The memberships of United Steelworkers (USW) locals 12775 and 13796, representing workers at the Northern Indiana Public Service Company, have voted to ratify their new collective bargaining agreements, tentatively approved by the locals on April 6.

According to a statement released by the USW on Tuesday, the five-year agreements run through May 31, 2014. Those agreements provide for the following annual wage increases:

*Jan. 1, 2010, 2.75 percent.

*Jan. 1, 2011, 2.75 percent.

*Jan. 1, 2012, 3.0 percent.

*Jan. 1, 2013, 3.0 percent.

*Jan. 1, 2014, 3.5 percent.

The agreements also change the current health insurance benefits of both locals from the traditional indemnity plan to a structured PPO plan, the statement said. “The new PPO plan has improved wellness and preventive care provisions, which encourage use before the onset of serious illness.”

“USW Local 12775, in an effort to dramatically improve customer satisfaction, agreed to a mandatory response provision for major storms that impact and damage NIPSCO’s electric transmission and distribution systems,” the statement said. “Approximately 200 linemen will be committed to making repairs and getting electric service restored to all of NIPSCO’s affected customers. This provision will also greatly improve outage restoration time to our customers, and is our commitment to elevating NIPSCO off of the bottom of the J.D. Power residential electric surveys.”

In addition, there “is an expanded entry-level use for new and existing employees of the Ivy Tech power plant, electric line, and gas technology certificates,” the statement said. “The intent is to help guide employees into areas of the company that will be affected by the large numbers of skilled employees that will be retiring in the next few years. In some NIPSCO departments, such as electric dispatching, as much as 85 percent of the current workforce could retire immediately. Other departments with extremely high projected employee retirements include power plant mechanics, electric metermen, and station instrument technicians.”

The agreement also brings the 13 employees of the Sugar Creek power plant, located outside of Terre Haute, under the umbrella of the new collective bargaining agreements.

USW Local 12775 represents the physical bargaining unit at NIPSCO. There are around 1,450 members working in gas and electric operations as well as NIPSCO’s four power plants.

USW Local 13796 represents around 450 office and technical employees at NIPSCO. The contract will provide for the continuation of the 24-hour call center operation in Merrillville as well as clerical support throughout the northern one-third of Indiana.

“Throughout these discussions, the union remained focused on the customers’ needs while also remaining very sensitive to the current troubles and challenges in our economy,” the statement said. “We believe this agreement fairly addresses both of those issues.”

Eileen O’Neill Odum, CEO of Northern Indiana Energy said, “We are very pleased with the outcome of the new contract, and we are confident that it represents a fair and competitive solution for the company and its union employees. Our employees are the company’s most important asset, and the outcome was a direct result of the open and collaborative nature of our relationship with one another.”

Posted 5/7/2009