JCP&L offers to resume contract negotiations
Utility says it has been responsible for progress, questions union's "commitment.
"http://www.nj.com/news/expresstimes/nj/index.ssf?/base/news-7/1110017071224430.xml
By ANTHONY SALAMONE, The Express-Times, Saturday, March 05, 2005
After a week of cooling off, Jersey Central Power & Light Co. said Friday it would restart negotiations in the 12-week strike involving its 1,350 union workers.
But the talks won't resume for another 11 days.
Meanwhile, contract talks are set to begin Tuesday between Metropolitan Edison Co. and a union representing its employees. The current labor pact between the utility and its workers expires April 30. FirstEnergy Corp of Akron, Ohio, owns both Met-Ed and JCP&L.
JCP&L issued a news release Friday saying it has offered to meet again with IBEW System Council U-3 the week of March 14.
Later, company spokesman Scott Surgeoner said talks would resume Wednesday, March 16, at the office of federal mediator Jon Numair in Iselin, N.J. Talks in recent weeks have included both Numair and a state mediator, Wellington Davis.
"The movement that's been made so far on the issues has really come from the company." Surgeoner said. "We provided two contracts that (the union) voted down. We extended the contract three times in 2004.
"And we just really feel that negotiation is a two-way street."
Surgeoner added that the company wants the union to bring "a level of commitment" and "some movement" that would result in a meaningful resolution.
The union questioned the company's claims.
Spokesman Jack Moriarty said the union has offered "numerous proposals," which the company has rejected. He said the company has proposed a solution to a key issue of contention: the on-call emergency issue.
"Bottom line, the union will meet anytime, anyplace," Moriarty said.
Most of the 1,350 union workers rejected the company's "one-time" updated contract offer Feb. 19. No talks took place this week.
Besides the work rules such as the call-out issue, the strike focused on disagreements about health insurance costs to be borne by employees, though the company and union had reached a tentative agreement earlier on that issue.
IBEW System Council U-3 has put out an appeal seeking public assistance.
"After almost three months without a paycheck, many members of our union are really suffering," according to a notice on the union's Web site. "If every visitor to this Web site would help with even a small donation it would go a long way toward helping some people in need."
The Web site address is www.ibew1298.org.
Workers have been denied unemployment compensation, though they have appealed.
John Korp of NORWESCAP Inc., a Phillipsburg-based agency that supplies energy assistance, said this week workers would be ineligible for energy assistance because of the strike. But he added that no one had sought help.
Many JCP&L workers have taken jobs out of the area.
Meanwhile, members of IBEW Local 777 of Middletown, Pa., the union which represents some 540 Met-Ed workers, face an expiration date of April 30 regarding their labor contract.
Mike Gabner, business manager and financial secretary with International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 777, said the last pact was in 2000 -- when GPU Inc. owned JCP& L and Met-Ed. FirstEnergy requested a two-year extension.
Gabner, who is based in Middletown, Pa., was concerned, given the situation with JCP& L, but said he was also cautious.
"I will wait to see (the company's) agenda Tuesday, and we'll pretty much know where we're going," he said.
Met-Ed has more than 500,000 customers in 14 counties, including Northampton, Bucks and Monroe.
JCP&L sells electricity to 108,000 customers in Warren and Hunterdon counties. Its territory extends into 13 counties with approximately 1 million customers.
The JCP&L strike began Dec. 8, after several months of negotiation failed to reach an agreement. The contract expired Oct. 31.
IBEW System Council U-3 comprises five locals, including Phillipsburg-based Local 327, which represents about 300 workers. Anthony Salamone can be reached at 610-258-7171 or by e-mail at tsalamone@express-times.com.
http://www.nj.com/news/expresstimes/nj/index.ssf?/base/news-7/11098443372
Saturday, March 05, 2005
Thursday, March 03, 2005
IBEW Local 18 (Los Angeles CA) Political and Economic Success Arouses jealousy and
Note the childish accusations and intense jealousy aroused by one succesful IBEW local. The "Secret Memo" reads like a second grader's fantasies...
The Lid Comes Off
Secret memo to Mayor Hahn lays blame for DWP’s woes on union control
by JEFFREY ANDERSON, LA WEEKLY, MARCH 4 - 10, 2005
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 18, headed by business manager Brian D’Arcy, is leading the Department of Water and Power toward moral and fiscal disaster, according to a "for your eyes only" memo sent to Mayor Jim Hahn by a top DWP official.
In the six-page memo obtained by the Weekly under the state Public Records Act, DWP Assistant General Manager Mahmud Chaudhry warns Hahn that those who would stop the pillaging of the nation’s largest public utility are powerless to act in the face of "the union’s ability to affect the lives and careers of top managers, the implicit threat of strike and Local 18’s influence on politicians running for office or re-election." Since last summer, DWP’s problems have been the subject of ongoing City Council reviews.
"The DWP has become a fox-run henhouse of epic proportion," Chaudhry writes. "The union now runs the department. They blur the line between . . . bargaining and criminal extortion."
The memo describes Local 18, which represents 98 percent of the DWP’s 8,000 workers, as a relentless bully, prone to manipulating the selection and decision-making of top managers and punishing those who resist, while extracting vast concessions for its members, who already earn more than other unionized city workers. It points to pay raises far exceeding the rate of inflation, "outlandish applications of benefits that spring up overnight" and contracting entities funded with public dollars but controlled by the union with no public accountability.
"By choosing union peace at any price, DWP leadership finds itself paying an exorbitant price," writes Chaudhry, formerly in charge of DWP’s largest power unit and now director of customer service. "Anxious to avoid conflict, management finally relinquished the duty — and with it the power — to exert control. With no one minding the store, it may be a matter of time before the union’s extreme bargaining advantage begins to impact the annual [revenue] transfer to the city."
Chaudhry, in the September 16 memo, urges the mayor to amend the City Charter to restore executive positions to civil-service status, institute mandatory annual performance evaluations and take steps to protect the city’s water and power supply against a strike. He claims that former general manager David Wiggs and acting general manager at the time, Henry Martinez, were beholden to Local 18, which had secured appointments for them based on union preference unrelated to performance or ability. "Favorite sons are protected from the consequences of their misdeeds, while rank and file see how well union cronies are treated," Chaudhry writes. "Conscientious managers are despised by the union, and tormented daily with false accusations, ridicule and personal attack. Those who associate with them can expect the same fate. Others soon equate ethical management with relentless retribution that can only be alleviated by vowing allegiance to Local 18." Wiggs and Martinez could not be reached for comment.
Five weeks after receiving the memo, Hahn acknowledged "a change in corporate culture" was needed and tapped former city legislative analyst Ron Deaton to lead the troubled DWP. The mayor’s choice of Deaton, considered the most influential person in City Hall, infuriated D’Arcy, the union boss, who sources say was boasting he could stop it from happening. Now the two are headed for a power struggle. "People are nervous about choosing one side or the other," said one official, who added that D’Arcy is still calling the shots at DWP. Deaton, recently diagnosed with cancer, took a two-week leave of absence but was back at work this week. Neither he nor D’Arcy returned calls for comment. But sources say Deaton, who has declined to meet privately with D’Arcy, as previous DWP managers had every Monday at Taylor’s Steak House, is troubled by D’Arcy’s rise over the last 10 years. It is during that period that the utility has had persistent labor-relation problems, including lawsuits alleging retaliation and intimidation by managers favorable to Local 18, and an erosion of management’s ability to say no to the volatile labor boss.
An example of unchecked bargaining power, Chaudhry writes, is the three-year, retroactive pay raise for Local 18, calling for 5 percent, 4 percent and 4 percent annual increases, despite the lowest inflation rate in 15 years. Retention bonuses offered to skilled line workers during the 1998 Staff Reduction Program were later given to unskilled workers, who received 14 percent raises in their first year. After citing a 60 percent increase in the price of tools, Local 18 received a 300 percent increase in tool allowance, Chaudhry writes. Allowed to handpick management members of the Joint Resolution Board, which approves contracts under the joint labor-management process, Local 18 struck a deal with Martinez, acting alone, to exclude managers in charge of the most labor-intensive units, which typically have the most complaints. Finally, he urges Hahn to demonstrate moral leadership worthy of a second term, and to disabuse Local 18 of the notion that it can exploit the bargaining process at the public’s expense.
Hahn would not comment, but his chief of staff, Tim McKosker, tried to downplay the memo: "This complaint seems to be about some objection to the rights of working men and women to organize and bargain at arm’s length for better wages and benefits." In response to questions about the memo’s allegations that go beyond customary union bargaining tactics, McKosker said, "We support the rights of working men and women to organize and bargain at arm’s length for better wages and benefits."
The Fleishman-Hillard scandal and a criminal probe into pay-to-play at City Hall have bogged down the Hahn campaign. Amid that turmoil the DWP’s proposed 18 percent rate hike has endured as a symbol of government waste at ratepayer expense. Spurred by resistance from the city’s neighborhood councils, the City Council approved an 11 percent increase, but the image of a ravenous public utility lingers. In the last three years the DWP has been the subject of several scathing audits by the city controller. DWP supply contracts have been held up in City Council and found to be out of compliance. However, no public official, agency or mayoral candidate has publicly questioned or examined Local 18’s role in running the city’s dysfunctional cash cow, which transferred $239 million to the city’s general fund last year, while demanding a rate hike. And yet, the open secret in City Hall for years has been the intemperate, demanding and dominating presence of Brian D’Arcy. "There’s a mindset that if you mess with Brian, the mayor will come down on you," says one city official. "Once that idea was out here, the mayor’s staff let it grow. It has resulted in arrogance on Brian’s part. Or greed. Maybe he just keeps asking for more because he knows he can get away with it."
Most of Hahn’s challengers had little to say about allegations that Local 18 is out of control. Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa, a longtime ally of D’Arcy’s, and whom Local 18 backed in the 2001 mayor’s race, did not return calls for comment. Nor did Bob Hertzberg. State Senator Richard Alarcón, who has based his campaign on reform of local government, seemed unconcerned. "Doesn’t management always make these kinds of complaints?" he said. Councilman Bernard Parks, who said the memo is evidence of serious problems at the DWP, called for an independent Inspector General to oversee the DWP. He also wants a full audit of all DWP expenditures. Local 18’s manipulation of the DWP "is not the exception, it’s the rule," he said. "Public unions carry such clout only when the mayor gives up some of his power," Parks said.
As an example of gains that could not be justified, Parks and others pointed to a pay hike for dozens of employees after Local 18 took over the DWP’s members of the Engineers and Architects Association. The remaining EAA members who work for other city agencies still don’t have a contract, union sources say. "It was the worst $5 million the city ever spent," said Parks, who voted against the raise along with Councilman Greig Smith. "There was no discussion by the City Council. People in City Hall have allowed union leaders to believe they are in charge of the city."
Higher DWP salaries for comparable workers — justified on the basis that the DWP is a revenue-generating department — has irked city employees for years, according to Julie Butcher, head of Service Employees Union Local 347. Warehouse and tool-room workers at the DWP start out around $40,000, she said, which is where her members top out. Maintenance workers, for example, earn salaries 20 percent higher at DWP than in other city departments. Mechanics earn 19 percent more. "Anything I say sounds like jealousy, but if you take the revenue-generating argument to its logical limit, it says that people who don’t work for an agency that collects money deserve less," she said.
City officials, including Hahn, are no strangers to the issues raised by the Chaudhry memo. Yet it provides the public with its first look at the deep concerns inside the front office of the DWP. Historically the DWP has remained aloof, almost secretive, in managing its internal problems. Last July, an exposé by the Weekly revealed a 10-year pattern of secret settlements in discrimination, harassment and retaliation lawsuits negotiated by the City Attorney’s Office and its outside attorneys, and approved by the DWP Board of Commissioners. Since then DWP workers from security, fleet operations, central purchasing and janitorial services have persistently voiced concerns of abuse and corruption, some appearing before the City Council and the Commerce, Energy and Natural Resources Committee headed by Councilman Tony Cardenas. Council members Cindy Miscikowski, Wendy Greuel and Dennis Zine have introduced a motion to address retaliation and harassment, which is pending.
