBEW member starting in Local 177, Jacksonville, Florida. He moved with his wife to Eugene in 1991 and became a member of Local 280. Frew served as Local 280 vice president from 1997 to 2000, and was an Oregon AFL-CIO convention delegate and chair of the IBEW-NECA Safety Committee. He has also volunteered as an organizer and has served as a job site steward. For the last seven years, Frew has worked for EC Company.

Frew began his three-year term July 17, and hired Local 280 members Bill Kisselburgh and Tom Baumann as organizer and dispatcher, respectively. Baumann served two terms as recording secretary and one term as president, ending in 2006.

Frew spoke well of Nicol and Caster, the other candidates for business manager, and lauded Nicol’s work in the legislative arena.

Frew plans to focus on making sure IBEW members seize opportunities in green technology jobs. Local 280’s training center has a strong program in solar, Frew said. The challenge will be to find work for union members in an industry that has tended to be nonunion.

Frew also wants to involve more young members, and expects to work with Local 280 President Drew Lindsey to appoint younger members to committees.

Lastly, Frew said the ideal of brotherhood is central to his vision for the local, and it’s an ethic he wants to instill in members, for example, through team-building community efforts like Habitat for Humanity.

“Sometimes we forget about the brotherhood, our roots and where we came from, the oath we took,” Frew said. “Even in these struggling times, if we stick together and rely on one another, unions will emerge stronger.”

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