IBEW UNVEILS NEW INITIATIVES: CLOSER RELATIONS
WITH UTILITY INDUSTRY, COMCAST ORGANIZING

Moving aggressively on two fronts to expand its reach, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers announced a new initiative to “foster excellence in the utility sector” by trying to forge a closer relationship with the industry, union President Ed Hill said in a speech broadcast to his members from Los Angeles.

Hill said the union would work with utility companies on infrastructure problems, shortages of skilled workers and development of more environmentally friendly power sources. But his late-March address on the issue does not mean IBEW is abandoning its campaign to gain members. At almost the same time, it unveiled a campaign to organize 90,000-worker Comcast, the nation’s largest cable company.

In his address to members from Los Angeles, Hill urged his 250,000 utility member workers to “turn the page on an adversarial past, and be willing to develop a partnership with management to work toward common goals,” Hills said. We will “actively demonstrate to management that we’re willing to do our share.” IBEW launched a similar joint union- cooperative venture three years ago for its construction workers’ sector.

In return for union members raising their expectations and productivity, IBEW expects the nation’s unionized utilities to “listen to employees, invest in a maintenance schedule, and provide safe and reliable service,” the union said.

Only by forging “a new working relationship” with the utilities can the firms and the union satisfy higher demand for energy while developing cleaner energy sources such as nuclear, solar and wind power. The new relationships actually started in 2004 with joint work on safety issues, Hill said.

Hill added some power company executives agree with IBEW. One, Michael Morris, CEO of American Electric Power said in a prepared statement that “I think everywhere we work with the IBEW, we work very diligently with building that relationship between the two of us--because, quite honestly, without them we can’t get the job done.”

IBEW’s Comcast campaign will also be untraditional in how it contacts workers, the union said when it rolled it out on March 12. The nation’s largest cable firm is only 2% unionized, partially with IBEW and partially with the Communications Workers. What is “traditional” about that drive is Comcast’s knee-jerk anti-union reaction.

IBEW represents Comcast workers in Chicago, Philadelphia, New Jersey and Alabama, and CWA has Comcast workers at facilities in California, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. But that’s it.

IBEW’s new approach is a “virtual” campaign, said Matt Carroll, Local 89 President its lead Northwest organizer. He told the Northwest Labor Press that organizers and volunteers show up outside Comcast workplaces with a banner and fliers that direct workers to a Web site, www.comcastworkers.com.

The website lets the Comcast workers download and mail in union authorization cards. If IBEW collects enough cards, it can request an election overseen by the National Labor Relations Board, Carroll said. IBEW’s campaign kicked off in the Pacific Northwest, New England, Illinois, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Florida.

CWA was unperturbed by the IBEW Comcast drive. “We have worked together with IBEW on Comcast before. I don’t know if this is something different,” spokeswoman Candice Johnson said.

Comcast management appears to be reacting swiftly, Carroll added. In Auburn, Wash., managers held an emergency meeting when the union banner appeared, and then came out to watch the entrance while employees drove out in their company vans.