Cardenas has attempted, with limited success, to resolve irregularities in an exclusive cleaning supply contract that has resulted in retaliation against DWP workers who complained, but which Martinez nevertheless extended, days before Deaton took over. Deaton suspended the exclusive contract with Empire Cleaning Supply, but only after Cardenas challenged the DWP’s integrity in the Commerce Committee. On Tuesday Cardenas acknowledged the looming power struggle between Deaton and D’Arcy: "There are reforms that have to take place from top to bottom and some of those will cause conflict between Ron and Brian. As chairman, I have a responsibility to sort those conflicts out in my committee."
Meantime, workers continue to publicly state their fears that Local 18 will not represent them vigorously when they call attention to mistreatment by "favorite sons" of the union and are then punished by management. Some say their union representative sided with management and testified against them at Civil Service hearings. "People don’t trust Local 18," says a custodian who has been threatened with being fired. "But they’re afraid to go against it."
Local 18 has spent $34,000 on city elections since 1998 but its influence isn’t about the money, a City Hall insider says. With each stage in the DWP’s rocky history, managers have ceded more power to D’Arcy. But sources say his style is wearing thin, both on the DWP Board of Commissioners and in City Hall. He is still favored by Miguel Contreras, president of the County Federation of Labor, however, and therefore elected officials step lightly where D’Arcy is concerned. Sources familiar with him say he believes the DWP can run itself — but Deaton is said to see things differently. Last October, Local 18 negotiated a 5 percent raise for line workers who ended up earning more than their supervisors. After a sickout protest by a group of supervisors, D’Arcy joked, "We hardly knew they were gone." Chaudhry in his memo to Hahn concludes, "If the union believes that it cannot be stopped, it will never stop pushing the envelope to see what more can be ‘mutually gained’ at the city’s, the department’s and the public’s expense."
Last Friday Councilman Parks criticized the writing of the memo itself, declaring it a symptom of the politicization of the DWP. He praised the selection of Deaton, adding that Deaton cannot turn the DWP around by himself. "He needs the support of the mayor and an independent board of commissioners, otherwise it is business as usual with a happy face on it," Parks said. "Deaton is not corrupt. But if he cannot get the job done, he has to come before the mayor or the city council and ask for support. A clear message must be sent about what is appropriate and what is not." As for Local 18’s means of intimidation cited by Chaudhry in his memo, Parks said the general manager cannot compromise the DWP under threat of strike, and that discrediting managers who speak up in the face of departmental excess is a cowardly way to manage. "We’ve been unveiling leaf after leaf under the Hahn administration for the last year and a half," he said.
Local 18 is a dominant force in the day-to-day operations at DWP. D’Arcy’s staff attends virtually every meeting concerning DWP operations, according to sources at the DWP and in City Hall. He controls requests for proposals, which bottleneck at his desk, sources say, and Local 18 controls the joint labor-management process. The result has been a fierce protection of union jobs when major city contracts are at stake, such as the $238 million project to replace the Valley Generating Station, put on hold in 2001 when D’Arcy threatened to take the city to arbitration. Yet D’Arcy insists on contracting out services, such as a $53 million contract for tree trimming, which other city workers could perform, and perform cheaper; and oversees two contracting entities that control millions of public dollars, which meet in private and have received no oversight.
Veteran DWP workers say the joint labor-management agreement, which grants the union immense power, is intended to promote efficiency and protect jobs, but has devolved into an unexamined tool of control for D’Arcy. They point to an agreement in May 2002, signed by the DWP and Local 18, guaranteeing fair pay for civil-service employees who work above their classification. Numerous employees alleged retaliation when they demanded higher wages, however. The joint process also created the Joint Safety Institute, funded by the DWP since 2000 at a rate of $1.3 million per year. In 2002, a $6 million trust was created to fund the Joint Training Institute, which leases space for an operation in Sun Valley that executives at DWP reportedly know little about. A veteran employee who has visited the facility says the JSI consists of "two consultants from out of state who keep offering the same seminar over and over, simply changing the tabs on their binders." JTI, the employee says, has produced no recognizable program of any value. Little is known about the JSI and the JTI because they are exempt from public meeting laws according to an Attorney General opinion. The City Council has never asked for a report on the two institutes, although DWP insiders say there has been no rise or fall in workplace injuries, raising questions about their effectiveness. "Why not meet in public?" asks Butcher, whose members meet openly as part of a citywide Joint Labor Management Benefits Committee. "DWP is a public entity."
Under the joint labor-management process, Local 18 contracted out the construction of a fuel-cell power plant in 2000 for $2.5 million, but employees say it produces just $150,000 per year in savings. "DWP is paying for someone else’s research and development," an employee says. Local 18 also is restructuring health benefits, workers’ compensation and deferred compensation, according to department insiders. It has called for the termination of a 25-year-old Employee Assistance Program, which monitors claims of emotional or psychological stress. Local 18 is heavily influencing the management of DWP’s $6 billion pension, insiders say. "They want it all," says a veteran of the department. Chaudhry writes that a principal tool in D’Arcy’s arsenal is the ever-present threat of strike. "Preying on that fear, union negotiators are able to leverage any demand, however trivial or irresponsible, into a concession."
So potent is the fear of a strike, Chaudhry writes, when executives of the DWP broached the subject of a strike contingency plan the ranking member in attendance remarked that the union "wouldn’t like it" if such a discussion took place. "After that ominous warning the subject was dropped entirely," he writes. The last strike occurred in 1993. At the time it was the first in 20 years. The nine-day strike resulted in a new contract for Local 18 members and a 9 percent salary increase over four years. The strike came on the heels of unsuccessful efforts by Mayor Richard Riordan to transfer funds from the DWP to the city in excess of the usual 5 percent transfer, and to dip into the DWP pension to pay for more police and firefighters. City Councilman Joel Wachs called the strike "shockingly irresponsible." But it galvanized Local 18 for the long haul.
Former Riordan chief of staff Bill McCarley took over as general manager in 1994 and put in place the joint labor-management structure that Chaudhry and others in the department say has run amok. With a dire need to reduce the department’s $7.9 billion debt, McCarley cut 2,000 jobs in 1994, while the DWP hired an international consulting firm, PSC Energy, for $1.1 million per month to transform the culture from "an entitlement mindset" to a customer-service organization. In exchange for its cooperation Local 18 was allowed to participate in future management decisions such as selecting a new general manager. Labor-management teams were established "to examine and improve all aspects of system operations." When McCarley left the department in 1996 D’Arcy praised him and said, "He brought us in as partners."
McCarley’s successor, David Freeman, the former head of the Tennessee Valley Authority, turned joint labor management into an art form, insiders say. He navigated the DWP through a $350 million buyout in 1997 without threat of a strike, again reducing the staff by 2,000 jobs. In exchange he allowed D’Arcy to pick the management members of the Joint Resolution Board, which was supposed to streamline and improve the employee grievance process. A succession of non-civil service managers came on board — several from Southern California Edison, which is heavily represented by a different IBEW local.
Freeman launched initiatives under the banner of Green Power in partnership with Local 18, but they have been discredited. An audit by City Controller Laura Chick concluded that Green Power — marketed heavily by the Hahn administration through the efforts of Fleishman-Hillard — never produced results. In 1998, Freeman projected a power rate decrease of 15 percent by 2003. Instead, by 2004, the DWP proposed raising rates 18 percent. Freeman did not return calls for comment.
In 1999, Freeman brought in a pivotal figure named Raman Raj to take over corporate services, labor relations, human resources, security and equal opportunity. He had directed pension fund management, union relations, compensation and training at the MTA from 1996 to 1999. Raj is a human-resources veteran who began his career at the Southland Corporation, in Dallas. He later worked for Flying Tigers in Los Angeles and Kaiser Permanente. He left the MTA under circumstances the MTA would not disclose.
Raj’s two-year stint at the DWP marked a period of turmoil for the DWP, during which employee allegations of discrimination, harassment and retaliation peaked. He was fired in 2001 after the department was forced to pay $1.3 million to its equal-opportunity manager to settle a claim of harassment and retaliation alleging that Raj and his subordinates were interfering with equal-opportunity investigations on behalf of Local 18. Raj later negotiated a separation agreement after threatening to sue the DWP. In October 2004, days before Deaton was scheduled to take the helm, acting general manager Henry Martinez approved a contract with Cap Gemini and Raj’s company Resources Roundtable as consultants to the DWP-IBEW Oversight Committee, to devise strategies for "enhancing the use of resources, eliminating duplication of efforts and supporting an integrated approach to the DWP’s implementation of more effective business processes." A source familiar with the inner workings of Local 18 and the DWP says of the contract, "That is typical of managers doing what Brian wants. Henry has never been able to say no to Brian." Raj has not returned a dozen calls for comment. Raj brought political connections to the department, along with Freeman. Raj has been a member of the steering committee of the Saxophone Club of the Democratic National Committee and, sources say, a longtime ally of Antonio Villaraigosa, dating back to the time they both worked at the MTA. Villaraigosa, in past interviews, has denied a close relationship with Raj, who has contributed to Villaraigosa’s campaign.
In his memo to Hahn, Chaudhry refers to Villaraigosa when he writes, "I see no reason for Local 18 to abandon its former commitment to your main adversary." Chaudhry then urges Hahn to curb union domination of DWP’s managers as a means of distinguishing himself from Villaraigosa. "The damage attributable to Local 18 is done," he writes. "Your administration and character have been impugned by association. Those who question character can be silenced by a unilateral demonstration of moral leadership worthy of a second term."
Chaudhry, who is on personal leave and out of the country, puts it on the mayor to solve DWP’s problems: "Only the mayor can demand more of management than routine capitulation to inordinate pressure for unreasonable concessions that do not result in mutual gains."
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The Lid Comes Off
Secret memo to Mayor Hahn lays blame for DWP’s woes on union control
by JEFFREY ANDERSON, LA WEEKLY, MARCH 4 - 10, 2005
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 18, headed by business manager Brian D’Arcy, is leading the Department of Water and Power toward moral and fiscal disaster, according to a "for your eyes only" memo sent to Mayor Jim Hahn by a top DWP official.
In the six-page memo obtained by the Weekly under the state Public Records Act, DWP Assistant General Manager Mahmud Chaudhry warns Hahn that those who would stop the pillaging of the nation’s largest public utility are powerless to act in the face of "the union’s ability to affect the lives and careers of top managers, the implicit threat of strike and Local 18’s influence on politicians running for office or re-election." Since last summer, DWP’s problems have been the subject of ongoing City Council reviews.
"The DWP has become a fox-run henhouse of epic proportion," Chaudhry writes. "The union now runs the department. They blur the line between . . . bargaining and criminal extortion."
The memo describes Local 18, which represents 98 percent of the DWP’s 8,000 workers, as a relentless bully, prone to manipulating the selection and decision-making of top managers and punishing those who resist, while extracting vast concessions for its members, who already earn more than other unionized city workers. It points to pay raises far exceeding the rate of inflation, "outlandish applications of benefits that spring up overnight" and contracting entities funded with public dollars but controlled by the union with no public accountability.
"By choosing union peace at any price, DWP leadership finds itself paying an exorbitant price," writes Chaudhry, formerly in charge of DWP’s largest power unit and now director of customer service. "Anxious to avoid conflict, management finally relinquished the duty — and with it the power — to exert control. With no one minding the store, it may be a matter of time before the union’s extreme bargaining advantage begins to impact the annual [revenue] transfer to the city."
Chaudhry, in the September 16 memo, urges the mayor to amend the City Charter to restore executive positions to civil-service status, institute mandatory annual performance evaluations and take steps to protect the city’s water and power supply against a strike. He claims that former general manager David Wiggs and acting general manager at the time, Henry Martinez, were beholden to Local 18, which had secured appointments for them based on union preference unrelated to performance or ability. "Favorite sons are protected from the consequences of their misdeeds, while rank and file see how well union cronies are treated," Chaudhry writes. "Conscientious managers are despised by the union, and tormented daily with false accusations, ridicule and personal attack. Those who associate with them can expect the same fate. Others soon equate ethical management with relentless retribution that can only be alleviated by vowing allegiance to Local 18." Wiggs and Martinez could not be reached for comment.
