Atlantic City Electric IBEW Local 210 employees are on strike following failed contract negotiations.
Currently about 400 members have been on strike at Atlantic City Electric since 12:01 am on November 5, 2023.
A Message from IBEW Local 210 Business Manager, Zach Story, with regard to Atlantic City Electric’s (an Exelon Company) Last, Best and Final Offer, please see the following:
While the company claims to have offered 20% wage increases over the five year offer, they fail to mention that this 20% increase would only apply to approximately 5% of the membership/employees. Atlantic City Electric also fails to mention that of those 5%, the majority are members in which the company refuses to provide the same benefits and provisions as the rest of the membership.
The company fails to mention the safety enhancement’s we proposed, those of which the company was not interested in. The company loves to claim safety is their number one value, however safety is one of the many fake facades they put on.
The company claims to have added additional holiday time and military leave. The additional holiday time came at the cost of losing Veterans Day and an additional paid day off. The same company that claims to support Veterans of our country, doesn’t think Veterans Day should be one of our Holidays. As to the military leave enhancement the company claims to have included, they fail to mention is already provided to all other employees of the company, besides IBEW Local 210 members. With all of that being said, IBEW Local Union 210 stands strong with, and embraces all of our country’s great veterans, Atlantic City Electric (an Exelon Company) clearly does not.
The company claims to have added additional benefits in their final offer, which is an egregious lie. The union proposed adding the time frames of maternity leave, bonding leave and primary caregiver leave to the contract to alleviate any future confusion, these benefits of which our members were already entitled to. As far as current medical benefits are concerned, the union proposed percentage caps on total premiums to be paid by the member/employee yearly, and a percentage cap for the cost increase from one year to the next. The union proposed the percentages remain the same as current for the yearly premiums. We proposed that our year to year percentage of the premium can’t increase more than 6.7%. This was an attempt to combat the nearly 80% increase that Atlantic City Electric has imposed on our members just over the past 3 years for the employees responsibility of the premiums. The company refused to include the 6.7% year to year cap in their final offer, or any year to year cap for that matter. To make it worse, we didn’t pick the number 6.7 out of a hat, that number is the exact percentage in which many Exelon employees already have the protection of.
The company makes claims of adding additional vacation time in their final offer, this additional vacation time is 8 hours of time, and only for employees with 1-4 years of continuous service, and also allows employees to receive an extra week worth of vacation time a couple years earlier than current. What they forget to mention is the fact that the offer came with an accrual system. With the company’s offer, if a member were hurt on the job, placed on long term disability or unpaid leave, they would not accrue any vacation time. Also, if an employee were to die while employed by the company, their family would only receive pay for the accrued amount of time. Under our previous contract, the family would receive pay for all eligible time. Atlantic City Electric (an Exelon Company) not only does not care about active employees, but they also want to make things worse for our families if we were to die.
The company makes claims of increases to clothing allowances in their final offer but fail to mention the cost increases of Flame-Resistant clothing over the last few years. FR clothing is required to be worn by our members at all times. A basic FR sweatshirt was around $80-$90 a few years ago, now they cost $140 or more. During negotiations with Atlantic City Electric, the union had proposals for retirement securities. Our members have extremely dangerous, demanding jobs to keep the “lights on” in South Jersey, the company refused to even counter any of our retirement proposals. The company would rather pad the pockets of all their executives, than give anything to the men and women who actually perform the work on a daily basis in all the elements. It is totally unacceptable for an enormous company like Exelon to have people work for them 20-30+ years, and not provide healthcare in retirement. The Union’s proposal was fair, retirees would pay the same contributions as an active employee, the company, as stated before, refused. The union also proposed eliminating the many tiers of pensions currently in place, and having all members provided the same level of pension. Currently, new hires and participants in the cash balance plan are not guaranteed their pension, it’s offered at the company’s discretion. Again, the company refused to even make a counter proposal.
The company fails to mention that their last, best and final offer included modifying our meter classifications, making lower-level classifications perform the work of higher classifications for less pay, without any mention of additional training. They fail to mention the fact that they want to eliminate language pertaining to our members performing emergent work, to make it easier for them to subcontract work outside of the bargaining unit. They fail to mention how they want to blur the lines within our substation department, and again make our members perform additional tasks without additional compensation. They fail to mention that the union proposed that if work is to be contracted out, IBEW contractors be given preference, again the company declined. They fail to mention their final offer included the removal of a document which guarantees work to our communication technicians. There is an ongoing arbitration case regarding this document, and because the company knows their case is a clear loser, they thought it would be easier to force its removal. While the company claims that they are committed to delivering safe and reliable service throughout our strike, that couldn’t be further from the truth. They claim to have highly qualified staff and highly skilled local contractors in place to serve the customers’ needs, yet again another lie. They claim these contractors work with Atlantic City Electric on a daily basis, more lies. They claim that their “highly skilled” non-union contractors adhere to the same safety guidelines as well as rules and regulations in which we comply, another lie. Over the past week since the strike began, there have been numerous safety violations which have occurred by these “highly skilled” non-union contractors, the company clearly refuses to hold them to the same standards in which we are required to follow. Ask the customers in Sicklerville who didn’t have electricity for over 30 hours if they believe in these non-union contractors’ abilities, our members would have had their lights back on within a few hours.
Atlantic City Electric (an Exelon Company) has made claims that Union members have engaged in unacceptable and unsafe behavior on picket lines. The company also claims that Union members have tried to delay response times and block access to Job Sites, with supposedly nearly 60 incidents of our members behaving in an unsafe manner and/or aggressively. These claims are unfounded. IBEW Local 210 Union Members have the right to peacefully picket, which is exactly what we have been doing and will continue to do.
IBEW Local 210 members are the highly qualified and dedicated work force that is needed in South Jersey. Our members deserve a fair contract. Our members deserve better. They don’t deserve to be treated the way Exelon has, by eliminating their health benefits on day one of our strike. Atlantic City Electric claims to be bargaining in good faith, however they are not, they are merely surface bargaining. The Union presented the company with a nearly 80 page package proposal on Thursday, 11/9/2023, in which we countered many of the company’s proposals and withdrew many of our own. The company’s response to the Union’s package proposal on Friday, 11/10/2023, was simply bringing back ONE of their own proposals and changing a single word in it. Atlantic City Electric has sent out Anti-Union propaganda to all of our Union members in an attempt to discourage our workers from striking and get them to resign from being Union members. This propaganda was sent to all Union members before they sent out COBRA notices about healthcare, which still has not been sent out. This company is wasting rate-payer (customer) money instead of negotiating in good faith with the union.
210 ON STRIKE FAMILY SUPPORT FUND
