By Savannah Blackwell

Rank-and-file members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1245 signaled the end of a decades-old cozy relationship with Pacific Gas and Electric Co. Dec. 10 when they voted against accepting a set of contracts governing their working conditions at the private utility over the next five years.

By a landslide margin – 85.6 percent to 14.4 percent for plant operators and 75.2 percent to 24.8 percent for clerical workers – the union's workers rejected contract terms negotiated between labor leaders and managers at PG&E.

The vote, union insiders told us, signifies a major breakdown in what used to be called a "partnership" between labor and PG&E. The electrical workers have dutifully lent their images and their dues to campaigns against public power over the years, and workers have appeared in newspaper ads in which the corporation plugged its bankruptcy reorganization plan. Union leaders have said that the private utility would continue to be a good employer.

Instead, the company is trying to force workers to pay part of the cost of health care benefits, which the company currently covers fully. Management also wanted to reduce health care payments for retired employees – and wanted to transfer some 3,000 union workers to other company affiliates. Those workers wouldn't get to remain under the terms of the new contract once they start at the new jobs.

"This fact that such a large percentage of workers turned out to dump this thing shows that this policy of partnership has led to the destruction of the membership and now the undermining of the contracts," said one union member, who asked not to be named. "This is unheard of – and it means there's tremendous dissatisfaction."

The rank and file had hoped the election, in summer 2001, of Perry Zimmerman to replace Jack McNally as the head of the local would result in a better situation for workers. Instead, labor leaders and management reached a deal – but the workers wouldn't accept it.

"Everyone's been waiting for things to settle down, but they just get crazier and crazier," the union member said.

Union leader Hunter Stern said the union officially rescinded its partnership approach to dealing with PG&E in September 2001. Even so, he said, the recent results have not given cause for Local 1245's leadership to rethink its opposition to public power – at least not yet.

For PG&E's part, spokesperson Claudia Mendoza said the utility's managers were surprised by the results of the vote.

"It was our consideration that it offers a fair and reasonable settlement," she said. "But obviously, the numbers tell us there needs to be an assessment of options. So we'll be reviewing the feedback."

E-mail Savannah Blackwell at savannah@sfbg.com.