On Sept. 8, 2020, outage planners at PG&E won their election to join Local 1245. The NLRB election, which was conducted by mail due to COVID-19, incorporates them into the existing physical bargaining unit.
Outage planners are the single point of contact for transmission grid outage planning and coordinating with the California ISO (Independent System Operator). They also prepare and submit plans for both short and longer range outages to the ISO for approval.
The effort to organize began in June, when the unit of seven planners began discussing a number of workplace issues that they wanted to address. After several videoconference meetings and conversations among themselves, they decided to pursue a union election so that they could address these issues through the collective bargaining process.
Having received the certification of their election from the NLRB, the group has selected a bargaining committee and will begin preparing their bargaining proposals immediately.
–Rick Thompson, IBEW International Lead Organizer