Five weeks after receiving the memo, Hahn acknowledged "a change in corporate culture" was needed and tapped former city legislative analyst Ron Deaton to lead the troubled DWP. The mayor’s choice of Deaton, considered the most influential person in City Hall, infuriated D’Arcy, the union boss, who sources say was boasting he could stop it from happening. Now the two are headed for a power struggle. "People are nervous about choosing one side or the other," said one official, who added that D’Arcy is still calling the shots at DWP. Deaton, recently diagnosed with cancer, took a two-week leave of absence but was back at work this week. Neither he nor D’Arcy returned calls for comment. But sources say Deaton, who has declined to meet privately with D’Arcy, as previous DWP managers had every Monday at Taylor’s Steak House, is troubled by D’Arcy’s rise over the last 10 years. It is during that period that the utility has had persistent labor-relation problems, including lawsuits alleging retaliation and intimidation by managers favorable to Local 18, and an erosion of management’s ability to say no to the volatile labor boss.
An example of unchecked bargaining power, Chaudhry writes, is the three-year, retroactive pay raise for Local 18, calling for 5 percent, 4 percent and 4 percent annual increases, despite the lowest inflation rate in 15 years. Retention bonuses offered to skilled line workers during the 1998 Staff Reduction Program were later given to unskilled workers, who received 14 percent raises in their first year. After citing a 60 percent increase in the price of tools, Local 18 received a 300 percent increase in tool allowance, Chaudhry writes. Allowed to handpick management members of the Joint Resolution Board, which approves contracts under the joint labor-management process, Local 18 struck a deal with Martinez, acting alone, to exclude managers in charge of the most labor-intensive units, which typically have the most complaints. Finally, he urges Hahn to demonstrate moral leadership worthy of a second term, and to disabuse Local 18 of the notion that it can exploit the bargaining process at the public’s expense.
Hahn would not comment, but his chief of staff, Tim McKosker, tried to downplay the memo: "This complaint seems to be about some objection to the rights of working men and women to organize and bargain at arm’s length for better wages and benefits." In response to questions about the memo’s allegations that go beyond customary union bargaining tactics, McKosker said, "We support the rights of working men and women to organize and bargain at arm’s length for better wages and benefits."
The Fleishman-Hillard scandal and a criminal probe into pay-to-play at City Hall have bogged down the Hahn campaign. Amid that turmoil the DWP’s proposed 18 percent rate hike has endured as a symbol of government waste at ratepayer expense. Spurred by resistance from the city’s neighborhood councils, the City Council approved an 11 percent increase, but the image of a ravenous public utility lingers. In the last three years the DWP has been the subject of several scathing audits by the city controller. DWP supply contracts have been held up in City Council and found to be out of compliance. However, no public official, agency or mayoral candidate has publicly questioned or examined Local 18’s role in running the city’s dysfunctional cash cow, which transferred $239 million to the city’s general fund last year, while demanding a rate hike. And yet, the open secret in City Hall for years has been the intemperate, demanding and dominating presence of Brian D’Arcy. "There’s a mindset that if you mess with Brian, the mayor will come down on you," says one city official. "Once that idea was out here, the mayor’s staff let it grow. It has resulted in arrogance on Brian’s part. Or greed. Maybe he just keeps asking for more because he knows he can get away with it."
Most of Hahn’s challengers had little to say about allegations that Local 18 is out of control. Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa, a longtime ally of D’Arcy’s, and whom Local 18 backed in the 2001 mayor’s race, did not return calls for comment. Nor did Bob Hertzberg. State Senator Richard Alarcón, who has based his campaign on reform of local government, seemed unconcerned. "Doesn’t management always make these kinds of complaints?" he said. Councilman Bernard Parks, who said the memo is evidence of serious problems at the DWP, called for an independent Inspector General to oversee the DWP. He also wants a full audit of all DWP expenditures. Local 18’s manipulation of the DWP "is not the exception, it’s the rule," he said. "Public unions carry such clout only when the mayor gives up some of his power," Parks said.
As an example of gains that could not be justified, Parks and others pointed to a pay hike for dozens of employees after Local 18 took over the DWP’s members of the Engineers and Architects Association. The remaining EAA members who work for other city agencies still don’t have a contract, union sources say. "It was the worst $5 million the city ever spent," said Parks, who voted against the raise along with Councilman Greig Smith. "There was no discussion by the City Council. People in City Hall have allowed union leaders to believe they are in charge of the city."
Higher DWP salaries for comparable workers — justified on the basis that the DWP is a revenue-generating department — has irked city employees for years, according to Julie Butcher, head of Service Employees Union Local 347. Warehouse and tool-room workers at the DWP start out around $40,000, she said, which is where her members top out. Maintenance workers, for example, earn salaries 20 percent higher at DWP than in other city departments. Mechanics earn 19 percent more. "Anything I say sounds like jealousy, but if you take the revenue-generating argument to its logical limit, it says that people who don’t work for an agency that collects money deserve less," she said.
City officials, including Hahn, are no strangers to the issues raised by the Chaudhry memo. Yet it provides the public with its first look at the deep concerns inside the front office of the DWP. Historically the DWP has remained aloof, almost secretive, in managing its internal problems. Last July, an exposé by the Weekly revealed a 10-year pattern of secret settlements in discrimination, harassment and retaliation lawsuits negotiated by the City Attorney’s Office and its outside attorneys, and approved by the DWP Board of Commissioners. Since then DWP workers from security, fleet operations, central purchasing and janitorial services have persistently voiced concerns of abuse and corruption, some appearing before the City Council and the Commerce, Energy and Natural Resources Committee headed by Councilman Tony Cardenas. Council members Cindy Miscikowski, Wendy Greuel and Dennis Zine have introduced a motion to address retaliation and harassment, which is pending.
Cardenas has attempted, with limited success, to resolve irregularities in an exclusive cleaning supply contract that has resulted in retaliation against DWP workers who complained, but which Martinez nevertheless extended, days before Deaton took over. Deaton suspended the exclusive contract with Empire Cleaning Supply, but only after Cardenas challenged the DWP’s integrity in the Commerce Committee. On Tuesday Cardenas acknowledged the looming power struggle between Deaton and D’Arcy: "There are reforms that have to take place from top to bottom and some of those will cause conflict between Ron and Brian. As chairman, I have a responsibility to sort those conflicts out in my committee."
Meantime, workers continue to publicly state their fears that Local 18 will not represent them vigorously when they call attention to mistreatment by "favorite sons" of the union and are then punished by management. Some say their union representative sided with management and testified against them at Civil Service hearings. "People don’t trust Local 18," says a custodian who has been threatened with being fired. "But they’re afraid to go against it."
Local 18 has spent $34,000 on city elections since 1998 but its influence isn’t about the money, a City Hall insider says. With each stage in the DWP’s rocky history, managers have ceded more power to D’Arcy. But sources say his style is wearing thin, both on the DWP Board of Commissioners and in City Hall. He is still favored by Miguel Contreras, president of the County Federation of Labor, however, and therefore elected officials step lightly where D’Arcy is concerned. Sources familiar with him say he believes the DWP can run itself — but Deaton is said to see things differently. Last October, Local 18 negotiated a 5 percent raise for line workers who ended up earning more than their supervisors. After a sickout protest by a group of supervisors, D’Arcy joked, "We hardly knew they were gone." Chaudhry in his memo to Hahn concludes, "If the union believes that it cannot be stopped, it will never stop pushing the envelope to see what more can be ‘mutually gained’ at the city’s, the department’s and the public’s expense."
Last Friday Councilman Parks criticized the writing of the memo itself, declaring it a symptom of the politicization of the DWP. He praised the selection of Deaton, adding that Deaton cannot turn the DWP around by himself. "He needs the support of the mayor and an independent board of commissioners, otherwise it is business as usual with a happy face on it," Parks said. "Deaton is not corrupt. But if he cannot get the job done, he has to come before the mayor or the city council and ask for support. A clear message must be sent about what is appropriate and what is not." As for Local 18’s means of intimidation cited by Chaudhry in his memo, Parks said the general manager cannot compromise the DWP under threat of strike, and that discrediting managers who speak up in the face of departmental excess is a cowardly way to manage. "We’ve been unveiling leaf after leaf under the Hahn administration for the last year and a half," he said.
Local 18 is a dominant force in the day-to-day operations at DWP. D’Arcy’s staff attends virtually every meeting concerning DWP operations, according to sources at the DWP and in City Hall. He controls requests for proposals, which bottleneck at his desk, sources say, and Local 18 controls the joint labor-management process. The result has been a fierce protection of union jobs when major city contracts are at stake, such as the $238 million project to replace the Valley Generating Station, put on hold in 2001 when D’Arcy threatened to take the city to arbitration. Yet D’Arcy insists on contracting out services, such as a $53 million contract for tree trimming, which other city workers could perform, and perform cheaper; and oversees two contracting entities that control millions of public dollars, which meet in private and have received no oversight.
Veteran DWP workers say the joint labor-management agreement, which grants the union immense power, is intended to promote efficiency and protect jobs, but has devolved into an unexamined tool of control for D’Arcy. They point to an agreement in May 2002, signed by the DWP and Local 18, guaranteeing fair pay for civil-service employees who work above their classification. Numerous employees alleged retaliation when they demanded higher wages, however. The joint process also created the Joint Safety Institute, funded by the DWP since 2000 at a rate of $1.3 million per year. In 2002, a $6 million trust was created to fund the Joint Training Institute, which leases space for an operation in Sun Valley that executives at DWP reportedly know little about. A veteran employee who has visited the facility says the JSI consists of "two consultants from out of state who keep offering the same seminar over and over, simply changing the tabs on their binders." JTI, the employee says, has produced no recognizable program of any value. Little is known about the JSI and the JTI because they are exempt from public meeting laws according to an Attorney General opinion. The City Council has never asked for a report on the two institutes, although DWP insiders say there has been no rise or fall in workplace injuries, raising questions about their effectiveness. "Why not meet in public?" asks Butcher, whose members meet openly as part of a citywide Joint Labor Management Benefits Committee. "DWP is a public entity."
Under the joint labor-management process, Local 18 contracted out the construction of a fuel-cell power plant in 2000 for $2.5 million, but employees say it produces just $150,000 per year in savings. "DWP is paying for someone else’s research and development," an employee says. Local 18 also is restructuring health benefits, workers’ compensation and deferred compensation, according to department insiders. It has called for the termination of a 25-year-old Employee Assistance Program, which monitors claims of emotional or psychological stress. Local 18 is heavily influencing the management of DWP’s $6 billion pension, insiders say. "They want it all," says a veteran of the department. Chaudhry writes that a principal tool in D’Arcy’s arsenal is the ever-present threat of strike. "Preying on that fear, union negotiators are able to leverage any demand, however trivial or irresponsible, into a concession."
So potent is the fear of a strike, Chaudhry writes, when executives of the DWP broached the subject of a strike contingency plan the ranking member in attendance remarked that the union "wouldn’t like it" if such a discussion took place. "After that ominous warning the subject was dropped entirely," he writes. The last strike occurred in 1993. At the time it was the first in 20 years. The nine-day strike resulted in a new contract for Local 18 members and a 9 percent salary increase over four years. The strike came on the heels of unsuccessful efforts by Mayor Richard Riordan to transfer funds from the DWP to the city in excess of the usual 5 percent transfer, and to dip into the DWP pension to pay for more police and firefighters. City Councilman Joel Wachs called the strike "shockingly irresponsible." But it galvanized Local 18 for the long haul.
Former Riordan chief of staff Bill McCarley took over as general manager in 1994 and put in place the joint labor-management structure that Chaudhry and others in the department say has run amok. With a dire need to reduce the department’s $7.9 billion debt, McCarley cut 2,000 jobs in 1994, while the DWP hired an international consulting firm, PSC Energy, for $1.1 million per month to transform the culture from "an entitlement mindset" to a customer-service organization. In exchange for its cooperation Local 18 was allowed to participate in future management decisions such as selecting a new general manager. Labor-management teams were established "to examine and improve all aspects of system operations." When McCarley left the department in 1996 D’Arcy praised him and said, "He brought us in as partners."
McCarley’s successor, David Freeman, the former head of the Tennessee Valley Authority, turned joint labor management into an art form, insiders say. He navigated the DWP through a $350 million buyout in 1997 without threat of a strike, again reducing the staff by 2,000 jobs. In exchange he allowed D’Arcy to pick the management members of the Joint Resolution Board, which was supposed to streamline and improve the employee grievance process. A succession of non-civil service managers came on board — several from Southern California Edison, which is heavily represented by a different IBEW local.
