Inside IBEW 1837; Labor News; Bargaining

Finally, A New Contract for IBEW 1837 Members at WGME-TV

Chief Steward Jack Amrock and IBEW B.M. Dick Rogers review agreement.October 21, 2011 - IBEW 1837 members at WGME-TV, channel 13 in Portland have approved a new, 3-year contract after a long and contentious struggle with parent company Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. of Maryland. That struggle led to a national AFL-CIO boycott and the decision by Maine’s Democratic gubernatorial candidates not to advertise on the station during the 2010 primary campaign.

IBEW 1837 and Sinclair management began bargaining early in 2009 and negotiated for more than a year without reaching an agreement. In February of 2010, Sinclair declared that negotiations were “deadlocked” and began unilaterally implementing parts of its last contract offer. The company cut pay by as much as 10 percent for most of the 40 broadcast professionals who work behind the scenes at the station and are represented by IBEW Local Union 1837.

The workers protested and contacted community and political allies for support. When IBEW and the Maine AFL-CIO asked all Democratic, Republican and Independent gubernatorial candidates to refrain from advertising on WGME-TV as a show of solidarity, the Democratic candidates agreed, prompting the station to lash out at the candidates in an extraordinary editorial broadcast.

IBEW Local 1837 Members Ratify CMP Technical Administrative Unit Contract

IBEW Negotiating TeamJuly 8, 2011 - IBEW Local 1837 members working at Central Maine Power Company in the Technical and Administrative Bargaining Unit have ratified a new contract, their second since joining the union. After six weeks of negotiations, the membership followed the recommendation of their IBEW Negotiating Committee and approved the Company's offer. The final tally of votes was 85% to accept and 15% to reject and authorize a strike.

This group of workers has commonly been referred to as the “CMP 47” since that is how many workers were originally in the bargaining unit when they first filed for recognition in 2006.

Early on Friday morning, July 1, the Negotiating Committee came to a memorandum of agreement with the Company. A copy of the tentative agreement was sent to members of the unit for review. A contract extension had been approved until the ratification vote could be held.

Granite Ridge Workers Ratify 2nd Contract

Tom RyanMay 11, 2011 - Local 1837 members at the Granite Ridge power plant near Londonderry ratified their second contract agreement on last month, giving them a more than 9 percent wage increase over the life of the three-year deal (3 ½%, 3%, 3%), streamlined grievance and arbitration procedures, an extra paid holiday, and an increase in the call-out premium with less than 24 hours notice.

While it took a year to get their first contract, negotiations on its renewal only took weeks. “Things went a lot smoother this time around,” IBEW 1837 Assistant Business Manager Tom Ryan said. “Both sides were a lot more comfortable with the collective bargaining process.”

Negotiations were suspended for some time and a two-week contract extension was agreed to so that the workers could repair the plant after a forced outage.

The more than 20 employees first approached Local 1837 in 2006 because of poor working conditions and abusive managers.

“Working conditions were horrendous,” Business Manager Cynthia Phinney said. “Management kept changing the rules by the day, so an employee who was told to do something a certain way one day would get in trouble for doing the same thing the next.”

As reported in the Fall 2010 issue of The Current, conditions for the workers and relations with the Company have seen marked improvement since then.

Warehouse Workers Ratify First Contract at NHEC

Union Negotiating Team at NHEC.March 25, 2011 - Four Warehouse Workers at the New Hampshire Electric Cooperative (NHEC) ratified their first contract on Friday, March 25. It took almost nine months and 25 negotiating sessions to reach this important milestone.

The term of the contract is through September 2012. IBEW 1837 will be negotiating both the Warehouse Workers’ and the larger NHEC bargaining unit future agreements at the same time.

After what the negotiators for the Union termed “extremely tough” contract talks, IBEW managed to obtain a small revaluation of all the classifications as well as a 3% wage adjustment. The Union reluctantly agreed to a change from a defined benefit pension to a defined contribution pension (401(k) format) where the Company contributes 5.5% of base wage and will match an additional 4.5% voluntary contribution by the employee for a total of 14.5%. The employees will also receive a lump sum payment to be distributed however they deem appropriate, either as a 401(k) contribution or cash.

“We were really pleased to get a first contract,” said Tom Ryan, IBEW Assistant Business Manager. “The Warehouse Workers appreciate the value of a having a contract so the Company can’t change their terms and conditions at will.”