“Organize 2 Survive!”
Allegheny Energy Harrison Power Workers Join UWUA

“They said we would never go union, that we might as well give up,” recalls Dennis Mills, a coal handler at Allegheny Energy’s Harrison Power Plant for the past 16 years. On September 23, the 180 West Virginia workers proved the company wrong. They voted ‘Yes’ for the UWUA and they are now members in the newly chartered Local 304, a reference to the state’s area code. UWUA also represents more than 1,200 workers at the company’s Hatfield’s Ferry plant in Greene County, its Mitchell power station near New Eagle and other locations in PA, MD and WV.

‘I know what a difference a union makes’
“I was in the United Mine Workers’ union for 18 years beforehand, and I know what a difference a union makes,” explains Mills, who was on the organizing committee at Harrison Power. “Up until now, the company succeeded in keeping people divided, departments were pitted against each other.”

Scott Pedigo, a Bulk Materials SO2 in the scrubber department for more than 15 years, explains, “We lost twice before because Allegheny had been successful in their anti-union campaign; they confused a lot of people. ” “Our motto has always been, ‘don’t lose faith, don’t lose hope.’ And as they say, third time’s a charm,” says Pedigo, who was also on the organizing committee.

When the votes were tallied, “I was ecstatic,” says Mills, whose goal now is “to keep what we’ve got and put it in writing. Also, one of the things I want to work on is our housekeeping. The conditions are really bad — there’s dust accumulation, spillage issues, that need to be improved.”

Delaying Retirement To Vote
Union Dave Poling, an OpTech 4 in Equipment Services, worked at Allegheny for more than 32 years. “Over the years management changed, the electric business got deregulated, everything became about profit,” explains Poling. “The company almost went bankrupt under the former CEO, Al Noia, who retired with a $66k a month pension.”

After initially planning to retire Sept. 1, 2010, Poling stayed on the job an extra month so he could be included in the vote. “I was thrilled,” he says. “Central to the victory was the internal organizing committee that remained committed and worked vigorously to get their co-workers to vote ‘Yes’ to join the UWUA,” says UWUA Organizing Director Bob Houser.

At-will Employees Have No Rights
The impetus for the victory? Houser, Organizer Larry Kelley and the rest of the organizing team took note of the fact that Allegheny was in the process of merging with FirstEnergy, “an employer that UWUA has a good working relationship with,” says Houser.

“People are at-will employees without a union on the property,” explains Richard Cossell, a national organizer for the UWUA who was a member for 20 years. “An at-will employee doesn’t have a seat at the table, and without a seat at the table, they don’t get a chance to see that their interests are met during the course of the merger.”

“We adopted an ‘Organize 2 Survive’ slogan,” explains Kelley, which rang true with members in light of the huge merger. “We reiterated the point of new employees for a new employer. The merger is expected to be comcompleted in 2011, so we saw a need to get the vote done, help them get union representation before the merger was completed.”

Over the past seven years, it has been quite an uphill battle to organize the plant. “They’ve spent a lot of rate payer money to fight the employees getting an equal say in the workplace,” says Cossell. “We don’t feel that’s in the rate payers’ best interest or in the company’s best interest. These guys have worked hard; the United Mine Workers have helped us out, throughout this campaign, donating space and time and the assistance they could give us. It’s a good feeling helping them get the union membership they wanted.”

Robert Fronek, the new senior national representative who knows First- Energy very well, says, “Kelley called me, and I made a trip down there to talk to the membership, a week before the vote, answered questions they had. We were very successful there.”

“Now with union representation, we have a stronger voice,” continues Pedigo. “It makes me feel a lot more secure to be a part of UWUA. We want to get that first contract in writing, it’s something we’ve never had.”

For more information about joining the Utility Workers Union of America, call 888-843-8982, or visit www.uwua.net.

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