Freeman launched initiatives under the banner of Green Power in partnership with Local 18, but they have been discredited. An audit by City Controller Laura Chick concluded that Green Power — marketed heavily by the Hahn administration through the efforts of Fleishman-Hillard — never produced results. In 1998, Freeman projected a power rate decrease of 15 percent by 2003. Instead, by 2004, the DWP proposed raising rates 18 percent. Freeman did not return calls for comment.
In 1999, Freeman brought in a pivotal figure named Raman Raj to take over corporate services, labor relations, human resources, security and equal opportunity. He had directed pension fund management, union relations, compensation and training at the MTA from 1996 to 1999. Raj is a human-resources veteran who began his career at the Southland Corporation, in Dallas. He later worked for Flying Tigers in Los Angeles and Kaiser Permanente. He left the MTA under circumstances the MTA would not disclose.
Raj’s two-year stint at the DWP marked a period of turmoil for the DWP, during which employee allegations of discrimination, harassment and retaliation peaked. He was fired in 2001 after the department was forced to pay $1.3 million to its equal-opportunity manager to settle a claim of harassment and retaliation alleging that Raj and his subordinates were interfering with equal-opportunity investigations on behalf of Local 18. Raj later negotiated a separation agreement after threatening to sue the DWP. In October 2004, days before Deaton was scheduled to take the helm, acting general manager Henry Martinez approved a contract with Cap Gemini and Raj’s company Resources Roundtable as consultants to the DWP-IBEW Oversight Committee, to devise strategies for "enhancing the use of resources, eliminating duplication of efforts and supporting an integrated approach to the DWP’s implementation of more effective business processes." A source familiar with the inner workings of Local 18 and the DWP says of the contract, "That is typical of managers doing what Brian wants. Henry has never been able to say no to Brian." Raj has not returned a dozen calls for comment. Raj brought political connections to the department, along with Freeman. Raj has been a member of the steering committee of the Saxophone Club of the Democratic National Committee and, sources say, a longtime ally of Antonio Villaraigosa, dating back to the time they both worked at the MTA. Villaraigosa, in past interviews, has denied a close relationship with Raj, who has contributed to Villaraigosa’s campaign.
In his memo to Hahn, Chaudhry refers to Villaraigosa when he writes, "I see no reason for Local 18 to abandon its former commitment to your main adversary." Chaudhry then urges Hahn to curb union domination of DWP’s managers as a means of distinguishing himself from Villaraigosa. "The damage attributable to Local 18 is done," he writes. "Your administration and character have been impugned by association. Those who question character can be silenced by a unilateral demonstration of moral leadership worthy of a second term."
Chaudhry, who is on personal leave and out of the country, puts it on the mayor to solve DWP’s problems: "Only the mayor can demand more of management than routine capitulation to inordinate pressure for unreasonable concessions that do not result in mutual gains."
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Tuesday, March 01, 2005
FirstEnergy, Owner of JCP&L Which Forced IBEW Members to Strike, Fined in Coverup
FirstEnergy fined after whistleblowers lost jobs
By John Funk, Plain Dealer Reporter, Tuesday, March 01, 2005
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1109673210323532.xml
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has fined FirstEnergy Corp.'s nuclear operations unit $55,000 for a safety culture-related incident five years ago.
The agency also named Georgia-based contractor Williams Power Corp. for violating federal regulations. The company employed three painters at Perry who immediately lost their jobs in March 2000 after pointing out a potential safety violation.
Williams Power has not been fined -- though its site superintendent involved in the incident has already pleaded guilty to a federal felony for lying to the NRC about his actions. Williams Power will now be required to show the NRC what it has done to prevent similar incidents.
The contractor's site superintendent at Perry forced two of the painters to take a voluntary layoff and fired the third after he learned that they had complained to Perry's maintenance supervisor and then to the plant's ombudsman that they had been instructed to ignore proper procedures when painting the interior of Perry's nuclear fuel handling building.
By NRC regulation, workers may not be harassed or fired for bringing up safety-related problems. The NRC noted that after the painters lost their jobs, Perry's ombudsman told the FirstEnergy vice president in charge of Perry about them - but the company took no action against Williams Power.
After the NRC investigation began, Perry's managers surveyed workers and managers to measure the "safety-conscious work environment" at the plant, conducted in-house training on the issue and changed bid specifications to notify contractors that safety rules had to be obeyed.
Also, in 2001, the FirstEnergy nuclear operating company pulled Williams Power's contract at sister plant Davis-Besse near Toledo. That plant is working on its own safety environment, which, though adequate, has not shown improvement over the last year.
And in 2002, the utility replaced the ombudsmen at all of its plants with an entirely new department - with the mission to establish a confidential "employee concerns program" to handle the kinds of complaints the painters had voiced.
The NRC two months ago began a separate investigation into Perry's commitment to a safety-conscious work environment. That report is expected by the end of this month.
FirstEnergy has until March 28 to dispute the new finding or pay the fine, according to NRC rules. "We have not yet made that decision," said spokesman Todd Schneider.
Neither Dan Daniels, president of the Williams Power Corp., nor a spokesman returned phone calls seeking comment.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
jfunk@plaind.com, 216-999-4138
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&ie=UTF-8&scoring=d&q=FirstEnergy%2C+Perry%2C+NRC&btnG=Search+News
By John Funk, Plain Dealer Reporter, Tuesday, March 01, 2005
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1109673210323532.xml
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has fined FirstEnergy Corp.'s nuclear operations unit $55,000 for a safety culture-related incident five years ago.
The agency also named Georgia-based contractor Williams Power Corp. for violating federal regulations. The company employed three painters at Perry who immediately lost their jobs in March 2000 after pointing out a potential safety violation.
Williams Power has not been fined -- though its site superintendent involved in the incident has already pleaded guilty to a federal felony for lying to the NRC about his actions. Williams Power will now be required to show the NRC what it has done to prevent similar incidents.
The contractor's site superintendent at Perry forced two of the painters to take a voluntary layoff and fired the third after he learned that they had complained to Perry's maintenance supervisor and then to the plant's ombudsman that they had been instructed to ignore proper procedures when painting the interior of Perry's nuclear fuel handling building.
By NRC regulation, workers may not be harassed or fired for bringing up safety-related problems. The NRC noted that after the painters lost their jobs, Perry's ombudsman told the FirstEnergy vice president in charge of Perry about them - but the company took no action against Williams Power.
After the NRC investigation began, Perry's managers surveyed workers and managers to measure the "safety-conscious work environment" at the plant, conducted in-house training on the issue and changed bid specifications to notify contractors that safety rules had to be obeyed.
Also, in 2001, the FirstEnergy nuclear operating company pulled Williams Power's contract at sister plant Davis-Besse near Toledo. That plant is working on its own safety environment, which, though adequate, has not shown improvement over the last year.
And in 2002, the utility replaced the ombudsmen at all of its plants with an entirely new department - with the mission to establish a confidential "employee concerns program" to handle the kinds of complaints the painters had voiced.
The NRC two months ago began a separate investigation into Perry's commitment to a safety-conscious work environment. That report is expected by the end of this month.
FirstEnergy has until March 28 to dispute the new finding or pay the fine, according to NRC rules. "We have not yet made that decision," said spokesman Todd Schneider.
Neither Dan Daniels, president of the Williams Power Corp., nor a spokesman returned phone calls seeking comment.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
jfunk@plaind.com, 216-999-4138
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&ie=UTF-8&scoring=d&q=FirstEnergy%2C+Perry%2C+NRC&btnG=Search+News
IBEW Local 86 (Rochester NY) Members Struggle To Preserve American Jobs
Fighting to survive
Victor company tightens belt to compete
Amy Wu, Rochester Democrat & Chronicle Staff writer
(February 28, 2005) — Inside Victor Insulators' 110-year-old factory, Ira Knickerbocker, the company's jovial and baby-faced vice president, can manage a smile again.
This was not the case two weeks ago. The company in Victor, Ontario County, had came close to going bankrupt after its sales began spiraling downward last October. Creditors were breathing down their necks. The saving grace: The 90-plus union workers and 22 salaried staff at the oldest ceramic insulator maker in North America accepted a 20 percent pay cut.
Knickerbocker, 56, who started his career here in 1972, says that Victor Insulators' troubles are industrywide. Insulator makers in the United States have been severely squeezed by competition overseas, rising labor and utility costs.
In the last decade, the industry in the United States has shrunk from 14 companies to four, which are going after an industry worth $250 million.
Industry observers concede that offshore production of insulators, which are used on power lines to protect the electrical currents, is inevitable.
"All the signs are that true commodity parts will be made offshore," Knickerbocker says, "and more complicated and difficult parts will be made in the U.S ... at least for the foreseeable future."
Andy Schwalm, Victor Insulators' marketing manager, says the industry's troubles are the same as those of other older sectors.
"Other industries have been through it, the steel industry, automotive industry. It's just our time and we're trying to do the things they did: Improve cost structure, find better ways to compete and focus on providing what customers want rather than what we think they want."
Indeed, the miniature American flag that hangs over a station post insulator in Victor Insulators' modest conference room is a constant reminder of a time before globalization became a reality — and the changes the company needs to undergo.
The company's latest battle plan went into effect Sunday.
The pay cut most severely affects workers such as Jack Meredith, a 58-year-old worker who now makes about $12.60 an hour instead of $14. Meredith crosses his fingers that the new "incentive program," which makes workers eligible for potential bonuses, will materialize.
Those workers who remain are staying out of loyalty or fear that they will lose their benefits, he says.
"Where does a 58-year-old go now? There's a lot of people here at that age, can't make a move or no one would want them," Meredith says. Starting this week, he is working an added five hours in hopes of making up lost pay.
Over the years, the company also has bought new technologies and machinery to improve efficiency. It is targeting customers that its now-dead competitors left behind. And it will continue to diversify its product lines and produce high-end niche products such as earthquake resistant insulators from the Maple Avenue factory.
Competitors are taking similar measures. Lapp Insulator of LeRoy, Genesee County, recently moved some production from Georgia to China and India and says it will move other lines to LeRoy.
Victor's transformation really started a decade ago when the company started to search for partners overseas.
"We recognized that things were going to happen, that imports were going to be more of a factor, so we made some efforts during the '90s; it was a way for us to compete in other countries," Knickerbocker says.
At the company's peak in 1996 sales were $23 million, and then the decline started. In 2004, sales were $15 million, and they are expected to be the same for 2005.
Schwalm, the marketing manager, weaves through the factory past workers hovering over humming machinery, and he is reminded that Victor Insulators has a long legacy as the first of its kind.
Fred M. Locke invented the porcelain insulator and founded the company that is now Victor Insulators in 1894. It spawned a generation of competitors. In 1984, it was incorporated by its current owners, Ronald Graczyk and Knickerbocker.
The company was once a golden boy partially fueled by its many customers who wanted to buy Made in the USA. The benefits were good, workers say.
"When I worked here in 1978 it was one of the highest-paid industries in this area," Meredith recalls.
But Made in the USA doesn't matter as much anymore, observers said. "There are still a few good old boys who will say, 'We will only buy U.S. products,' but that portion of the customer base that really demands U.S.-based products is dwindling," Knickerbocker says. "We can do what we want to avoid that, but eventually it's likely to go offshore. We will be technically competent importers."
awu@democratandchronicle.com
Victor company tightens belt to compete
Amy Wu, Rochester Democrat & Chronicle Staff writer
(February 28, 2005) — Inside Victor Insulators' 110-year-old factory, Ira Knickerbocker, the company's jovial and baby-faced vice president, can manage a smile again.
This was not the case two weeks ago. The company in Victor, Ontario County, had came close to going bankrupt after its sales began spiraling downward last October. Creditors were breathing down their necks. The saving grace: The 90-plus union workers and 22 salaried staff at the oldest ceramic insulator maker in North America accepted a 20 percent pay cut.
Knickerbocker, 56, who started his career here in 1972, says that Victor Insulators' troubles are industrywide. Insulator makers in the United States have been severely squeezed by competition overseas, rising labor and utility costs.
In the last decade, the industry in the United States has shrunk from 14 companies to four, which are going after an industry worth $250 million.
Industry observers concede that offshore production of insulators, which are used on power lines to protect the electrical currents, is inevitable.
"All the signs are that true commodity parts will be made offshore," Knickerbocker says, "and more complicated and difficult parts will be made in the U.S ... at least for the foreseeable future."
