Our negotiating committee met with PG&E on October 6 and 7 as scheduled.
On October 6, the Company made a proposal for a four-year agreement with a total wage increase of 12.5% over the four years, retroactive to January 1, 2016. The only other issue contained in the Company’s proposal was our tentative agreement on benefits, which contains no changes in sick leave or vacation (the most controversial issues in the 2015 ratification vote). The Company explained that it had been willing to offer 13% in conjunction with the rejected changes in sick leave. Had the sick leave changes been ratified, the Company would have been able to pay for a significant part of its sick leave expense from the short term disability insurance, rather than operating expenses as sick leave.
The Company further agreed with the Union’s proposal to handle the issue of service crews in ad hoc negotiations. Their proposals for the electric and gas service crews honored Title 212 without exception, but did not contain any of the enhancements to the overtime rate of pay that had been included in Letter Agreements 16-07 and 16-08. Although the service crews are referred to ad hoc negotiations, the Company linked agreement on the general contract, the gas service crews, and the electric service crews.
On October 7, we brought the line department members who have been working on the service crew issue to the union hall to review the company proposal. In the end, they felt that the overtime enhancements from Letter Agreement 16-07 should be included. Local 1245 Senior Assistant Business Manager Joe Osterlund spoke with the gas construction members who have been working on service crew issue, and they were satisfied with the Company proposal.
The general negotiations committee met on Tuesday, October 11, and reviewed the entire agreement. At the end of that meeting they agreed that Local 1245 would counter the Company proposal with a proposal for double-time instead of time-and-a-half in the three situations set forth in paragraph 12(a), (b) and (c) of LA 16-07.
A proposal was sent to the Company, with the request that Business Manager Tom Dalzell be allowed to personally address the Labor Relations Executive Committee (LREC) on the merits of our counter. As of today, no LREC meeting has been scheduled.