On January 13, 2006 a group of 47 workers including more than a dozen in professional classifications at CMP voted to join IBEW 1837. These workers join a growing wave of white collar workers who are learning that as companies get bigger and the push for profits intensifies, they are no less subject to takeaways or disrespect than their blue- collar co-workers have been.

In recent years groups around the country as diverse as physicians, computer programmers, and graduate teaching assistants have contemplated and taken steps toward something that in this country has previously been considered the domain of the traditional working class – joining a union.The workers at CMP love their jobs, and are proud of New IBEW 1837 members at CMP review the part they play in bringing quality, reliable electric service to residents and businesses in Maine They like their co-workers, and most of them like their bosses and managers. So what’s the problem? in Manchester, Maine CMP used to be a Maine company, but in September of 2000 CMP merged with a company from New York.

Energy East, based in Rochester, owns a variety of energy companies around New York and New England, including both gas and electric utilities. Although the purchase was billed as a merger, not a takeover, workers at CMP increasingly find that decisions that used to be made in Maine now appear to be either made or at least approved in New York.

Over the past couple of years, Energy East has made several moves to consolidate profits including major changes in the healthcare plans for non-union workers (they have also negotiated some changes, though not as drastic, with other CMP employees who already belong to the union). Retiree benefits have been reduced. Many workers are frozen at pay levels that won’t go up and have had no raises for two or three years even as inflation has pushed their living expenses higher. In 2002, Energy East consolidated payroll functions for all the their companies into a single subsidiary company, and payroll for CMP workers has been fraught with errors on and off ever since. And then last fall Energy East made major changes for non-union workers to the sick-time/ disability banks that workers had accumulated during their tenure at the Company.

When asked, most of the workers say they believe that their managers made a sincere effort to change things. But they also believe that their managers no longer have the ability to infl uence the people who make the big decisions – and they concluded that if their managers couldn’t do it alone, they probably couldn’t either. So, tired of managers’ promises that they were “working on it” and unswayed by weeks of effort by CMP management to convince them against going union, 47 workers in 8 departments voted by a solid margin to join IBEW. Following the vote, workers from all the departments participated in union meetings to develop specific proposals for negotiations with the Company. A subcommittee with representatives from each department honed the proposals that came out of these meetings, and a smaller negotiating committee was selected to go to the table. Negotiations began in late spring and are ongoing. The company has expressed their displeasure that these workers have joined the union, but says they will negotiate in good faith.

IBEW Local 1837 has represented approximately 600 other workers at CMP for many years, including meter readers, lineworkers, substations workers, clerical workers, and half of the customer service representatives in the phone centers. The Company is insisting on a separate contract for the new group and so far negotiations are progressing slowly.