Pepco Workers Extend Contract Again, Continue Talks

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)IBEW Local 1900 on Friday night extended its contract with Pepco through September 16. “There are simply too many issues still on the table,” Local 1900 President Jim Griffin told Union City. “We will need the four weeks to get through everything.” Contract talks were extended three weeks in early July. Major issues outstanding include contracting, seniority, Pepco demands to eliminate established precedents in terms and conditions of employment and the right to negotiate health and welfare benefits. “We filed three Unfair Labor Practice charges with the NLRB against Pepco early in the negotiations,” Griffin added. “We were notified recently that the NLRB will issue complaints on two of the charges; one involves Pepco contracting out work and the other is over their unilateral decision to eliminate a safety incentive bonus program that all of our 1,150 members participated in.”