IBEW Wins Big at PECO... Again!

July 27, 2004

Just over a year after a heartbreaking organizing loss at PECO, the IBEW overwhelmingly won a July 21 election for the Philadelphia utility’s energy transmission and distribution unit. Now 1,100 employees will have a voice on the job with the IBEW.

"This is a decisive victory not just for the IBEW but for the workers who had the courage and the spirit to choose a strong voice on the job," said IBEW International President Edwin D. Hill.

In May 2003, the IBEW lost a secret ballot election for the same unit by 43 votes. But contrary to the assumptions of the company, only a few months after that election, IBEW organizers were back.

At the NLRB after the vote count, the thrill of victory for the IBEW and union supporters at PECO. From left are Steve Aldrich, Rick Aicher, Joe Weber, Joe Mastrogiovanni, Nora Leyland, Frank Kuders, John Whitaker, John Conlin, Tom Gallagher, Brian Brennan and Ed Janiszewski.

"We stayed on the property and continued to organize and 14 months later, we were successful," said Third District International Representative Brian Brennan. "We got more people involved and we worked very hard."

In last year’s polling, the union won 48 percent of the vote. But this time, the margin of victory was a proven demonstration of the workers’ solid support for representation.

"We went from 48 to 73 percent on a rerun, which is unusual," said IBEW legal counsel Nora Leyland. "This is an incredible victory."

The company’s vigorous attempts to keep their workers from organizing failed last June when the nearly 300 fossil fuel generation employees voted for the IBEW. The new transmission and distribution unit will join the generation workers as part of the new IBEW Local 614. Generation workers are still working to obtain a first contract.

Brennan credits the hard work of the internal organizing committee for getting the whole unit involved. "They worked very hard," he said. "They did it themselves."

With the transmission and distribution and generation workers in the fold, organizers will concentrate their efforts on nearly 700 workers in the company’s nuclear section and 165 employees at the customer call center.

PECO, which serves Philadelphia and surrounding eastern Pennsylvania suburbs, has been a desirable but difficult target for unions through the years. In 1999, the Utility Workers Union of America lost an election for PECO’s transmission and distribution workers. And the IBEW lost elections for the same unit in 1996 and 1991.

Above: Exelon/PECO-run power generation plants

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