Workers are striking after their contract expired and collective bargaining talks failed.
Without a new deal in place after the expiration of their contract, around 1,000 Duquesne Light Co. workers began their strike on Thursday. Striking workers include linemen, customer service representatives, mechanics, and troubleshooters.
The striking employees are represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 29. They walked off the job at midnight and began picketing early Thursday morning outside of the Duquesne Light facility in Pittsburgh’s Marshall-Shadeland neighborhood.
Unionized workers voted a few weeks ago to authorize the strike. The union says that the workers are facing inadequate staffing levels, deteriorating working conditions, and unresolved safety and operational issues.
In September, more than 300 Duquesne Light Co. field workers signed a letter of no confidence to CEO Kevin Walker, claiming that the company failed “to address serious safety concerns, operational inefficiencies, and technology barriers.”
According to Josh Ewing, the union’s business manager, the workers will maintain 24/7 pickets outside of Duquesne Light facilities. As of Thursday afternoon, Ewing said union and utility leaders had not yet renewed bargaining.
Negotiators are expected to begin talks on Friday, Ewing said. “We have a big hill to climb,” he added.
Ewing told reporters early Thursday that there had been “off-the-record progress” during a discussion on Wednesday, but it was not enough to strike a deal on key issues such as workers’ right to organize and retiree health care.
Local 29 President Nicole Greb said that union and utility positions following Wednesday’s conversations are “very far apart.”
“We value our partnership with the union and its represented workers. We look forward to resuming negotiations soon so we can finalize a contract that is fair to our workforce and keeps costs affordable for our customers,” said Alyssa Battaglia in a statement on behalf of Duquesne Light Co.
The company also sent an email to customers to let them know that electrical service would continue throughout the strike. The company will continue customer service and utility operations, with customers still able to pay bills and access assistance.
“We are ready to safely respond to outages and severe weather as quickly as possible,” said the company in its message to customers. According to the company’s website, trained non-union employees and non-union contractors are filling in during the interruption.
Duquesne Light Co. serves more than 600,000 customers in Allegheny and Beaver counties.
“We are eager to continue negotiations with the goal of reaching a fair and balanced agreement,” the company said in a statement. “Throughout this process, we must also remain diligent in our delivery of safe, reliable and affordable service to the customers who depend on us every day.”
