Business Manager, IBEW Local 111
Rich Meisinger the Business Manager of IBEW Local 111 (Denver).
If you were wondering why the lineman braves the elements, and sometimes drives the truck across states to join the fight, read on. It'll be easy to see then that they are truly the passion of power.
PUF: What is your role?
Rich Meisinger: I'm the business manager of IBEW Local 111. It's like being the CEO. We have forty-seven separate contracts, and about four thousand, two hundred and twenty-five members. I oversee all of it. We have two organizers, ten assistant business managers/business reps, and six clerical workers
PUF: What's a typical day like?
Rich Meisinger: I meet with the different agents, discuss any of the current contract negotiations, and grievances. Even more important, I'm politically involved, since we represent members in the utilities, including coal fire power plants. Many of our members worked in the coal fire power plants.
I'm always talking about legislation that's affecting our members, and I'm talking with the legislators. We employ a lobbyist.
PUF: You deal with a lot of utilities as well as contractors?
Rich Meisinger: Yes. We represent about nineteen hundred of our members working for Xcel Energy throughout Colorado. We have about thirty-five to forty members in Cheyenne, Wyoming that work for Cheyenne Light, Fuel & Power.