Andy Schwalm, Victor Insulators' marketing manager, says the industry's troubles are the same as those of other older sectors.
"Other industries have been through it, the steel industry, automotive industry. It's just our time and we're trying to do the things they did: Improve cost structure, find better ways to compete and focus on providing what customers want rather than what we think they want."
Indeed, the miniature American flag that hangs over a station post insulator in Victor Insulators' modest conference room is a constant reminder of a time before globalization became a reality — and the changes the company needs to undergo.
The company's latest battle plan went into effect Sunday.
The pay cut most severely affects workers such as Jack Meredith, a 58-year-old worker who now makes about $12.60 an hour instead of $14. Meredith crosses his fingers that the new "incentive program," which makes workers eligible for potential bonuses, will materialize.
Those workers who remain are staying out of loyalty or fear that they will lose their benefits, he says.
"Where does a 58-year-old go now? There's a lot of people here at that age, can't make a move or no one would want them," Meredith says. Starting this week, he is working an added five hours in hopes of making up lost pay.
Over the years, the company also has bought new technologies and machinery to improve efficiency. It is targeting customers that its now-dead competitors left behind. And it will continue to diversify its product lines and produce high-end niche products such as earthquake resistant insulators from the Maple Avenue factory.
Competitors are taking similar measures. Lapp Insulator of LeRoy, Genesee County, recently moved some production from Georgia to China and India and says it will move other lines to LeRoy.
Victor's transformation really started a decade ago when the company started to search for partners overseas.
"We recognized that things were going to happen, that imports were going to be more of a factor, so we made some efforts during the '90s; it was a way for us to compete in other countries," Knickerbocker says.
At the company's peak in 1996 sales were $23 million, and then the decline started. In 2004, sales were $15 million, and they are expected to be the same for 2005.
Schwalm, the marketing manager, weaves through the factory past workers hovering over humming machinery, and he is reminded that Victor Insulators has a long legacy as the first of its kind.
Fred M. Locke invented the porcelain insulator and founded the company that is now Victor Insulators in 1894. It spawned a generation of competitors. In 1984, it was incorporated by its current owners, Ronald Graczyk and Knickerbocker.
The company was once a golden boy partially fueled by its many customers who wanted to buy Made in the USA. The benefits were good, workers say.
"When I worked here in 1978 it was one of the highest-paid industries in this area," Meredith recalls.
But Made in the USA doesn't matter as much anymore, observers said. "There are still a few good old boys who will say, 'We will only buy U.S. products,' but that portion of the customer base that really demands U.S.-based products is dwindling," Knickerbocker says. "We can do what we want to avoid that, but eventually it's likely to go offshore. We will be technically competent importers."
awu@democratandchronicle.com
IBEW Local 246 (Steubenville, OH) Members Help Build Two Habitat for Humanity Homes
Habitat to dedicate two homes
from the Steubenville Herald-Star, Monday, February 28, 2005
EMPIRE - Two families will have a reason to smile Friday when the Greater Steubenville Area Habitat for Humanity formally hands over the keys to their new homes.
"It's two houses, the families moved in for Christmas, but Friday is the formal dedication," said Bob Leonard, director. "This is the formal handing over of the keys," he added.
The Smith and Davisson and Bender families will open their homes at 10 a.m. Friday to those who helped make it possible.
Ken Yeager, First Energy Inc. human resources director, will be the speaker at the event. Three local clergymen will bless the homes with a benediction.
Habitat will present each family with a gift of a bible, symbolizing Habitat's Christian ministry.
Leonard said the volunteers who assisted in the construction will be invited to tour the homes they helped build and to attend a reception afterward.
He added the Empire Mayor Frank Martin and members of the community were invited to attend the reception and meet their new neighbors.
United Way Director Suzanne Kresser may also attend, said Leonard. He said Habitat for Humanity was seeking to become a United Way member agency.
He said the project was made possible through the generosity of several area groups and businesses, including First Energy, CT Consultants, the Meadowbrook Church of God in Rayland, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, the plumbers union, the Colonial Baptist Church in Wintersville, and the Findlay United Methodist Church in Steubenville.
Leonard also thanked Whirlpool, which delivered an electric range and refrigerator to the homes Thursday through a national corporate partnership with Habitat.
He also praised the Smith and Davisson and Bender families for their hard work in helping build their homes.
"They really put their sweat equity in," said Leonard.
from the Steubenville Herald-Star, Monday, February 28, 2005
EMPIRE - Two families will have a reason to smile Friday when the Greater Steubenville Area Habitat for Humanity formally hands over the keys to their new homes.
"It's two houses, the families moved in for Christmas, but Friday is the formal dedication," said Bob Leonard, director. "This is the formal handing over of the keys," he added.
The Smith and Davisson and Bender families will open their homes at 10 a.m. Friday to those who helped make it possible.
Ken Yeager, First Energy Inc. human resources director, will be the speaker at the event. Three local clergymen will bless the homes with a benediction.
Habitat will present each family with a gift of a bible, symbolizing Habitat's Christian ministry.
Leonard said the volunteers who assisted in the construction will be invited to tour the homes they helped build and to attend a reception afterward.
He added the Empire Mayor Frank Martin and members of the community were invited to attend the reception and meet their new neighbors.
United Way Director Suzanne Kresser may also attend, said Leonard. He said Habitat for Humanity was seeking to become a United Way member agency.
He said the project was made possible through the generosity of several area groups and businesses, including First Energy, CT Consultants, the Meadowbrook Church of God in Rayland, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, the plumbers union, the Colonial Baptist Church in Wintersville, and the Findlay United Methodist Church in Steubenville.
Leonard also thanked Whirlpool, which delivered an electric range and refrigerator to the homes Thursday through a national corporate partnership with Habitat.
He also praised the Smith and Davisson and Bender families for their hard work in helping build their homes.
"They really put their sweat equity in," said Leonard.
IBEW Local 2155 (Bonham TX) Members' Jobs May be moved to Mexico
General Cable lays off dozens
By Vicki Graves, Herald Democrat
BONHAM - Having given union officials five days' notice, General Cable will lay off 49 of 190 employees at the Bonham plant, effective Tuesday, according to Lisa Lawson, who is vice president of corporate communications at the company's Highland Heights, Kentucky headquarters.
She said the loss of jobs is the result of a decreased demand for the manufacturer's copper telecommunications cable.
Angie Bratcher, at the Bonham plant had been instructed to direct all calls to the corporate office, but one employee, who asked to remain anonymous, said another worker in the plant came up to him and said, "Guess what, we just made the news. It was on the radio. We're having a lay off."
That employee said he hadn't been notified and nothing had been posted. "They've officially told nobody," he said, "but the rumor is all over town.
"Most of the people in downtown Bonham know what's going on up here and we're inside the building and we don't know diddly."
When asked where those jobs are going, that employee said he thinks they're going to Mexico.
By Vicki Graves, Herald Democrat
BONHAM - Having given union officials five days' notice, General Cable will lay off 49 of 190 employees at the Bonham plant, effective Tuesday, according to Lisa Lawson, who is vice president of corporate communications at the company's Highland Heights, Kentucky headquarters.
She said the loss of jobs is the result of a decreased demand for the manufacturer's copper telecommunications cable.
Angie Bratcher, at the Bonham plant had been instructed to direct all calls to the corporate office, but one employee, who asked to remain anonymous, said another worker in the plant came up to him and said, "Guess what, we just made the news. It was on the radio. We're having a lay off."
That employee said he hadn't been notified and nothing had been posted. "They've officially told nobody," he said, "but the rumor is all over town.
"Most of the people in downtown Bonham know what's going on up here and we're inside the building and we don't know diddly."
When asked where those jobs are going, that employee said he thinks they're going to Mexico.
Canadian IBEW Members at CN Rail May be forced to Strike
Steelworkers at Canadian National Railway ratify 4-year contract: 3% a year
by ALLAN SWIFT, Mon Feb 28, 4:50 PM ET
MONTREAL (CP) - A group of 2,250 Canadian National Railway track workers has ratified a new four-year labour contract with the company, the United Steelworkers union announced Monday.
Canadian National, which went through a 30-day strike last year, still has contracts to sign with two unions that are armed with strike mandates, while a third union has reached a tentative settlement.
The United Steelworkers local voted 88 per cent to accept an agreement reached in January, the first contract since the workers joined the Steelworkers last November leaving another union.
The contract, covering the period from Jan. 1, 2004 to Dec. 31, 2007, includes wage increases of three per cent in each of the first three years, and four per cent in the fourth.
The union said it also provides better work rules, more protection against contracting out, better family-workplace balance and "anti-harassment language."
The members maintain and repair CN's track, bridges and structures in Canada.
CN has two more collective agreements to sign, with the Teamsters, representing locomotive engineers and signals workers, and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, representing signal and communications staff.
On Sunday, the 730 IBEW members voted 90 per cent to support a strike which might start as early as this week.
However, the Canada Industrial Relations Board is reviewing essential services that must be maintained during a dispute, and "until that decision is rendered by that board there can be no strike or lockout," said CN spokesman Mark Hallman.
The railway kept operating during last year's strike by 5,000 Canadian Auto Workers members who manage trainyards and other functions, but backlogs and lost business cut CN's profit by $24 million.
A spokesman for the signal workers, Luc Couture, said it would be hard for CN to train replacements to maintain the fibre-optic network that monitors CN trains across the country and operates level-crossing barriers.
"Trains would have to slow down a lot," Couture said, adding that CN would not be able to maintain its schedules.
"You can't have a replacement come with two weeks' training to do our job."
In any case, CN spokesman Hallman said he is "optimistic that we can resolve these negotiations and arrive at settlements with the TCRC (Teamsters) engineers and the IBEW without labour disruption."
by ALLAN SWIFT, Mon Feb 28, 4:50 PM ET
MONTREAL (CP) - A group of 2,250 Canadian National Railway track workers has ratified a new four-year labour contract with the company, the United Steelworkers union announced Monday.
Canadian National, which went through a 30-day strike last year, still has contracts to sign with two unions that are armed with strike mandates, while a third union has reached a tentative settlement.
The United Steelworkers local voted 88 per cent to accept an agreement reached in January, the first contract since the workers joined the Steelworkers last November leaving another union.
The contract, covering the period from Jan. 1, 2004 to Dec. 31, 2007, includes wage increases of three per cent in each of the first three years, and four per cent in the fourth.
The union said it also provides better work rules, more protection against contracting out, better family-workplace balance and "anti-harassment language."
The members maintain and repair CN's track, bridges and structures in Canada.
CN has two more collective agreements to sign, with the Teamsters, representing locomotive engineers and signals workers, and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, representing signal and communications staff.
On Sunday, the 730 IBEW members voted 90 per cent to support a strike which might start as early as this week.
However, the Canada Industrial Relations Board is reviewing essential services that must be maintained during a dispute, and "until that decision is rendered by that board there can be no strike or lockout," said CN spokesman Mark Hallman.
The railway kept operating during last year's strike by 5,000 Canadian Auto Workers members who manage trainyards and other functions, but backlogs and lost business cut CN's profit by $24 million.
A spokesman for the signal workers, Luc Couture, said it would be hard for CN to train replacements to maintain the fibre-optic network that monitors CN trains across the country and operates level-crossing barriers.
"Trains would have to slow down a lot," Couture said, adding that CN would not be able to maintain its schedules.
"You can't have a replacement come with two weeks' training to do our job."
In any case, CN spokesman Hallman said he is "optimistic that we can resolve these negotiations and arrive at settlements with the TCRC (Teamsters) engineers and the IBEW without labour disruption."
IBEW Local 965 Madison, WI) Honored for Innovative Fundraising
United Way honors five area companies
by James Edward Mills, Wisconsin State Journal, 3/01/05
The United Way of Dane County applauded five new categories of giving Monday night at its annual Key Club Reception. Alliant Energy received special recognition for working with its labor union to increase employee contributions.
Key Club members - donors whose annual household contributions exceed $500 - lead the way toward achieving the campaign's goals, said Erika Monroe-Kane, United Way marketing director. She said the awards recognized those companies that did an outstanding job of motivating their employees to give at the highest level.
