MI: With help from the Michigan State Utility Workers Council (MSUWC), Local 150 organized 19 workers at the Covert Gas Generation Plant across the street from the Palisades Nuclear Plant. Covert was recently purchased by Consumers Energy, and its union workforce is now covered under MSUWC’s contract with Consumers — bringing pay raises and lower healthcare costs to the new group.
Also in Michigan, 29 workers at Dearborn Industrial Generation (DIG) voted to join UWUA and are currently working with Local 105 to negotiate a first contract. The main contract priority for the group is to move away from a subjective quarterly and yearly bonus plan toward higher hourly rates.
NY: Workers at Precision Pipeline Solutions (PPS), a subsidiary of Prime Line Utility Solutions, voted to join UWUA at the end of April. The 45 workers perform gas distribution work on major construction projects in New York City and Westchester County, conducting gas leak response detection, riser work, gas turnoffs and shutdowns, integrity testing, meter exchange/repair, investigations, and more. They were motivated to organize to have a greater say in how they are treated on the job and will work with UWUA Construction Council Local 175 to negotiate a first contract.
OH: Workers from the Carroll Electric Co-op voted to join UWUA on April 10. “These workers do similar work to what we do at AEP and work nearby. They wanted a voice in their workplace and called us in early March,” said Jason Fabynick, president of Local 116. Matt Compton, the local’s vice president, did most of the groundwork, meeting with the co-op’s engineers, linemen and mechanic to answer questions and dispel misinformation being spread by the union-buster retained by the company. Both were grateful for help from Region II National Representative Frank Meznarich, Sr. and UWUA Organizing Director Deirdre Brill. “We just told the truth about what having a union means, and the truth prevailed,” said Compton. A contract survey went out in late May, and first contract negotiations are now underway.