Allegheny Power employees seek solidarity in contract efforts
Informational pickets distributed leaflets Wednesday along Route 21 between Masontown and Uniontown, seeking solidarity in their efforts to win a new contract from Allegheny Energy. Safety concerns, hiring practices and other issues are at the heart of negotiations between Allegheny Energy and the Utility Workers of America.
The two sides, which have gone into federal mediation, have been working on a new contract since before the last one expired in April 2001.
This is the second time in as many weeks that informational pickets have appeared in public.
Last Wednesday, they set up at the entrances to Hatfield’s Ferry Power Station near Masontown.
“That was just for information purposes,’ said Bill Sterner, Utility Workers of America Local 102 president.
And while the membership has “authorized us to strike any time we deem fit,’ Sterner said, “We feel there is still hope. We don’t think the issues are unresolvable.’
Last July, Local 102 rejected one contract proposal 1,012 to 90, Sterner said. Local 102 has 1,165 members in both the power station and the distribution side of the company in western and central Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia and a small portion of Virginia.
“We have just not been making very much progress,’ Sterner added.
The company, he said, wants major concessions in health care, “a bunch of work rule changes that we don’t want, and the pension plan still needs to be improved.”
Alan Staggers, a spokesman for the utility, said the company does not want to negotiate in public. The company has not addressed what it wants in the contract from workers, nor has it responded to union statements.
Meanwhile, one union leaflet is asking customers to “Give Allegheny Your Two Cents.’
The union is encouraging customers to write their monthly payment to the utility for two cents less than the bill, tape two pennies to their monthly utility bill and mail it back as normal.
The union claims Allegheny Energy has “demanded concessions in health care coverage and sick pay, offered lower wage increases for women clerical workers than for all other workers and demanded complete discretion in changing work schedules, including the ability to require 10-hour work days without overtime.’