For press inquiries, please reach out to Communications Director Erin Bzymek at ebzymek@uwua.net or 202-702-9655.
The American columnist and author Peggy Noonan said of the importance of voting, “Our political leaders will know our priorities only if we tell them, again and again, and if those priorities begin to show up in the polls.” In 2024, several states have made it clear to their legislative bodies that workers’ rights are…
Human Rights Committee Chair Nathan Waters will retire June 30. Appointed to the committee by the union’s executive board in 2017 and named chair in 2018, Waters served 3, two-year terms and steered the committee through COVID. The 45-year member of Michigan Local 105 spent his entire career at Consumers Energy. The Utility Worker interviewed…
Over the past 30 years technology has impacted the way we live and work. Remember the days when you could only call and talk to people over the phone when they were physically at home? It’s hard to imagine a world without cell phones, the internet, tablets or laptops, but we did exist for a…
Nonmembers’ Right to Object. Any employee who is not a member of the UWUA, and who pays fees to the UWUA and/or a Local Union pursuant to a collectively bargained union-security provision, will have the right to object to expenditures paid for activities which are not reasonably related to collective bargaining. Such activities are referred…
Local 686 gas workers will work to upgrade 40 miles of aging cast iron pipes with modern materials under a $75 million grant Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW) recently received from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. The funding, a result of President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, will bolster PGW’s Main…
In the realm of labor relations, agreements between labor unions and employers play a crucial role in shaping the terms and conditions of employment. Two such agreements that often come into discussion are Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) and Labor Peace Agreements (LPAs). While both aim to promote cooperation between unions and employers, they serve different…
I’m happy to share two important developments in the safety arena that will have long-term benefits for UWUA members. First, UWUA now has a voice in the four key areas of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) safety standard setting committees. Second, OSHA recently amended its rules to allow workers to choose their own advocate…
When it comes to creating safe workplaces, labor unions are workers’ strongest advocates. Time and again, we witness the tragic consequences of employers who prioritize expediency and cost savings over protecting the health, welfare, and very lives of their employees. This issue was starkly highlighted when Trey Michael Gray, a 20-year-old city utility worker, lost…
For over 60 years, UWUA has represented employees at the Allegheny County Sanitary Authority (Alcosan), which provides wastewater treatment services to 900,000 residents across 83 municipalities, including Pittsburgh. In May, Local 433 concluded a year-long process for a contract renewal covering its 283 members employed at Alcosan. The contract encompasses over 100 job classifications across…