Four months after a $50 million dividend, Pacific Power cuts workers
Pacific Power — the Portland-based
investor-owned electric company —
laid off 84 workers in June, including
50 members of International Brother-
hood of Electrical Workers (IBEW)
and Utility Workers Union of America
(UWUA).
The news hit union members hard,
particularly since some had left other
jobs, and relocated with their families,
for what they thought would be a se-
cure career at a utility.
A journeyman lineman from Med-
ford-based IBEW Local 659, who
asked not to be named, said the layoff
hit home when his young son asked
Sunrise Dental staffers join Bakers #114
Receptionists and dental assistants at Sunrise Dental offices in Salmon
Creek, Wash., and on 82nd Avenue in Southeast Portland are new members
of Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers & Grain Millers Local 114.
“Our local is proud to have these good people as part of our organization,”
said Local 114 Secretary Treasurer Terry Lansing (pictured above right
with the new members and union business agent Shad Clark). Lansing
noted that the business model of owner-supported union shops serving
union members is reminiscent of the early days of unionism. “There was a
time when business owners wanted and needed the Union Label to be
successful,” Lansing said. “Sunrise Dental is a refreshing reminder that
the concept can be just as successful today.” Staffers at other Sunrise offices
in the Pacific Northwest are represented by various other unions.
JULY 6, 2012
why he wasn’t heading to work. “My
little girl said, ‘No, daddy doesn’t have
a job.’”
Thirty nonunion workers at the
company’s Lloyd Center Tower head-
quarters in Portland were the first to
learn of the layoffs, at the beginning of
June. Then company managers told
Local 659 officers June 5 that 24 mem-
bers would be laid off June 8: 18 jour-
neyman linemen and six pre-appren-
tices. Four members of UWUA Local
197 in Coos Bay were also let go. Then
June 11, 20 members of Portland-head-
quartered IBEW Local 125 were noti-
fied their positions were eliminated ef-
fective immediately, including service
coordinators, apprentice and journey-
man estimators, and a utility specialist.
All the workers were paid through
June 25, with health insurance benefits
paid through the end of June.
Pacific Power said the layoffs were
necessary because of reduced revenue
from declining electricity sales, mini-
mal new hookups, and flat forecasts for
future revenue. A company spokesper-
son even spun the layoffs as a cus-
tomer-friendly act — saying it would
reduce the utility’s need to ask for fu-
ture rate increases.
But Local 659 Business Manager
Ron Jones, who retired as of June 30,
rejected that, pointing instead to a deci-
sion by company owners to reduce Pa-
cific Power’s operating budget and in-
crease profits.
Pacific Power — a regulated electric
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
monopoly with 700,000 customers in
Oregon, Washington and California —
has a legally-specified rate of profit
built in to the rates it charges users. The
company is one of three divisions of
PacifiCorp; the others are Rocky
Mountain Power in Utah, Wyoming
and Idaho; and PacifiCorp Energy,
which mines coal and generates elec-
tricity which is sold to the other divi-
sions and on the open market. Pacifi-
Corp itself is a wholly-owned
subsidiary of by Mid-American Energy
Holdings Company of Iowa, which is
controlled by the Berkshire Hathaway
conglomerate, whose primary share-
holder is the world’s third richest man,
Warren Buffett.
Over the last five years, PacifiCorp
pushed hard to get most of its 3,800
union workers to agree to terminate
pension benefits, replacing them with
401(k) plans. Last year, PacifiCorp
paid its owners $550 million in divi-
dends. Another $50 million in divi-
dends went out in February 2012.
“We’re the ones that do the work
that generates the money,” said another
laid-off lineman. “Why are we the ones
let go?”
Because linemen are the workers
who restore customer power during
outages, Jones said the layoffs could
slow response to power-outages during
winter storms. The layoffs also suggest
Pacific Power is failing to plan ahead
to replace an aging workforce. Under
the collective bargaining agreement,
layoffs start with the least senior work-
ers, and all the laid off Local 659 mem-
bers had been hired since April 2011.
Local 125 also criticized the layoffs,
in a press statement. Pacific Power con-
tinues to contract out some work, the
union said, failed to eliminate any
front-line management positions, and
gave the unions no opportunity to ne-
gotiate over the layoffs.
Given such an opportunity, the
unions might have suggested less dis-
ruptive measures, such as incentives for
older workers to retire early.
Local 659 has filed a grievance
protesting the layoffs, saying that the
company violated its obligation under
the union contract not to lay off its own
workers while outside contractors re-
main employed. Under the contract, the
grievance could end up in binding ar-
bitration, but Jones said it could take
eight months to a year to get to that
stage.
“Linemen, union workers, we’re
pretty tight,” said a laid-off worker who
had moved to take a job at Pacific
Power. “We kind of hold a grudge
when it comes to stuff like this.”
(Editor’s Note: Last August, mem-
bers of IBEW Local 125 were weeks
away from a strike after rejecting two
proposals by Pacific Power. They came
to terms on a four-year deal Aug. 19,
2011. Members of IBEW Local 659 ap-
proved a five-year contract on their
first vote on Aug. 5, 2011.)
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