Other donor awards and their recipients are:
• Largest Key Club dollar increase: Springs Window Fashions
• Largest number of new Key Club donors: WPS Health Insurance
• Largest average gift from a company with over 4 employees: AAA Wisconsin
• Largest percent increase in Key Club dollars: Bergstrom Cadillac Oldsmobile Hummer
Advertisement:
United Way supporters gathered at Monona Terrace to celebrate and acknowledge exceptional achievements in charitable giving.
An award for innovation went to Alliant Energy for working with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Works Local 965 to more effectively communicate with employees to support United Way.
"We wanted to highlight the fact that they made a difference at Alliant. They went to their hourly workers and said, 'You can be a part of this,'" Monroe-Kane said.
IBEW spokesman Rick Irwin said this is the first year that management has involved labor in the campaign.
"We were very wholeheartedly for it. And we want to continue with it and build with it," Irwin said. With 1,500 union members across the state, Irwin said it's very difficult to get the word out to members. "This year Alliant has exceeded what they've done in the past."
Rod Ripley, an Alliant Energy spokesman and United Way campaign coordinator, said his company wanted to create a program its employees could be proud of.
"In our first year of running this program, we had 138 employees give a total of $74,000. It really was a big success," Ripley said.
Contact reporter James Edward Millsat jmills@madison.com or 252-6158.
by James Edward Mills, Wisconsin State Journal, 3/01/05
The United Way of Dane County applauded five new categories of giving Monday night at its annual Key Club Reception. Alliant Energy received special recognition for working with its labor union to increase employee contributions.
Key Club members - donors whose annual household contributions exceed $500 - lead the way toward achieving the campaign's goals, said Erika Monroe-Kane, United Way marketing director. She said the awards recognized those companies that did an outstanding job of motivating their employees to give at the highest level.
Other donor awards and their recipients are:
• Largest Key Club dollar increase: Springs Window Fashions
• Largest number of new Key Club donors: WPS Health Insurance
• Largest average gift from a company with over 4 employees: AAA Wisconsin
• Largest percent increase in Key Club dollars: Bergstrom Cadillac Oldsmobile Hummer
Advertisement:
United Way supporters gathered at Monona Terrace to celebrate and acknowledge exceptional achievements in charitable giving.
An award for innovation went to Alliant Energy for working with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Works Local 965 to more effectively communicate with employees to support United Way.
"We wanted to highlight the fact that they made a difference at Alliant. They went to their hourly workers and said, 'You can be a part of this,'" Monroe-Kane said.
IBEW spokesman Rick Irwin said this is the first year that management has involved labor in the campaign.
"We were very wholeheartedly for it. And we want to continue with it and build with it," Irwin said. With 1,500 union members across the state, Irwin said it's very difficult to get the word out to members. "This year Alliant has exceeded what they've done in the past."
Rod Ripley, an Alliant Energy spokesman and United Way campaign coordinator, said his company wanted to create a program its employees could be proud of.
"In our first year of running this program, we had 138 employees give a total of $74,000. It really was a big success," Ripley said.
Contact reporter James Edward Millsat jmills@madison.com or 252-6158.
Monday, February 28, 2005
IBEW Local 45 (Hollywood, CA) Backs Hahn in Losa Angeles Mayoral Race
Mayoral Hopefuls Ready for Ad Blitz
By Jeffrey L. Rabin and Michael Finnegan
Times Staff Writers, KTLA From the Los Angeles Times, February 25, 2005
Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn and Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa have enough money to dominate the crucial television ad battle in the final 11 days of the mayor's race as a third contender, former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg, struggles to keep pace, according to finance reports released Thursday.
City Councilman Bernard C. Parks is stuck in a distinct second tier in the race to raise money, but his campaign has enough cash to make him a wild card in the March 8 election.
State Sen. Richard Alarcon (D-Sun Valley), the last of the major candidates, is effectively out of money: He reported outstanding debts that exceed the cash he has in the bank.
For a campaign in which television advertising is the primary means the candidates use to reach voters, the financial ranking shows the ability each candidate will have to get his message across.
"Now is when people are beginning to focus," said Stephen P. Erie, a Los Angeles politics expert who heads the urban studies and planning program at UC San Diego. "This is when it becomes mass entertainment."
All the major candidates except Parks have begun running ads on broadcast television. So far, the TV ads have been free of the harsh attacks that have characterized their public remarks.
Finance reports filed by the campaigns Thursday with the city Ethics Commission show Hahn and Villaraigosa each with about $1.1 million in the bank as of Saturday, followed by Hertzberg with about $779,000 and Parks with about $337,000. Alarcon had just short of $79,000, although he has debts of more than $97,000.
Hahn spokesman Kam Kuwata said television viewers "will be seeing more Hahn" than any other candidate. "The reality is Jim Hahn is going to have the most flexibility," he said.
The reports show the tough challenge ahead for Hertzberg. The Sherman Oaks lawyer is less known to voters than Hahn or Villaraigosa, who gained national attention in his 2001 run for mayor.
Hertzberg has spent his campaign money at a more rapid pace than his rivals. Last week, he was forced to halt his ads on broadcast television for five days to save cash.
Earlier this month, Hertzberg was the first candidate to start TV advertising, a strategy aimed at introducing himself to voters in a positive light before opponents could start tearing him down in attack ads.
The reports show that he spent $556,000 on TV ads before yanking the spot, which shows him as a giant towering over Los Angeles as he recites his campaign pledges.
By contrast, Hahn and Villaraigosa have each spent far more on television advertising — and still have more money left to buy more airtime. Both started airing ads last week.
So far, Hahn has spent $1.3 million on his spots. Villaraigosa has spent $766,477.
Hertzberg said he was not concerned that Hahn and Villaraigosa have more in the bank, adding that he intends to use "creative" advertising to capture the public's attention.
"I'll do exactly what I need to do," he said. "I think I can spend the money much more intelligently."
Because the cost of advertising on broadcast television has risen sharply since the mayor's race four years ago, the candidates all face the daunting task of managing their campaign money effectively.
The Los Angeles media market is the nation's second largest after New York City, so TV advertising costs are the biggest expense for the top-tier candidates. A week of ads can cost from $250,000 for a low-level buy to $750,000 or more for saturation coverage, according to campaign consultants.
In a broadcast market that covers a vast swath of Southern California, the candidates must pay for ads that reach millions of people, many of them outside the city limits. But the candidates only need to reach the roughly 500,000 voters expected to cast ballots.
"You're kind of stuck," said Bruce Cain, director of the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley, noting the limited effectiveness of other means of advertising, such as campaign mailers. "It's the TV ads that have the most powerful effect."
At the same time, Cain said, the value of TV ads also has steadily dropped in recent years, with viewership fragmenting among a growing number of cable channels — and many voters increasingly disengaged from politics.
For Parks, the lack of money to wage a major television campaign could make it hard to broaden his appeal beyond his base of African American voters in South Los Angeles.
"His base can only bring him so many votes," Erie said, adding that it is unlikely to be enough to win him one of the two spots in the likely May 17 runoff election.
A former Los Angeles police chief, Parks also has sought the support of white Republicans and conservatives, mainly in the San Fernando Valley. Among other things, he has stressed his law enforcement background and pro-business leanings.
Parks said his main focus would be "grass-roots" operations, but he also has taken a nontraditional approach to campaign ads, running a movie trailer in theaters throughout the Los Angeles area.
As Parks arrived at a Hollywood Chamber of Commerce reception Thursday, he said he would start running at least two different television ads on broadcast stations this weekend and would stay on the air until the March 8 election.
"Everyone who has gotten their TV ads up has gotten a bump" in the polls, he said. "We're going to get the same thing."
Overall, the reports show that since the mayoral campaign began, the candidates have raised just short of $7.9 million.
Of that, Hahn has collected the most — $2.9 million. Hertzberg and Villaraigosa have raised $1.8 million and $1.7 million, respectively. Parks has raised $771,000, and Alarcon trailed the other four with less than $550,000.
Villaraigosa, a former Assembly speaker, was the last of the major candidates to enter the race last year. Since then, he has been raising money at a rapid clip. "We're in a great place," said Ace Smith, Villaraigosa's campaign manager. "We've got momentum. There's nothing more you could ask for."
In the most recent reporting period, Villaraigosa raised far more than his competitors, collecting $360,223. Hertzberg came in second with $229,216. Hahn raised $153,684. Alarcon brought in $103,986 and Parks, who raised the most in the previous reporting period, fell to last, with $80,650.
Villaraigosa contributors who gave $1,000 each include the California Commerce Club casino; Viacom Chairman Jonathan Dolgen; Occidental Petroleum and its chairman, Ray Irani; radio personality Casey Kasem; the L.A. League of Conservation Voters; the Oak Tree Racing Assn.; and USA Petroleum Corp. Actor Jimmy Smits gave $500.
Hertzberg received $1,000 checks from Carlos Alberini, president of Guess Inc.; Polly Anthony, president of Geffen Records; Casino Systems; SBC California Employee PAC; and state Controller Steve Westly.
Hahn donors who gave $1,000 apiece include SunAmerica; the California Assn. of Professional Employees; California Teamsters Public Affairs Council; Clean Power Campaign; Hawaii Laborers PAC; International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 45; Los Angeles Police Command Officers Assn.; and the Los Angeles/Orange Counties Building and Construction Trade Council PAC.
In addition, Hahn's campaign has been bolstered by more than $250,000 in independent spending by labor unions aimed at Los Angeles voters. The unions also have spent another $101,900 to urge their own members to cast ballots for Hahn.
The largest contributions to Alarcon's campaign include $5,000 checks from Magdalena Beltran-Del Olmo, vice president of the California Wellness Foundation; attorney Paul Rodriguez; and banker Alfred Villalobos.
Parks received $6,000 from billboard company Regency Outdoor Advertising and $1,000 each from SBC California Employee PAC, Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich and Pacific Capital Group executive Lodwrick M. Cook. Hollywood Park Casino gave him $500.
*
Times staff writers Matea Gold and Patrick McGreevy and Times researcher Maloy Moore contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2005, The Los Angeles Times
By Jeffrey L. Rabin and Michael Finnegan
Times Staff Writers, KTLA From the Los Angeles Times, February 25, 2005
Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn and Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa have enough money to dominate the crucial television ad battle in the final 11 days of the mayor's race as a third contender, former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg, struggles to keep pace, according to finance reports released Thursday.
City Councilman Bernard C. Parks is stuck in a distinct second tier in the race to raise money, but his campaign has enough cash to make him a wild card in the March 8 election.
State Sen. Richard Alarcon (D-Sun Valley), the last of the major candidates, is effectively out of money: He reported outstanding debts that exceed the cash he has in the bank.
For a campaign in which television advertising is the primary means the candidates use to reach voters, the financial ranking shows the ability each candidate will have to get his message across.
"Now is when people are beginning to focus," said Stephen P. Erie, a Los Angeles politics expert who heads the urban studies and planning program at UC San Diego. "This is when it becomes mass entertainment."
All the major candidates except Parks have begun running ads on broadcast television. So far, the TV ads have been free of the harsh attacks that have characterized their public remarks.
Finance reports filed by the campaigns Thursday with the city Ethics Commission show Hahn and Villaraigosa each with about $1.1 million in the bank as of Saturday, followed by Hertzberg with about $779,000 and Parks with about $337,000. Alarcon had just short of $79,000, although he has debts of more than $97,000.
Hahn spokesman Kam Kuwata said television viewers "will be seeing more Hahn" than any other candidate. "The reality is Jim Hahn is going to have the most flexibility," he said.
The reports show the tough challenge ahead for Hertzberg. The Sherman Oaks lawyer is less known to voters than Hahn or Villaraigosa, who gained national attention in his 2001 run for mayor.
Hertzberg has spent his campaign money at a more rapid pace than his rivals. Last week, he was forced to halt his ads on broadcast television for five days to save cash.
Earlier this month, Hertzberg was the first candidate to start TV advertising, a strategy aimed at introducing himself to voters in a positive light before opponents could start tearing him down in attack ads.
The reports show that he spent $556,000 on TV ads before yanking the spot, which shows him as a giant towering over Los Angeles as he recites his campaign pledges.
By contrast, Hahn and Villaraigosa have each spent far more on television advertising — and still have more money left to buy more airtime. Both started airing ads last week.
So far, Hahn has spent $1.3 million on his spots. Villaraigosa has spent $766,477.
Hertzberg said he was not concerned that Hahn and Villaraigosa have more in the bank, adding that he intends to use "creative" advertising to capture the public's attention.
