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October 2003 IBEW Journal Part 2 General Electric
General Electric is the largest corporation in the world. The IBEW-one of 14 unions at GE-represents 3,500 GE workers across the United States, concentrated in Indiana, Texas, Georgia and Kentucky. In the new agreement, the unions negotiated a significant wage increase, but accepted more of the burden for health care. They also won improvements to the companys pension plan.
"The bottom line is it is a good agreement," said IBEW Manufacturing Department Director Bob Roberts. "Our people were assuming they would pay more in medical anyway. I think they were quite relieved to come away with the other improvements." The four-year agreement, reached on June 17, will affect far more than those covered by it, Roberts said. "GE sets the tone for the manufacturing industry," Roberts noted. "If GE was to come after us and demand major concessions, you can count on other companies coming in with similar demands."
Oyster Creek A lengthy strike ended at Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station after more than two months at the countrys oldest nuclear power plant, owned by AmerGen. More than 200 members of Local 1289 in Lakewood, New Jersey, returned to work in August. Workers struck over job security, safety and pay issues during a plant shutdown that started in May. With the support of parent Exelon, the company attempted to lay off critical personnel, abolish job descriptions, increase the use of contractors and eliminate long-standing rules providing protections for workers during layoffs. The company employed hardball negotiating techniques, both during the strike and through the months of negotiations preceding the walkout.
Ameren In negotiations with several Illinois and Missouri utility locals representing 900 members, Ameren Corp. took a tough line at contract renewal time, but not out of necessity, said Alton, Illinois, Local 649 Business Manager Jack Tueth. "The company took a hard approach on this thing," said Tueth, who bargained alongside two other locals with members at Ameren: Collinsville, Illinois, Local 309 and St. Louis Local 1439. "Its not that they needed a wage freeze, they just wanted it. People are aggravated. The company is not broke." Ameren put its last, best and final offer on the table in July after three months of talks. In the final hours of negotiations, the company removed unacceptable health care and sick leave proposals, knowing they were strike issues. What they left on the table was a three-year contract that did not include a raise in the first year and work rule changes the members will have difficulty swallowing, Tueth said. In August, the contract was just barely ratified by a majority of the membership. Ameren workers represented by the IBEW are also paying higher deductions for health care premiums. "The company tells us we are among the highest paid for what we do," said John Desmond, a Local 1439 member. "We do make a good living but we work for a company that is among the top utilities in the country. It seems to go hand in hand."
Mirant After twice rejecting contract offers, members of Local 1900, Washington, D.C., employed by merchant generator Mirant are working under the terms of a onerous four-year contract imposed by the company. Mirant purchased the generating capacity of the Potomac Electric Power Company (PEPCO) in December 2000 and assumed the collective bargaining agreement with Local 1900. Declaring the talks were at an impasse, Mirant implemented the rejected contract three weeks after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in mid-July. The local, which has expressed its willingness to continue bargaining, is awaiting a ruling from the National Labor Relations Board for the impasse declaration, said Business Manager John Coleman. "Its gotten ugly and folks are very upset with the company," Coleman said. "They ask me how the union could let them do this, but we didnt let them. They just did it." The contract, covering 600 workers at plants in the Washington, D.C. area, slashes pension benefits, weakens work rule and job security provisions and dramatically increases the employees share of medical premiums. But the workers-who authorized a strike last summer-have little room to maneuver due to the companys tenuous financial position. "Quite frankly, we were ready to go, but the bankruptcy takes the wind out of your sails," Coleman said. "I dont believe in striking at this juncture." Like many energy companies, Atlanta-based Mirant-one of the largest power companies in the world-saw its fortunes rise and fall with Enron during the freewheeling heyday of electricity deregulation. The post-Enron era has been unkind to many in the sector. Mirants debts, a collapse in the energy markets and weak revenue combined to lead it into insolvency.
Southern Nuclear Operating Company Five hundred members of Atlantas Local 84 at nuclear plants near Savannah and Augusta in Georgia reluctantly voted in favor of a new three-year contract in July after a full year of negotiating. The negotiations were marked by the companys insistence on transferring workers without regard to seniority, said Local 84 Business Manager Doyle Howard. The company also insisted on workers bearing a greater share of health care costs. Members working at nuclear plants outside Savannah and Augusta decided the objectionable language did not rise to the level of a strike issue, Howard said, preferring to wait for a more favorable climate in the future.
Rockwell Collins IBEW negotiators characterized spring negotiations with manufacturer Rockwell Collins as difficult. This year, 2,500 workers at the companys Iowa plants agreed to taking on medical co-payments, from a previous contract that required no costs for health insurance, said International Representative Troy Johnson. Unlike other companies that use the faltering economy or underwhelming financial performance to wrangle concessions from workers, defense contractor Rockwell Collins made no such argument. But the implied threat of moving work to a plant that employs nonunion workers encouraged negotiators to compromise. "They have more nonunion facilities than they do union," Johnson said. "Thats why if we dont organize those facilities, theyre just going to keep coming after us with the same threats."
Madison Gas & Electric After six months of talks, 250 members of Madison, Wisconsin, Local 2304 ratified a three-year contract in July. But an effective campaign waged both inside the organization and in the public eye prevented the company from winning its major goals of freezing pensions and forcing the members to relinquish bargaining rights over retirement benefits. Months before bargaining started, the local formed a solidarity committee to direct communications and actions leading up to the negotiations. MGE, which has one of the best credit ratings among gas and electric utilities in the country, was exposed as the lowest-paying investor-owned utility in Wisconsin by an airplane trailing the message "MGE: Profits Before Families" at a summer event attended by 250,000 people. "You have to prepare for a full-scale war before you get a decent contract," said Local 2304 Business Manager David Poklinkoski. Both sides made concessions on health care but the local won three percent wage increases in each year of the contract.
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