IBEW LU 272 Mansfield Ohio votes on "best and final" offer

Mansfield IBEW workers vote on 'best, final' offer

SHIPPINGPORT - IBEW union workers at the Bruce Mansfield Power Plant were
voting on the "best and final" contract offer from plant owner First Energy Corp. Friday.
First Energy spokesman Mark Durbin said the 360 operations and maintenance
workers in the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 272 "are
the only ones right now that are not contributing" to their health benefits
package. First Energy recently settled with a clerical group and a lineman union,
and both accepted increased participation by employees in the health plan.
The offer would provide a three percent increase in each of the first two
years of the new contract, said Durbin. Bruce Mansfield IBEW members have been working under terms of an expired contract while negotiating a new pact. They rejected a company offer March 19.
Their three-year contract with First Energy expired on Feb. 15. The
coal-fired plant employs about 500 people total.
The amount of employee contribution toward health insurance coverage
reportedly has been the main point of dispute.