CBC
Sun, November 19, 2023
Jabez Lane, business manager of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1615, says the union achieved all its bargaining goals in negotiating a new deal. (Terry Roberts/CBC - image credit)
Roughly 650 unionized N.L. Hydro employees have accepted a new contract that will see their wages climb to a level equivalent to other public utility workers in Atlantic Canada.
The workers include power line technicians, the people who operate power generating stations and substations, and administrative employees.
The employees are are represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1615.
A tentative agreement was reached in September offering annual increases of two per cent over four years, which is consistent with the pattern bargaining for other public service unions in the province.
N.L. Hydro also agreed to a so-called "Atlantic adjustment" that will increase remuneration by roughly five per cent more during the contract, which expires in 2026.
Employees will also receive a $2,000 signing bonus.
"I don't think I'm calling the windfall, but it's just a matter of bringing [unionized workers] to where they should be in comparison to other people in the industry," said Local 1615 business manager Jabez Lane.
"We are a utility industry. We are at Crown Corporation. We deserve to be paid the same as other people in our industry, and that's where we'll be."
The old contract expired in April 2022, which means the the new agreement will include retroactive pay.
A tentative agreement was reached in September, with the help of a conciliator, with ratification votes taking place throughout the province in recent weeks.
There are three separate collective agreements, said Lane, and the acceptance rate for each was above 75 per cent.
Lane said the union achieved all three of its goals: no concessions, no two-tiered wage increases, and Atlantic parity with Crown-owned utilities in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
But Lane said efforts to provide more job security for the 80-plus union members who work at the Holyrood thermal generating station have so far fallen short.
US-based Liberty Consulting Group was known for keeping a watchful eye on N.L. Hydro.
The new collective agreement between N.L. Hydro and IBEW 1615 is retroactive to April 2022 and includes increases that will bring unionized employees up to par with their counterparts who work at public utilities in other Atlantic provinces. (Patrick Butler/Radio-Canada)
The station has a capacity of 490 megawatts, uses heavily polluting fuel oil, and is a critical power supply for the Avalon Peninsula.
One of the arguments for building Muskrat Falls and the Labrador-Island Link — commonly known as the LIL — was that it would allow for the closure of Holyrood and eliminate the emissions that result from its operation. But there are reliability concerns with the LIL, and Hydro and the utility regulator have both said Holyrood will be needed until at least 2030.
Because of the uncertainty over its future, Hydro has been reluctant to grant full-time employee status to workers at Holyrood, and roughly half of the workforce receive full benefits but have term employment status.
The union was hoping to convert more of those jobs to full time because Holyrood will be operating for up to another decade, said Lane, but Hydro resisted.
He said both sides agreed to continue talks on the matter, and "we intend on pursuing that fairly quickly."
The new contract expires in 2026.
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