Power play at JCP&L
Relations poor 1 year after strike
12/4/05 - Posted from the Daily Record newsroom
It was a year ago this week that Jersey Central Power & Light workers went on strike. Though they've been back on the job for nearly nine months, the relationship between the state's second-largest utility and the union remains in tatters. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers has filed grievances against the company about alleged contract violations. Some workers, while enjoying their work, feel disenchanted with a company for which they have worked for years. "My own impression is that we are nameless, faceless people to this company," said Jackson resident Bill Perry, a lineman. A meeting set for Monday represents the first time that both sides will have met to discuss their relationship in two months, said Willis D. "Chubby" Wardell Jr., president and business agent of System Council U-3, which represents the five IBEW locals that went on strike. "We have been trying, but we really haven't established any good working relationship with the company," he said. "I get a feeling that the relationship is on the back burner for the company so we are not going any place." JCP&L president Steve Morgan said company and union leadership have met a number of times. "Any issue that they have brought to our attention has been dealt with. That is not to say they have always gotten the answer they want." Some of the issues go back to a period of time before the strike, he added. Thursday marks the one-year anniversary of the strike's start, the day about 1,350 workers set up picket lines after talks on a new contract fell apart. The strike exacerbated a relationship between the company and its employees that already was strained. The workers, who had previously rejected a contract proposal in September 2004, were rankled by proposed health-care cost increases and rules governing how employees report to work in their off hours during emergencies. Settled in March The contract talks were only settled in March after the intervention of acting Gov. Richard Codey and then-New Jersey Labor and Workforce Development Commissioner Thomas D. Carver, who oversaw a marathon bargaining session. The four-year contract, supported by the company and union leadership, gave 3 percent annual pay raises, increased workers' share of health care costs and changed work rules. Both sides had to compromise. The utility compromised by agreeing to compensate workers for being on call for emergencies by adding 50 cents an hour to their overall pay. Previously, the company wanted employees to be on call without being paid for it. Workers agreed to take on an increasing share of their health care costs and pay for dental and vision coverage themselves at group rates. In retrospect, union members said they continue to support their decision to go on strike. "Absolutely it was worth it," said Perry, the lineman. "That was a hard time for all of us. No one thought it was a joke or fun. I agreed with them (fellow union members), and I don't regret doing that now." Perry has recovered some from the financial toll of the 98-day strike by working a lot of overtime. But the decisions he had to make at the time, such as borrowing from his 401(k) and refinancing the mortgage on his Jackson home to meet living ex-penses, linger. The strike was the right choice, said Ocean resident Lars Bergrud, a trouble shooter for JCP&L. "Someplace along the line we had to show the com-pany they were not going to take everything away from us that it took 50, 60 years to gain," said Bergrud, who also is a member of Local 1309's executive board. Relations between the work-ers and the company are poor. Employees know they have good jobs, said Edward Penney, a lineman and shop steward of Local 1309. "What they wish there would be is better communication be-tween the management and the union," said Penney of West Long Branch. "We don't trust each other." Morgan said the company has taken steps to improve the relationship. For starters, it welcomed the workers back. "We made a point of prepar-ing management that there would not be any personal is-sues," Morgan said. "These em-ployees had the right to strike, and they would be treated with respect and dignity." Work rule changes were made slowly, he said. For in-stance, a new seasonal shift was staffed with employees who vol-unteered for it, Morgan said. "We didn't jump out of the box and compel people to make big sweeping changes over-night," Morgan said. But some people still are go-ing to have "some lingering hard feelings. Some legitimate, some maybe not," Morgan said. Morgan said the company needs to make decisions based on the interests of customers, shareholders and employees, not just one group. "If the only situation is not to change, then unfortunately we are going to be at an impasse," he said. Wardell said things between the union and JCP&L remain as strained as they were prior to the strike. The union doesn't feel that the company is living up to the new contract, the union leader said. For instance, it has filed grievances regarding the com-pany's use of contractors for overtime work, as well as for an alleged violation of the work rule involving lineman working in the rain. Typically line workers don't work on "live" electrical wires in the rain unless it's an emergency, Wardell said. "It seems like every time we get to a point where things seem to be calming down, labor-relations wise, the company then comes in with a violation to our most recent contract," Wardell said. People get upset and the union ends up filing a griev-ance. "That keeps the relation-ship distant or boiling," War-dell said. The aftermath of the compa-ny's now-discarded policy re-garding emergency call-outs, a particularly sore point, contin-ues as well. Starting in late 2002, the company required workers to carry a beeper or cell phone so they could be reached at all times to respond to work in the event they were needed in an emergency, the union has said. Previously, the company called workers until they had enough to do the work. In early 2003, union officials said there were more than 200 suspensions, some of which were for failing to answer the telephone at home when they were being called in to work because of outages. Morgan, who took the job as president in December 2003, later rolled back the suspensions and paid back pay. Late last year, before the strike, an arbitrator said JCP&L's call-out policy was not in accordance with the labor agreement between the company and the union. The arbitrator also awarded $16.1 million to the union em-ployees, according to a quarterly financial report filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission by JCP&L's parent, FirstEnergy Corp. In October, JCP&L filed an appeal in federal court to vacate the award. "Arbitration is binding, but they chose not to accept the ar-bitrator's answer and decided to take us to court," Wardell said. Morgan said the appeal is part of the process. The arbitrator's decision, he said, was "flawed." Workers continue to chafe under the new call-out policy. Under that policy, two workers in each of several geographic areas are required to carry a cell phone and must respond if an emergency occurs. The phone is first given to those who volunteer; afterward, it is assigned to workers, Wardell said. A worker can only be forced to take it once every four weeks, he added. Ocean resident Alex Delonardo, a lineman who has worked for JCP&L for 12 years, said it is stressful. "You are very conscious of it, and it alters your lifestyle," Delonardo said. "When I have it, I toss and turn all night waiting for the phone to ring." Good relations are not just important for the company's present, but for its future as well. Cherry Hill resident Harold Ammond, a labor relations consultant, said both sides in any labor dispute must understand and come to grips with the underlying problems not settled by a strike so they can move on. "It gives both parties an op-portunity to get their position out there so when you reach the collective bargaining table three years from now, you basically have the solution to the problem," Ammond said. "If you don't address it, it is going to fester, and it is going to blow up again."
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