(LAKE VIEW, NEW YORK) – Work has been so good for International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 17 here in the Western New York Region as of late that the Union recently stripped 24 new Members who previously worked for Non-Union employers in the Buffalo area, Business Manager Gary Swain tells WNYLaborToday.com.

“Once ‘word got out (that we had positions to fill), it was like it went viral,’” Swain (Pictured below outside IUOE Local 17’s Lake View Headquarters/WNYLaborToday.com Photo) tells Your On-Line Labor Newspaper.  “One kid ‘brought in the whole crew of four people that he worked with and we’re still getting calls (about opportunities with the IUOE).’”

The new Members have pushed Local 17’s overall Membership to 1,600, said Swain, who added that his Union “has had full employment since the end of July.”

“We’ve had a ‘good year overall,’ with the Riverbend Project in Buffalo and the Arkwright Wind Farm Project in Chautauqua County (in the Southern Tier) that has thirty-six turbines being built.  We have (34) Members working down there right now and ‘it was getting to a point where we needed extra people,’” Swain told WNYLaborToday.com.

The new Members came from a variety of area Non-Union employers, including CATTCO, Cold Springs Construction, Ledge Creek, Steve St. George Enterprises and Zoladz, to name a few, Swain said.  Those new Members are working at a variety of locations on a variety of projects, from major highway rehab to concrete prep work and filling “other specific jobs,” he added.

Looking to fill those opportunities, Swain said Local 17 “reached out to our Members, who work jobs that also have Non-Union Workers working on them.”

“Some of them ‘knew’ these Non-Union Workers and reached out to them, made calls to ‘make them aware of the opportunities we had,’” Swain said.  “Once they took a basic skills test, we were able to ‘ascertain at what level they would be classified – and about (75%) are at the Journeyman Level.’”

The 24, who’ve become Union Members with Local 17 since July, came aboard “for better wages and benefits,” said Swain, adding: “Our wages are ‘nice,’ but the benefit package they had (working Non-Union versus working Union) ‘is not the same.’”

Combined hourly wage and benefits amount to around $68, he said.

“I’ll ‘admit, I was a little surprised so many people came out so quickly,’ but once they found out about our benefits, our dental coverage, sub-pay and health care, ‘they just kept on coming,’” Swain told WNYLaborToday.com.