The Elevator Contractors of America (ECA) is a group of independent elevator contractors that have gotten together to
work with the International Union of Elevator Contractors (IUEC) in having a better work arrangement and relationship. Once a year we get together for our annual
meeting to go over internal business, education and hear about the IUEC’s state
of affairs and different programs. This
year we had the meeting in Key Largo, Florida.
This was the first year Colley attended since Covid back in 2020. It was
great to see some old faces, old friends and meet some new signatory members as
well as some of the IUEC faces.
The ECA is a great organization that we are proud to be part of; it has over 52 different member companies from coast to coast. ECA companies have a separate CBA than other IUEC member companies. All IUEC mechanics and apprentices get the same pay rate in all agreements. The ECA agreement is tailored to the independent contractor and different needs we may have from Otis, Schindler, Thyssen, Kone, etc.
Monday started with a program by a great experiential speaker, Lee Rubin. We talked about how as team members we need to have the 5Cs; competition, common goals, communication, chemistry and consistency. We went in closed session and went through ECA’s internal business and state. We then had a great presentation by our long-time attorney/advisor for technical legal advisement for our maintenance and modernization agreements. This was good to sit through. While not a barn burner, it is something as administrators of contracts we need to be familiar with or reminded of how to write our contracts clearer.
Tuesday was the Safety/IUEC day. ECA’s safety program is updating certain portions to comply with new OSHA involvement in our industry. IUEC took up a bulk of the time starting with General President Frank Christiansen on vision and safety. Jim Bender gave an update on his activity with signatory companies. Larry McGann talked about our 401k program and the new provider. Mike Langer talked about the IUEC safety program and improvements on safety programs. We have new things to pay attention to like mental health and general health wellbeing. The Elevator Industry Work Preservation Fund (EIWPF) is up to a lot of great things with their social media campaign and their assistance in recapturing projects and units. The organizers gave a little talk about what they where up to. The National Elevator Industry Educational Program (NEIEP) has new leadership and some very cool new emergency and ideas for our education program. The biggest take away is how close the ECA and IUEC are together with our safety expectations for membership and making our industry involvement better than all other alternatives.
I always take a lot away from these meetings. We learn a lot during the sessions but it is the conversations we have during the reception, lunch, breaks, breakfast that I take away the most. While we are in different geographic locations, we have the same challenges and it is great to get a chance to talk about what is working for other companies across the country. Among the great thing we get to do is to have some face time with the IUEC leadership and informally talk about what challenges each side of the table has. Everyone’s goal is to have a harmonious relationship and go to work in a great trade, doing great things, safely. If you work for a company that is signatory and is not a member of the ECA, I would strongly encourage signing up, the cost is minimal and the benefit is huge. Thank you to the ECA leadership for putting on another great event!
If you have any
questions or would like additional information feel free to contact me at
CraigZ@colleyelevator.com or 630-766-7230 ext. 107.
Also check us out on
Instagram @Colleyelevator see what we have been up to.
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