Related Articles

Utility Members Defend Gains

May 29, 2009

In a growing number of regions, IBEW members are backing leaders who are bargaining to defend medical insurance, pension benefits and decent wage increases at profitable utility companies.

On May 19, 25 members of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., Local 759 picketed a facility of Florida Power and Light protesting the company’s offer of a 2 percent wage increase.  Journeyman linemen at FP&L are already paid eight percent below the national average for similar employees.  The utility has been in negotiations on a new contract and System Council U-4, representing 11 IBEW locals, since last July. Their contract, which expired October, has been extended for one year.

“The membership is standing in support of our negotiating committee,” says System Council U-4 Business Manager Gary Aleknavich. Changes in medical insurance and the elimination of a bargaining unit position are also top issues at the bargaining table.

FP&L wants to eliminate the nuclear watch engineer, a bargaining unit foreman’s position, reducing the pay of current incumbents by $5 per hour.

“The nuclear watch engineers gained their experience coming up through the ranks,” says Aleknavich. Cutting the position could undermine safety, he says.  FP&L isn’t losing money, says Aleknavich. “They just aren’t making as much as they want.”

Members of Manchester, Maine, Local 1837 at Central Maine Power Company have authorized a strike if negotiations fail to win an acceptable agreement. Their contract expired on May 15.

The company’s first contract offer was rejected by a 70 percent vote of the local membership.

CMP is owned by a highly-profitable Spanish firm, Iberdrola. The company—which also owns a subsidiary, Energy East, employing IBEW members outside of Maine—is seeking to pass on more medical costs to employees, drastically cut retiree medical benefits and eliminate pensions for new hires.

Bill Dunn, Local 1837 assistant business manager, says, “CMP’s workers are there for the people of Maine year-round, working long hours in rain and snow, in the heat of summer and in the dead of winter.  We are taking a stand for the next generation of workers here in Maine.”

CMP’s proposed concessions may mean that some workers will not be able to afford medical insurance and will be forced to seek some form of public assistance.  Shifting this expense to Maine’s taxpayers, says Dunn, could pose a long-term threat to Maine’s economy.

More than 500 members of Johnstown, Pa., Local 459 went on strike against Penelec, a subsidiary of FirstEnergy on May 23.  More than 93 percent of the union membership showed up for the strike authorization vote.

FirstEnergy declared over $1 billion dollars in profits for 2008 and is projected to earn $1billion in 2009, says Local 459 Business Manager Don Hoak.  “They are trying to exclude us from their profits and they want to impose a new work schedule that would take us back to the 1900s,” says Hoak. Strikers’ spouses have been calling in saying, “it’s about time workers stood up,” he says.

“The IBEW is committed to excellence within the utility industry and we are always open to reasonable negotiations,” says International President Edwin D. Hill.  “Reasonable negotiations means our members sharing in the profits of successful utilities, not seeing wages stagnate or medical benefits and pensions cut while companies seek to please shareholders looking for bottom-line gains.”