In union officer elections that concluded June 3, Travis Eri was elected unopposed for a sixth three-year term as business manager of 3,557-member IBEW Local 125.
As an electric linemen local, Local 125 represents electric utility workers, power line clearance tree trimmers, and workers who construct and maintain transmission lines and electrical substations. Its territory includes parts of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Nevada.
Eri, 49, began work as a union rep at Local 125 in 1998, and has served as business manager since 2005.
Over the next year, he and the union staff under his direction expect to be busy negotiating a new round of collective bargaining agreements. Existing union agreements with the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) covering about 1,000 employees of union-signatory line and tree trimmer contractors expire this year. And Local 125 contracts covering about 1,450 utility workers at PGE, Pacific Power, and Bonneville Power Administration are up for renewal in 2021.
Eri says another focus will be recruitment of new apprentices and retention of the existing work force, with PGE in particular slated for expansion.
“We’ve got a lot of work coming up,” Eri told the Labor Press. “We want to make sure we’ve got a work force in place that can handle those needs.”
The officer election took place by mail, with ballots counted June 3. Local 125 members also elected all other officers (those with asterisks were unopposed):
- President Larry Browning *
- Vice president incumbent Randy Bryson
- Recording secretary Pacific Power employee Raymond Cowell *
- Treasurer PGE employee Joe Gass *
- Executive Board Pacific Power employee Jeremy Barr (Private Utility); Clark PUD employee Cliff “Zeek” McCarthy (PUD); BPA employee John Brooks (challenger) (Government); Robert Clarkson (Construction)
- Examining Board Lee Cole*, Ryan Hagel*, Rick Larson*, John Howard, and Tommy Lux
