Utility’s union workers OK new contract

Unionized workers with CenterPoint, the utility that owns the transmission and distribution system that delivers electricity to Houston, voted Wednesday to approve a contract offer from the company.

The vote ends seven months of negotiations between the company and Local 66 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the union representing more than 1,400 CenterPoint workers.

At issue were pay raises and revised terms for paid sick leave for unionized employees.

“I’m grateful that we avoided a strike. Nobody wins in a work stoppage,” Ed Allen, business manager for Local 66, said after the vote.

Nearly 40% of CenterPoint’s workforce is in the union, according to spokesperson Michelle Hundley.

The three-year deal approved Oct. 18 is effective retroactively from May 26.

CenterPoint did not immediately return a request for comment following the vote.

The contract, which needed a simple majority of member votes for approval, received support from nearly 80% of Local 66 members, Allen said. About 20% voted to authorize a strike, which required a twothird majority to pass, he said.

The new contract takes away pay for the first five days of sick leave that workers take each year for union employees who start in January, Allen said.

That was seen as an improvement from the company’s initial offer, which removed pay for the first five sick days for all union employees, Allen said.

After the first proposal was rejected nearly unanimously by union members, the parties brought in a federal mediator to assist in negotiations.

The contract approved Wednesday eliminated a 3% annual bonus for unionized employees based on good attendance and driving records. In return, the company did away with a tiered disciplinary system for missing work; now, the consequence of missing work will be no pay, Allen said.

The approved deal also offers a smaller pay increase than the prior proposal, according to documents reviewed by the Chronicle. That deal offered a 7.5% pay increase the first year of the contract; the new contract will lower the first year pay increase to 6%, but maintains the second-year increase at 4% and the third-year increase at 3.5%.