"I'll do exactly what I need to do," he said. "I think I can spend the money much more intelligently."
Because the cost of advertising on broadcast television has risen sharply since the mayor's race four years ago, the candidates all face the daunting task of managing their campaign money effectively.
The Los Angeles media market is the nation's second largest after New York City, so TV advertising costs are the biggest expense for the top-tier candidates. A week of ads can cost from $250,000 for a low-level buy to $750,000 or more for saturation coverage, according to campaign consultants.
In a broadcast market that covers a vast swath of Southern California, the candidates must pay for ads that reach millions of people, many of them outside the city limits. But the candidates only need to reach the roughly 500,000 voters expected to cast ballots.
"You're kind of stuck," said Bruce Cain, director of the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley, noting the limited effectiveness of other means of advertising, such as campaign mailers. "It's the TV ads that have the most powerful effect."
At the same time, Cain said, the value of TV ads also has steadily dropped in recent years, with viewership fragmenting among a growing number of cable channels — and many voters increasingly disengaged from politics.
For Parks, the lack of money to wage a major television campaign could make it hard to broaden his appeal beyond his base of African American voters in South Los Angeles.
"His base can only bring him so many votes," Erie said, adding that it is unlikely to be enough to win him one of the two spots in the likely May 17 runoff election.
A former Los Angeles police chief, Parks also has sought the support of white Republicans and conservatives, mainly in the San Fernando Valley. Among other things, he has stressed his law enforcement background and pro-business leanings.
Parks said his main focus would be "grass-roots" operations, but he also has taken a nontraditional approach to campaign ads, running a movie trailer in theaters throughout the Los Angeles area.
As Parks arrived at a Hollywood Chamber of Commerce reception Thursday, he said he would start running at least two different television ads on broadcast stations this weekend and would stay on the air until the March 8 election.
"Everyone who has gotten their TV ads up has gotten a bump" in the polls, he said. "We're going to get the same thing."
Overall, the reports show that since the mayoral campaign began, the candidates have raised just short of $7.9 million.
Of that, Hahn has collected the most — $2.9 million. Hertzberg and Villaraigosa have raised $1.8 million and $1.7 million, respectively. Parks has raised $771,000, and Alarcon trailed the other four with less than $550,000.
Villaraigosa, a former Assembly speaker, was the last of the major candidates to enter the race last year. Since then, he has been raising money at a rapid clip. "We're in a great place," said Ace Smith, Villaraigosa's campaign manager. "We've got momentum. There's nothing more you could ask for."
In the most recent reporting period, Villaraigosa raised far more than his competitors, collecting $360,223. Hertzberg came in second with $229,216. Hahn raised $153,684. Alarcon brought in $103,986 and Parks, who raised the most in the previous reporting period, fell to last, with $80,650.
Villaraigosa contributors who gave $1,000 each include the California Commerce Club casino; Viacom Chairman Jonathan Dolgen; Occidental Petroleum and its chairman, Ray Irani; radio personality Casey Kasem; the L.A. League of Conservation Voters; the Oak Tree Racing Assn.; and USA Petroleum Corp. Actor Jimmy Smits gave $500.
Hertzberg received $1,000 checks from Carlos Alberini, president of Guess Inc.; Polly Anthony, president of Geffen Records; Casino Systems; SBC California Employee PAC; and state Controller Steve Westly.
Hahn donors who gave $1,000 apiece include SunAmerica; the California Assn. of Professional Employees; California Teamsters Public Affairs Council; Clean Power Campaign; Hawaii Laborers PAC; International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 45; Los Angeles Police Command Officers Assn.; and the Los Angeles/Orange Counties Building and Construction Trade Council PAC.
In addition, Hahn's campaign has been bolstered by more than $250,000 in independent spending by labor unions aimed at Los Angeles voters. The unions also have spent another $101,900 to urge their own members to cast ballots for Hahn.
The largest contributions to Alarcon's campaign include $5,000 checks from Magdalena Beltran-Del Olmo, vice president of the California Wellness Foundation; attorney Paul Rodriguez; and banker Alfred Villalobos.
Parks received $6,000 from billboard company Regency Outdoor Advertising and $1,000 each from SBC California Employee PAC, Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich and Pacific Capital Group executive Lodwrick M. Cook. Hollywood Park Casino gave him $500.
*
Times staff writers Matea Gold and Patrick McGreevy and Times researcher Maloy Moore contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2005, The Los Angeles Times
IBEW Local 2127 (Atlanta) Faces 448 Jobs lost as Siemens Moves their Jobs to Mexico
Siemens to Close Tucker, Ga. Site, Lay Off 448 American Workers
Web Editor: Sean Rowe, WXIA-TV, 2/25/2005 11:43:21 AM
Siemens Energy & Automation, Inc. is laying off 448 employees as it consolidates its manufacturing plant in Tucker, Ga., to existing locations in El Paso, Tx., and Juarez, Mexico.
The announcement came Friday morning as Siemens affirmed it would “fulfill its bargaining obligations with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Union, Local 2127” regarding the layoffs. The transfer of services is expected to begin as soon as June and be finished by March 2006, Siemens officials said.
Pink-slipped workers will likely be eligible to seek positions at Siemens 31 other locations in Atlanta, company officials said. Siemens is expected to work with government agencies and other businesses to help find work for its displaced employees.
The company will also be offering separation pay, extended healthcare benefits and career transition services to its workers in Tucker.
Web Editor: Sean Rowe, WXIA-TV, 2/25/2005 11:43:21 AM
Siemens Energy & Automation, Inc. is laying off 448 employees as it consolidates its manufacturing plant in Tucker, Ga., to existing locations in El Paso, Tx., and Juarez, Mexico.
The announcement came Friday morning as Siemens affirmed it would “fulfill its bargaining obligations with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Union, Local 2127” regarding the layoffs. The transfer of services is expected to begin as soon as June and be finished by March 2006, Siemens officials said.
Pink-slipped workers will likely be eligible to seek positions at Siemens 31 other locations in Atlanta, company officials said. Siemens is expected to work with government agencies and other businesses to help find work for its displaced employees.
The company will also be offering separation pay, extended healthcare benefits and career transition services to its workers in Tucker.
IBEW Local 1 (St. Louis) Member Points out Fallacy of Bush Social Security Scheme
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/nation/story/5C4D6C00CC741E2D86256FB400745BA9?OpenDocument
Many Republicans aren't talking about Social Security
By Jon Sawyer, Post-Dispatch Washington Bureau Chief, 02/26/2005
Social Security reform may be the signature issue of President George W. Bush's second term but so far it is mostly Democrats, not Republicans, who have answered his call for a grand national debate.
When Rep. Kenny Hulshof, R-Columbia, spoke Friday to the Washington (Mo.) Area Chamber of Commerce, he talked about health care, methamphetamine and Amtrak but he barely mentioned Social Security.
He said nothing at all about personal accounts, the centerpiece of Bush's plan, even though Bush has proclaimed this his top domestic priority and even though Hulshof serves on the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security.
"It's going to be a long process," Hulshof said afterward. "It's important to solicit information and opinions on some of these proposals, but until we really get down to the brass tacks of talking about specific legislation, right now it's just an informational exercise."
That Democrats are more than willing to talk specifics, not just brass tacks but maybe brass knuckles too, was evident Thursday night at a town forum sponsored by Rep. Russ Carnahan, D-St. Louis.
More than 150 people spilled out of the meeting room at the Weber Road Branch of the St. Louis County Public Library, a majority of them older people, but a sprinkling of 20-somethings too, and virtually unanimous in opposition to any kind of Social Security privatization.
Carnahan, a freshman, told the audience that in his view Bush had given "some really mixed messages. On the one hand he says the Social Security system is bankrupt but on the other hand he says it's stable for about the next half century. To me it can't be both.
"Experts will tell you that for the next 50 years the system is sound and even after that it can pay up to 80 percent of its benefits to everybody," Carnahan said, passing over the fact that most experts agree it would be ruinous to Social Security's long-term solvency to postpone reforms that long.
"That doesn't sound like a bankrupt system to me," he said. "This is the president's number one objective. He's made this the debate. I say, let's have the debate."
Only two attendees raised their hands to indicate they supported the idea of personal accounts. When one of them suggested that for younger people such accounts would bring better returns than the current Social Security system, he was all but shouted down.
"Where's he been for the last five years?" a man in the back of the room called out. "I lost $35,000."
"I'm a working man," said another. "When a millionaire starts trying to help me with my money, I get scared."
Leonard Thomas, 63, of Oakville, said that he had put aside money all his working life, as a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, but that the stock market crash in 2000 had hit him hard.
"I lost $100,000, a third of my 401(k)" retirement account, he said. "Who's going to make that up if I'm a baby boomer and the stock market goes south again?"
Rich Brown, 51, of Lemay, noted Social Security's role in serving the disabled and survivors. "My father was 50 when I was born, and he died when I was in high school. The survivor benefits kept us out of poverty and got me at least a couple of years of higher ed.
"I'm forever grateful for it," he said. "I don't want to see any change."
In a meeting that had the feel of a pep rally, and one against an especially reviled rival, Carnahan got strong encouragement even from the young workers often cited as prime beneficiaries of Bush's proposed personal accounts.
"I came here not just to voice my opinion because I think most of us agree," said Chris Murphy, 22, of St. Louis, who waits tables at the Old Spaghetti Factory on Laclede's Landing.
"We need a champion, someone who can go full throttle on the floor of the House or Senate. It won't be citizens who can do this. ... I came here to ask you to be a champion for us."
At the Chamber of Commerce meeting Friday, by contrast, the Social Security issue sparked no questions at all from a lunchtime audience of about 100. Participants noted that Hulshof shared the stage with state legislators and the focus was on more local issues, among them the fight over state Medicaid funding and the proposed ban on stem-cell research.
But among those interviewed there was skepticism of the personal accounts even from strong Bush supporters.
"Privatization is not a solution," said Eric Park, head of a Washington-based financial planning firm. He noted that Bush administration officials themselves have acknowledged that the proposed personal accounts, funded by a portion of employee-paid payroll taxes, would not by themselves shore up the system's long-term funding shortfall.
Park said he was also concerned by data showing the generally poor performance of 401(k) and other retirement accounts where investment decisions are left to individuals.
"I'm a red-white-and-blue Republican conservative capitalist, but this is not a solution," Park said. "It's good to promote an ownership society. But to say that this solves Social Security's problems? It doesn't."
This past week was the first recess of the 109th Congress, and the first since Bush named partial privatization of Social Security as the top domestic priority of his second term. While he himself spent the week in Europe, shoring up a sometimes fractured alliance, there were signs at home of trouble to come on his Social Security reform campaign.
First was the emergence of partisan sniping, from both sides:
Internet ads assailing the AARP, principal voice of Americans over age 50 and a leading opponent of privatization, as being pro-gay and anti-Iraq war. The ads were floated by USA Net, an offshoot of the Swift Vets and POWs for Truth, the group behind ads last fall attacking the Vietnam military record of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.
Ads from a liberal advocacy group, Campaign for America's Future, targeting Rep. Jim McCrery, R-La., chairman of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security. The ads said McCrery's receipt of some $200,000 in campaign contributions over the past for years from banks and security firms make him beholden to Wall Street interests pressing privatization.
A second sign was the reluctance of Republican congressional representatives to embrace Bush's agenda. Most, like Hulshof and Sen. Jim Talent, R-Mo., passed up the chance to highlight Social Security at public forums back home. Those who pressed the case, like Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., found the going rough. More than two dozen, according to Democratic counts, have already rejected privatization outright.
Third was the admission, from Bush's own inner circle, that the campaign has gotten off to a rocky start.
"We still have some work to do," Treasury Secretary John Snow said as he headed off to Florida to pitch Bush's plan. "We're at the early stages of this education process and engagement process. We're going to hit this hard. We're going to get the facts out."
Jill Quadagno, a sociologist at Florida State University, was a staff member on the 1993 entitlements reform commission, a bipartisan group that tried and failed to come up with long-term solutions to Social Security and Medicare.
Quadagno opposes personal accounts because she believes setting them up would undermine the broad public backing that has made Social Security thrive. She expects the proposal to die. But she also notes that the debate has just begun, and that Bush has already achieved much.
