RE/RW & ‘M’ Divisions
At the General Membership meeting on October 12, 2023, Pete Papadatos was appointed Business Representative of the RE/RW and ‘M’ Divisions.
Panagis (Pete) Papadatos was born on June 7, 1975, in New York City to Greek immigrant parents. He is a second-generation Local 3 electrician. He is the second of six siblings. His family moved to Greece when he was 5. At age 15, he knew he wanted to follow his father’s footsteps and become a Local 3 electrician. He attended Lixouri Vocational High School in Kefalonia, Greece, where he graduated as a Junior Electrician in September of 1993.
Then, Pete moved back to New York and after nearly 5 years of working non-union, he was organized into Local 3 in July of 1998. He completed his time as an ‘M’ journeyman and received his ‘A’ card in March 2006. The training he received through the Educational & Cultural Trust Fund (E&C) included: NICET Level 2 Course, Lockout Tag-Out, Citizenship Responsibility, OSHA Construction Safety, OSHA-10, OSHA-30, Motor Controls, Supervision training, NYC Electrical Code, Rigging and material handling, PCB Awareness and Handling, Heartsaver First Aid with CPR and AED, Hi-Rise Construction Codes and Practices, Diversity Training, NFPA-70, and Critical Thinking.
Pete lived in Electchester for 11 years with his family and he served on the Electchester Third Housing Board of Directors.
Soon after joining Local 3, Pete became active in the Greek Orthodox Council and the ‘M’ Committee and also became a member of the Allied Club of Queens. He was a member of the ‘M’ Committee under Business Representatives Walter Ineson, Ray West, and John Baker. In the Greek Club, he served on the Board of Directors, as Sergeant At Arms, Financial Secretary, Vice President, and President.
Pete served as the chairman of the Organizing Committee starting in 2014 under Business Representative and Director of Organizing Raymond Kitson. He also represented Local 3 as a rank-and-file Organizer at the last two IBEW Membership Development Conferences hosted in San Antonio and Chicago.
Pete has worked as a journeyman, sub-foreman, and foreman. Some of the bigger projects that he has worked on include: Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital, Alexandria East River Science project, 60 Wall Street solar project, Barclays Center, Terminal 5 JetBlue expansion at JFK, and the 911 Call Center in the Bronx. Until his recent appointment, he was working for E-J Electric at the National Grid gas plant in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
Pete has been married to his wife, Effie, for 22 years. They are the proud parents of two boys, Evangelos and Valsamis, and currently reside in Plainview, NY.
