This article originally appeared in the Connecticut Examiner January 23, 2025.
By Robert Eubanks, Marcelo Assis, and Moses Rams
As the presidents of three unions representing more than 500 front-line utility workers across Connecticut, we are concerned about the current leadership of the state agency that is charged with regulating Connecticut’s complex energy system. Our members —customer service representatives, service technicians, meter technicians, LNG operators, and others — have seen firsthand how PURA’s current leadership has repeatedly overlooked and undersold the critical role of utility workers in maintaining safe, reliable service for Connecticut residents.
With our decades of experience on the front lines of Connecticut’s energy system, we understand the delicate balance between controlling costs for customers and ensuring they receive safe, reliable service. Safety, reliability, and affordability: we know better than anyone that those are the pillars of a strong energy system, and the heart of customers’ demands.
But PURA has apparently set those goals aside, instead focusing completely on cutting distribution costs. As front-line workers, this hurts our ability to deliver on reliability while doing little to nothing to rein in costs, since distribution only makes up 30% of residential customers’ bills. Continuing Chair Gillett’s leadership of PURA, as the governor has proposed, could miss an opportunity to better serve the front-line workers of utilities and the customers we serve. We urge the governor, Energy & Technology Committee, and other policymakers to meet with us to discuss real solutions to these problems.
PURA’s single-minded focus on pinching pennies has had real consequences for front-line workers. Threatened cuts to vital training programs, denied funding for aging utility trucks our members depend on, and unrealistic emergency response times imposed by PURA without considering real-world conditions are just a few examples, and they all affect our ability to serve customers and create unnecessary safety risks for us in the field.
One of the reasons for these out-of-touch decisions is PURA’s departure from its past practice of collaborating and engaging directly with union leaders. Previous PURA commissioners regularly met with us to understand operational challenges we’re experiencing on the ground. That valuable conversation has disappeared under the current leadership. PURA cites concerns about ex parte communications, but that’s always been a potential barrier, and it’s one that previous PURA administrations managed to navigate.
The consequences of this disconnect are becoming obvious. When equipment fails because maintenance is deferred or when response times lengthen due to staffing constraints, our union members are the ones who face frustrated customers. When PURA forces utilities to hire third-party contractors instead of union workers for critical infrastructure work, it’s our members whose livelihoods are at stake. That, by the way, is why the Hamden-based Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 1298, which represents front-line Frontier workers, sued PURA in December, after months of trying to get PURA to respect state and federal laws around collective bargaining.
Overall, PURA’s decisions in the rate cases of the utilities that employ us – United Illuminating, Connecticut Natural Gas, and Southern Connecticut Gas – failed to account for the costs of the services we provide. Clearly, PURA is prioritizing short-term cost savings over long-term system stability and workforce safety.
We’re already seeing some of the impacts: increasing difficulty in attracting and retaining skilled workers, growing burnout among experienced staff, and fewer training opportunities for new hires. These challenges will only worsen if PURA continues down this road. The impact extends beyond our current workforce to the next generation of utility workers. Without adequate training programs and investment in safety equipment, we risk losing the institutional knowledge and skills necessary to keep up our long legacy of excellent service.
This isn’t just about protecting union jobs – though that obviously matters to our members and their families. This is about maintaining the safety and reliability of critical infrastructure that Connecticut depends on. When PURA focuses exclusively on forcing down costs in the short term at the expense of front-line workers, it risks compromising the long-term stability of critical electric and natural gas services.
We need leaders in PURA who prioritize open dialogue and innovative solutions to the industry’s challenges while balancing input from workers, customers, companies, and other stakeholders. Unfortunately, the track record of current leadership has fallen short.
We urge legislators and Governor Lamont to meet with us on whether PURA’s current leadership approach is in the best interests of all Connecticut’s stakeholders – union workers included. Our state needs energy policymakers who understand that reliable service requires reasonable rates and sustainable investments, both in infrastructure and in the workforce. Most importantly, we need leadership to recognize the value of working collaboratively with all stakeholders, including us: the front-line workers who keep the energy flowing.
Rob Eubanks is the President of Connecticut Independent Utility Workers Local 12924, Marcelo Assis is the President of United Steel Workers Local 12000 & 12000-1, and Moses Rams is the President of the Utility Workers Union of America Local 470-1, representing workers at Connecticut Natural Gas, Southern Connecticut Gas, and United Illuminating respectively.