"What's interesting to me is that change in what's acceptable to speak about," she said. "Before the 2000 campaign it was considered suicide to bring up privatization at all. Bush did, and it didn't hurt him."
Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, appearing with Hulshof, said it was way too soon to write off Bush's prospects.
"We've now had three election cycles of evidence, in which no one who's campaigned on personal accounts has been defeated," Kinder said. "I don't know how much evidence you need," he said.
Reporter Jon Sawyer
E-mail: jsawyer@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 202-298-6880
Many Republicans aren't talking about Social Security
By Jon Sawyer, Post-Dispatch Washington Bureau Chief, 02/26/2005
Social Security reform may be the signature issue of President George W. Bush's second term but so far it is mostly Democrats, not Republicans, who have answered his call for a grand national debate.
When Rep. Kenny Hulshof, R-Columbia, spoke Friday to the Washington (Mo.) Area Chamber of Commerce, he talked about health care, methamphetamine and Amtrak but he barely mentioned Social Security.
He said nothing at all about personal accounts, the centerpiece of Bush's plan, even though Bush has proclaimed this his top domestic priority and even though Hulshof serves on the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security.
"It's going to be a long process," Hulshof said afterward. "It's important to solicit information and opinions on some of these proposals, but until we really get down to the brass tacks of talking about specific legislation, right now it's just an informational exercise."
That Democrats are more than willing to talk specifics, not just brass tacks but maybe brass knuckles too, was evident Thursday night at a town forum sponsored by Rep. Russ Carnahan, D-St. Louis.
More than 150 people spilled out of the meeting room at the Weber Road Branch of the St. Louis County Public Library, a majority of them older people, but a sprinkling of 20-somethings too, and virtually unanimous in opposition to any kind of Social Security privatization.
Carnahan, a freshman, told the audience that in his view Bush had given "some really mixed messages. On the one hand he says the Social Security system is bankrupt but on the other hand he says it's stable for about the next half century. To me it can't be both.
"Experts will tell you that for the next 50 years the system is sound and even after that it can pay up to 80 percent of its benefits to everybody," Carnahan said, passing over the fact that most experts agree it would be ruinous to Social Security's long-term solvency to postpone reforms that long.
"That doesn't sound like a bankrupt system to me," he said. "This is the president's number one objective. He's made this the debate. I say, let's have the debate."
Only two attendees raised their hands to indicate they supported the idea of personal accounts. When one of them suggested that for younger people such accounts would bring better returns than the current Social Security system, he was all but shouted down.
"Where's he been for the last five years?" a man in the back of the room called out. "I lost $35,000."
"I'm a working man," said another. "When a millionaire starts trying to help me with my money, I get scared."
Leonard Thomas, 63, of Oakville, said that he had put aside money all his working life, as a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, but that the stock market crash in 2000 had hit him hard.
"I lost $100,000, a third of my 401(k)" retirement account, he said. "Who's going to make that up if I'm a baby boomer and the stock market goes south again?"
Rich Brown, 51, of Lemay, noted Social Security's role in serving the disabled and survivors. "My father was 50 when I was born, and he died when I was in high school. The survivor benefits kept us out of poverty and got me at least a couple of years of higher ed.
"I'm forever grateful for it," he said. "I don't want to see any change."
In a meeting that had the feel of a pep rally, and one against an especially reviled rival, Carnahan got strong encouragement even from the young workers often cited as prime beneficiaries of Bush's proposed personal accounts.
"I came here not just to voice my opinion because I think most of us agree," said Chris Murphy, 22, of St. Louis, who waits tables at the Old Spaghetti Factory on Laclede's Landing.
"We need a champion, someone who can go full throttle on the floor of the House or Senate. It won't be citizens who can do this. ... I came here to ask you to be a champion for us."
At the Chamber of Commerce meeting Friday, by contrast, the Social Security issue sparked no questions at all from a lunchtime audience of about 100. Participants noted that Hulshof shared the stage with state legislators and the focus was on more local issues, among them the fight over state Medicaid funding and the proposed ban on stem-cell research.
But among those interviewed there was skepticism of the personal accounts even from strong Bush supporters.
"Privatization is not a solution," said Eric Park, head of a Washington-based financial planning firm. He noted that Bush administration officials themselves have acknowledged that the proposed personal accounts, funded by a portion of employee-paid payroll taxes, would not by themselves shore up the system's long-term funding shortfall.
Park said he was also concerned by data showing the generally poor performance of 401(k) and other retirement accounts where investment decisions are left to individuals.
"I'm a red-white-and-blue Republican conservative capitalist, but this is not a solution," Park said. "It's good to promote an ownership society. But to say that this solves Social Security's problems? It doesn't."
This past week was the first recess of the 109th Congress, and the first since Bush named partial privatization of Social Security as the top domestic priority of his second term. While he himself spent the week in Europe, shoring up a sometimes fractured alliance, there were signs at home of trouble to come on his Social Security reform campaign.
First was the emergence of partisan sniping, from both sides:
Internet ads assailing the AARP, principal voice of Americans over age 50 and a leading opponent of privatization, as being pro-gay and anti-Iraq war. The ads were floated by USA Net, an offshoot of the Swift Vets and POWs for Truth, the group behind ads last fall attacking the Vietnam military record of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.
Ads from a liberal advocacy group, Campaign for America's Future, targeting Rep. Jim McCrery, R-La., chairman of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security. The ads said McCrery's receipt of some $200,000 in campaign contributions over the past for years from banks and security firms make him beholden to Wall Street interests pressing privatization.
A second sign was the reluctance of Republican congressional representatives to embrace Bush's agenda. Most, like Hulshof and Sen. Jim Talent, R-Mo., passed up the chance to highlight Social Security at public forums back home. Those who pressed the case, like Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., found the going rough. More than two dozen, according to Democratic counts, have already rejected privatization outright.
Third was the admission, from Bush's own inner circle, that the campaign has gotten off to a rocky start.
"We still have some work to do," Treasury Secretary John Snow said as he headed off to Florida to pitch Bush's plan. "We're at the early stages of this education process and engagement process. We're going to hit this hard. We're going to get the facts out."
Jill Quadagno, a sociologist at Florida State University, was a staff member on the 1993 entitlements reform commission, a bipartisan group that tried and failed to come up with long-term solutions to Social Security and Medicare.
Quadagno opposes personal accounts because she believes setting them up would undermine the broad public backing that has made Social Security thrive. She expects the proposal to die. But she also notes that the debate has just begun, and that Bush has already achieved much.
"What's interesting to me is that change in what's acceptable to speak about," she said. "Before the 2000 campaign it was considered suicide to bring up privatization at all. Bush did, and it didn't hurt him."
Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, appearing with Hulshof, said it was way too soon to write off Bush's prospects.
"We've now had three election cycles of evidence, in which no one who's campaigned on personal accounts has been defeated," Kinder said. "I don't know how much evidence you need," he said.
Reporter Jon Sawyer
E-mail: jsawyer@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 202-298-6880
IBEW System Council U3 (New Jersey) Members now in 11th Week of Strike Against FirstEnergy of Akron, Ohio
JCP&L workers reject pact offer
11-week strike continues with no new talks in sight
JOSEPH J. DELCONZO/Gannett New Jersey, Home News Tribune 02/27/05
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Striking workers from Jersey Central Power & Light decided yesterday to reject a "one-time offer" from the company that union leaders had urged them to turn down.
Results of the balloting, held at several locations, were not disclosed. However, Jack Moriarty, a spokesman for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, described the vote as an "overwhelming rejection" of the company's offer.
"We hope they will soon return to the bargaining table and bring their "A' game this time," Moriarty said shortly after the balloting
had ended. "This vote represents a repudiation of the outrageous demands made by First Energy (JCP&L's parent company), particularly their unilateral changes to work rules."
Ron Morano, a JCP&L spokesman, said the company was disappointed by the vote.
"We were hoping they would ratify what we thought was a fair and equitable offer that represented the best interests of all our employees," he said. "We have a number of options and will review them before deciding what to do next.
No new contract talks have been scheduled.
Negotiations during the 11-week strike, believed to be the longest ever for JCP&L, had brought little satisfaction for some 1,350 striking members of the IBEW. The union agreed to an increase in health-care costs but conceded that the boost in premiums will be greater than the raise being offered, which is 3 percent annually for the next three years.
However, the union and the state's second-largest utility did not reach a deal on the company's proposal to have some workers on 24-hour call.
Under the offer made last week by JCP&L, those workers would not be compensated for carrying a beeper or cell phone, but would get overtime if called to duty and must go out if called.
Some workers consider that proposal tantamount to unpaid, forced overtime. The company maintained that it needs to scramble emergency crews efficiently to restore service quickly.
JCP&L provides electricity to 1 million customers in 13 counties, primarily Hudson, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Sussex and Warren.
The five locals that comprise Council U-3 represent linemen, technicians, clerks, mechanics and other employees of the Morristown-based company. About one-third deal with power lines.
If the contract had been ratified, it would have ended the first strike since a three-week walkout in 1987.
The defeat, though, brings uncertainty. There have been dozens of negotiating sessions since September, and the contract was extended three times before the Dec. 8 walkout.
The strike caused hardship for many union members, since there was no strike fund to supplement the missing paychecks. Five families in dire need were given cash, the union said, and noted that 800 families got about $12,000 worth of groceries last weekend at two union-sponsored food banks.
The company has not determined if it will fire workers and hire replacements now that the contract has been rejected. Union leaders said they worry about such an action and hope that talks could resume as early as tomorrow.
JCP&L is a unit of FirstEnergy Corp. of Akron, Ohio, which bought the Morristown-based power company then known as GPU Energy in 2001. FirstEnergy changed the name back to Jersey Central Power & Light, a name dating to the utility's founding in 1925.
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11-week strike continues with no new talks in sight
JOSEPH J. DELCONZO/Gannett New Jersey, Home News Tribune 02/27/05
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Striking workers from Jersey Central Power & Light decided yesterday to reject a "one-time offer" from the company that union leaders had urged them to turn down.
Results of the balloting, held at several locations, were not disclosed. However, Jack Moriarty, a spokesman for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, described the vote as an "overwhelming rejection" of the company's offer.
"We hope they will soon return to the bargaining table and bring their "A' game this time," Moriarty said shortly after the balloting
had ended. "This vote represents a repudiation of the outrageous demands made by First Energy (JCP&L's parent company), particularly their unilateral changes to work rules."
Ron Morano, a JCP&L spokesman, said the company was disappointed by the vote.
"We were hoping they would ratify what we thought was a fair and equitable offer that represented the best interests of all our employees," he said. "We have a number of options and will review them before deciding what to do next.
No new contract talks have been scheduled.
Negotiations during the 11-week strike, believed to be the longest ever for JCP&L, had brought little satisfaction for some 1,350 striking members of the IBEW. The union agreed to an increase in health-care costs but conceded that the boost in premiums will be greater than the raise being offered, which is 3 percent annually for the next three years.
However, the union and the state's second-largest utility did not reach a deal on the company's proposal to have some workers on 24-hour call.
Under the offer made last week by JCP&L, those workers would not be compensated for carrying a beeper or cell phone, but would get overtime if called to duty and must go out if called.
Some workers consider that proposal tantamount to unpaid, forced overtime. The company maintained that it needs to scramble emergency crews efficiently to restore service quickly.
JCP&L provides electricity to 1 million customers in 13 counties, primarily Hudson, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Sussex and Warren.
The five locals that comprise Council U-3 represent linemen, technicians, clerks, mechanics and other employees of the Morristown-based company. About one-third deal with power lines.
If the contract had been ratified, it would have ended the first strike since a three-week walkout in 1987.
The defeat, though, brings uncertainty. There have been dozens of negotiating sessions since September, and the contract was extended three times before the Dec. 8 walkout.
The strike caused hardship for many union members, since there was no strike fund to supplement the missing paychecks. Five families in dire need were given cash, the union said, and noted that 800 families got about $12,000 worth of groceries last weekend at two union-sponsored food banks.
The company has not determined if it will fire workers and hire replacements now that the contract has been rejected. Union leaders said they worry about such an action and hope that talks could resume as early as tomorrow.
JCP&L is a unit of FirstEnergy Corp. of Akron, Ohio, which bought the Morristown-based power company then known as GPU Energy in 2001. FirstEnergy changed the name back to Jersey Central Power & Light, a name dating to the utility's founding in 1925.
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