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Penelec Workers Ratify Contract
after Eight-Week Strike

 July 27, 2009

It took an eight-week strike, but 500 members of Johnstown, Pa., Local 459 at Penelec, a subsidiary of FirstEnergy,  have ratified a new contract, defeating a company plan to institute scheduling changes that could have turned their lives upside down.

Penelec sought in negotiations to eliminate a provision in the prior contract that obligated the company to give 72 hours notice before changing work schedules except in emergencies. “Worker’s lives would have been at the control of the company,” says Third District International Representative Mike Welch. The company withdrew the proposal after the walkout.

In negotiations, Penelec also sought to suppress wages, despite FirstEnergy’s declaring $1.3 billion in profits in 2008.  While the union agreed to forego wage increases in the first year of the new agreement, wages will increase by 2.5 percent in the second and third years. 

“Local 459 members displayed true solidarity,” says Welch.  The company brought in 400 workers from outside Penelec to work during the work stoppage. Five members were terminated during the strike.  The union won agreement from the company to allow their cases to be heard in the grievance and arbitration procedure.

Don Hoak, Local 459 business manager, told The Electrical Worker in July that support for the strikers was strong in the community. “Everybody is tired of the corporate greed and they want to stand up against it.  Many just don’t have the avenue that we do,” said Hoak.