PECO workers on strike after failing to reach new contract agreement

Union workers who maintain PECO's electric and natural gas lines and serve customers in the Philadelphia region are on strike.

IBEW Local 614 and PECO failed to reach an agreement on a new contract by the union's July 4 midnight deadline, meaning over 1,000 workers are now on strike, union officials said in a news conference Friday night.

Negotiations between the two sides continued Friday inside the Hilton Hotel in Penn's Landing, but IBEW Local 614 President Larry Anastasi said they were no closer to a deal than they were six months ago when negotiations first began.

"We want at least industry wages and benefits, and they are well below it," Anastasi said Friday afternoon. 

The roughly 1,600 PECO workers of IBEW Local 614 had been working without a contract since April 1. They authorized a strike on May 31 and announced plans on June 25 to strike at midnight on the Fourth of July if the company didn't make concessions.

Union members who are on strike are linemen, gas technicians, mechanics, call center workers and back office workers.

Union leaders previously told CBS News Philadelphia the issues at the center of the dispute are over wages, retirement benefits and healthcare. They said the issues are important because of the dangerous nature of the work performed by linemen, gas workers, mechanics and other members who maintain the electric and natural gas systems.

Jim McGill, a lineman who has worked for the company for more than three decades, described to CBS News Philadelphia in May the risks workers face.

"You're working in all kinds of weather, working the high-voltage lines, working in the streets, having energized wires in our hands," McGill said.

Contractors and sister utility workers have announced they will not cross the picket line. Anastasi says the response to emergencies such as power outages could be impacted. 

"Everything is hanging on a shoestring and that is typical when weather and conditions are this bad," he said. "When we are not around, I think you will see an incredibly rapid decline of all the infrastructure in this city and unfortunately, the people that depend on electricity, which is everyone, will suffer from that."

PECO said in late June that a federal mediator was assigned to the negotiations. The company claimed the union did not agree to participate in mediation.

In a statement released Friday, a PECO spokesperson said the company proposed a nearly 20% wage increase over five years and "significantly enhanced retirement and medical benefits that address the union's long-standing priorities." The spokesperson said the company continues to encourage the use of a federal mediator.

"Our customers, communities and business partners can be assured that PECO has comprehensive plans in place to maintain safe and reliable service under any circumstance," the statement said, in part.

The spokesperson said PECO has a comprehensive plan in place to maintain safe and reliable service under any circumstance.  

The two sides have been negotiating since the strike threat in late June, but have yet to find common ground. It's unclear when the two sides will be at the negotiating table again.

The strike is the first in PECO's history.