Inside IBEW 1837

February 22, 2010 - The Union Negotiating Team at Central Maine Power has reached a tentative agreement for a contract for 650 workers at Maine’s largest utility. Prior to negotiations on Thursday, February 15, it had been nearly six months since the last bargaining session between the parties. During that time, three other Iberdrola USA companies settled contracts with their respective unions.

Those contracts were better deals than CMP had offered to their workers represented by IBEW Local 1837. For their employees in Maine, the Company was willing to meet a few of the inequities between the contracts by offering the same annual across the board wage increases in each year of the contract and the same company match on the 401(k) plan for new hires in lieu of a defined benefit retirement plan. However, CMP was unwilling to move on their controversial demand to cap the post-retirement medical coverage benefit.

February 1, 2010 - The Maine Public Utilities Commission (PUC) will be issuing an order for Central Maine Power Company to move forward with their Smart Grid Automated Metering Infrastructure (AMI) initiative. The PUC held deliberations on the AMI case on February 1, and all three commissioners agreed that CMP had done a good job at working toward and achieving 50% of the funding for their proposed system through a federal stimulus grant. The commissioners believe that the system will produce benefits for customers that will outweigh the costs. The installation of so-called “smart meters” will lead to steep job cuts at CMP.

The Commissioners acknowledged that the installation of the system will create a long road for the affected employees. They said they appreciated the testimony from the public hearing on January 20 and that the testimony raised several concerns regarding the effects of the system on employees. Commissioner Cashman strongly urged that CMP negotiate with the Union over those effects. Commissioner Vafiades and Chairperson Reishus agreed that CMP should give fair treatment to the employees and also have a reporting requirement to submit a workforce reduction plan to the Commission prior to any plan taking place. Assistant Business Manager Bill Dunn scheduled negotiations with CMP on February 19 to discuss the impact on employees.

November 20, 2009 - IBEW Local Union 1837 is proud to announce the winners of the 2009 IBEW 1837 Photo Contest. The three winning photographers received gift certificates redeemable at Justice Clothing, an online merchant specializing in union-made apparel.

All IBEW Local 137 members were encouraged to enter. Photographers were told that their entries needed to have an IBEW theme of some sort, with IBEW members at work, engaged in a union activity or contain subjects conveying images of the electrical industry or the union.

October 23, 2009 - IBEW’s effort to reach a fair contract agreement with CMP was center stage at the Maine AFL-CIO Biennial Convention in Bangor on October 22 & 23. Over 125 delegates and union leaders – representing 60 local unions and union councils from York to Fort Kent – voiced their support for IBEW’s struggle and six major gubernatorial candidates were also asked to stand with workers at CMP.
 
A 90-minute forum of candidates for Governor was held on the first day of the convention. It included State Senate President Elizabeth Mitchell, former Maine Attorney General Steve Rowe, Thom Rhoads on behalf of Rosa Scarcelli, Donna Dion, State Senator Peter Mills and Lynne Williams. The gubernatorial hopefuls were briefed on the status of the contract talks, CMP’s profitability, and the union’s fight to preserve retirement healthcare benefits. All six candidates left the convention with a much greater understanding of the issues and some of them offered commitments to work with IBEW to try to get CMP to make a fair contract offer to their workers.