Peco and worker union reach a deal, ending strike
More than 1,500 unionized Peco workers have been on strike since the Fourth of July.
Peco and its worker union reached a tentative agreement on a new contract late Monday, ending the first strike in the company’s history on its third day.
Roughly 1,500 unionized linemen, field workers, call center staff, and other Peco employees have been without a contract for more than three months, since their most recent five-year agreement expired on March 31. They walked off the job on the Fourth of July.
The union characterized the five-year agreement as a “historic contract victory” in an announcement late Monday, noting that it included cash balance pension plans, full retirement medical coverage, and “significant wage increases” for all members.
“We said from day one that our members’ top priorities were restoring pensions and retirement medical coverage for all members, and we won that and more,” IBEW local 614 president Larry Anastasi said in a statement.
Wage increases for field workers are 4% annually for the first four years and 4.5% in the fifth year, according to the union, and call center workers are to get 3% raises annually throughout the five-year contract.
Peco announced the agreement Monday night in a company statement.
“We value our long-standing relationship with IBEW Local 614 and appreciate the efforts of both bargaining teams in reaching this agreement,” Peco’s statement said. “The proposed contract recognizes the contributions of our employees while supporting our responsibility to deliver reliable, affordable service across southeastern Pennsylvania.”
With the agreement in place, Peco and the union said, the work stoppage will end while union members vote on ratifying the contract. A union spokesperson said members will return to work Wednesday and a date to vote on the contract has not yet been decided.
Peco and the union have held daily bargaining sessions since Wednesday to reach an agreement. Over the weekend and into Monday, workers picketed outside Peco’s headquarters in Center City.
Meanwhile, Peco has been contending with outages in recent days following thunderstorms. The company had a contingency plan in place, which included workers from outside the region.
Over 57,000 customers were without power on the night of July Fourth at the height of the outages, Peco said, but within less than 24 hours, that number was reduced to less than 6,000. As of Monday afternoon, the company reported roughly 4,400 outages on it’s webpage, and the number was below 1,000 by late Monday night.
The tentative deal marks a pivotal moment in what have been challenging negotiations between the union, IBEW Local 614, and Peco. Bargaining turned ugly in April, as both sides accused the other of using unfair tactics.
In addition to raises and better healthcare benefits, the union wanted its contract to include a uniform retirement plan for all members. Currently, roughly 600 of the 1,500 union workers don’t have pensions, the union has said, and pension benefits are varied for the other 900 or so.
» READ MORE: These Peco employees do dangerous work at all hours. Their union is pushing for a better retirement package.
Utility companies started moving away from providing pensions to new hires in the 1990s, according to William Dwyer, a professor at Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations, who once worked at PSE&G in New Jersey. That left 401(k) as the typical retirement benefit. At Peco that happened later — the company stopped putting new hires into its pension plan in 2021, according to the union.
The tentative agreement includes a requirement that call center workers get 24-hour notice of mandatory overtime, as well as better upgrade pay for union members who complete tasks outside their typical job description, according to the union.
In Southeastern Pennsylvania, Peco provides electricity to 1.7 million customers and natural gas to 553,000.
