Richland city linemen reject 2.5-3% pay increase. Rally planned Saturday

Richland line workers supporters are taking to the streets Saturday after turning down the city’s latest contract offer.

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 77 has been without a contract for more than seven months, and is in mediation with the city.

The union is holding an informational rally 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. at George Washington Way and Knight Street.

The rally comes after they nearly unanimously turned down a city offer that Will Power, union business representative, said would keep the line workers among the lowest paid in the region and Washington state.

“They are in one of the top 10 most dangerous jobs based on fatalities per 100,000 workers,” he said. “They say that they care, but (the offer) doesn’t show that.”

Richland officials, however, believe the offer would have positioned the employees within comparable agencies.

“We understand where the market lies within each industry and we continually re-evaluate and find the balance between investing in our city infrastructure and assets ... while also fairly compensating staff,” Mayor Ryan Lukson said, reading from a prepared statement at Tuesday’s city council meeting.

The mayor’s statement came after the city council heard nearly 15 minutes of people speaking in support of the union, urging the city to increase line workers pay.

Union leaders hope Saturday’s rally will show they have the support of the community. .

“City officials have implied that the residents of Richland do not care about the Richland line crew and this is just ‘noise,’” according to a Facebook post from union supporters about the rally. “We know that to be untrue. We have received hundreds of messages and yard sign requests.”

Pay lagging behind

Richland runs its own power utility and provides electricity to 23,000 customers in a 50-square-mile area. It maintains 552 miles of primary line and eight substations.

Richland linemen make $35 to $47 an hour depending on experience. Crew foremen can earn up to $54 an hour.

By comparison, Benton PUD linemen start at $35 for the first six months, but once they reach journeyman level, they make $51 an hour. Foremen make $57 an hour. And those rates increase in 2022 under the current contract.

The union started campaigning last month with a website, video and Facebook page. Power said it’s the first time the local has taken this kind of action in at least 40 years.

Lukson said Richland is negotiating in good faith and hadn’t received a formal reply on the latest offer made July 8 as of Tuesday’s council meeting.

The offer would have given the line workers a 2.5 percent raise this year and then 3 percent raises in 2022 and 2023.

“We’re committed to bargaining fairly and in good faith,” Lukson said.

Power said 96 percent of the union members voted to turn down the the offer. It would have the employees at the Richland utility continue to fall more behind.

The sticking point is that the city and the union can’t agree on who they should compare the line workers to, Power said. City officials are looking at contracts with other unions in the city where workers have accepted smaller pay increases.

Power said those comparisons are not fair.

“They have different risks and different pay rates,” he said.