EES board approves union contract
By Julie Fann
Star Staff
jfann@starhq.com
The Elizabethton Electric System board,
at its monthly meeting Tuesday, approved a three-year union
contract for members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical
Workers who work at the facility.
Randy Jones, business director of the IBEW's
regional office in Kingsport, said he was pleased the board
endorsed the contract, but emphasized a trend in recent years
to remove benefits for union employees.
"It started three years ago when they took away
lifetime insurance for employees. We had to take up concessions
on that, and we lost the TVA wage, too. This time, we asked
for the TVA wage increase again because other area utilities
adhere to it. We ended up agreeing to a 2.6 percent cost of
living raise instead, hoping they wouldn't cut more out of
insurance," Jones said.
According to Jones, IBEW workers now pay $20
every pay period toward health insurance premiums, a figure
he says has doubled from $10 the past three years.
The board unanimously approved the contract.
EES board member, Shirley Hughes, clarified her position on
employee health insurance to those present at the monthly
meeting. "I'm not an advocate of taking anything away from
these employees; my position on this is that if we can shop
and get a better opportunity as far as spending money more
wisely (that's what we should do)...I just want to make that
clear to these employees," Hughes said.
Although the union contract was supported, the
board delayed approval of the proposed EES budget for 2002-2003
until next week while General Manager Phil Isaacs gathers
more information to reduce insurance costs, he said.
"We were looking at an increase of 10.5 percent
(in insurance premiums) and now I've got it down to about
6.5 percent, so I've been able to knock about four percent
off of that increase. I don't want to rush this process. I
think we have plenty of time to defer the approval of the
budget," Isaacs told the board.
Isaacs stated that sales were down by five percent
this year, but that EES has reached its net income. "We've
been trying to hold our own and keep our expenses down, even
with the huge maintenance expense we had last summer. We hope
the weather will be kinder to us this year," he said.
Due to the recent closing of the Alcoa aluminum
plant, EES anticipates an estimated $200,000 net loss of revenue.
