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IBEW Becomes First-Ever Union
at Rochester Utility

April 7, 2003

By an overwhelming margin, workers at Rochester Gas and Electric voted for representation by the IBEW. Ninety-two percent of the nearly 300 transmission and distribution workers who voted in mail balloting over the past two weeks gave the nod to the IBEW.

President Hill, Secretary-Treasurer OConnor, Vice President Siegel
and Senior Executive Assistant Larry Neidig join RG&E workers
after their historic vote in favor of IBEW representation,
April 1. They will be the new Local Union 36.

The workers held firm in their support for a union, said Third District International Representative Mike Flanagan. "The electric and gas workers were very strong and very much in favor of the union," he said.

Flanagan said the victory could not have been possible without solid support from the International Office, Third District Vice President Donald Siegel and several IBEW locals during the seven-month campaign.

Pivotal issues included job security and health care costs. RG&E is in the midst of trimming 225 workers out of its 1,100-member work force.

The bargaining unit, designated the new Local 36, will contain approximately 328 members. In the past two months, they have been gathering for informal union meetings with an unofficial executive committee. Local 86, based in Rochester, opened its union hall to the workers and even lent two organizers to the effort. Geneva utility Local 249, Lancaster utility Local 966, and Buffalo utility office workers Local 2199 also joined the meetings, Flanagan said.

IBEW International President Edwin D. Hill (left) with the
new Local 36 members Gary Johnston, Craig Rode,
Rick Irish and Mark Inteclichia. They are joined by
Secretary-Treasurer Jerry OConnor and Third
District Vice President Donald Siegel.

International President Hill, Secretary-Treasurer Jerry OConnor, Vice President Siegel and others joined the new IBEW members on April 2, the first meeting after the election.

"The IBEW is looking forward to forming a good working relationship with RG&E," President Hill said.

RG&E has never had a union before. The discouraging results of a 1996 survey by the IBEW halted any hope of a successful organizing effort. The most recent attempt to organize the utility in 2000, by the Utility Workers Union of America, failed.

Negotiations are expected to start in May.

 Above: Workers at Rochester Gas and Electric gather on April 2, one day after the overwhelming voted for representation by the IBEW. They have been
designated the new Local 36.

Rochester Gas & Electric Corporation...corp. Web site