Ameren Corp. Threatens Jobs at Christmas--IBEW Local 1439 (St. Louis MO) Represents Some Workers

Ameren is planning to reduce jobs

By Michael D. Sorkin and Jeffrey Tomich
©2005, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Tuesday, Nov. 29 2005

Ameren Corp. executives have told workers to expect a "significant reduction"
in staff in some departments in the next three years as part of efforts to cut
operating costs by $65 million.

An Ameren spokeswoman couldn't say how soon jobs would be eliminated or how
many of the company's 9,300 employees would be affected.

"It depends upon what you consider 'significant,'" spokeswoman Susan Gallagher
said Tuesday. "We don't have a definite target on the number of people."

She said some of the cuts might be achieved through attrition.

The company has 2.3 million electric customers and 900,000 natural gas
customers in Missouri and Illinois. Its total operating and maintenance costs
are about $1.4 billion a year.

The company wants to reduce operating expenses in its corporate services
division by 15 percent. That division includes the finance, human resources and
communications departments, among others, Gallagher said.

The reductions won't affect "the people who climb the poles or generate the
power," she said.

Chuck Bremer, vice president for information technology, and several other
managers met Nov. 14 at Ameren's headquarters on Chouteau Avenue with leaders
of some of the company's unions to discuss the reductions.

The company discussed employee cutbacks without spelling out who or how many,
said Mike Walter, a business representative for IBEW Local 1439, which
represents about 850 linemen, warehouse workers, mechanics and other employees.

The cuts probably would come mainly "in management areas," Walter said. "But we
really don't know."

From the point of view of the consumer, cost-cutting is good, he said. "It will
keep rates down."

Ameren is on pace to post record revenue and profit in 2005, mostly because of
last year's purchase of Illinois Power Co.

Walter said he didn't expect further cutbacks among the employees who make
repairs. That number already has been reduced in recent years, he said.

Don Giljum, business manager for Operating Engineers Local 148, said the
company was more specific with his union. It represents about 1,450 employees
who operate and maintain power plants.

"Of that, they want to cut 125," Giljum said.

But Gallagher said Ameren was still deciding where to cut costs, and executives
had not given the unions any specific figures on employee cutbacks.

Giljum said Ameren planned to subcontract some work while cutting the benefits
of other workers.

"When is enough enough?" he said. "They keep cutting us back, working us more
overtime and all in the name of profits."