Utility plans to deal with strike.

Byline: Jeff Wright The Register-Guard

The Eugene Water & Electric Board has compiled a detailed plan intended to ensure continued electrical and water service should union-represented employees go on strike as early as next Monday.

The plan anticipates hiring a handful of temporary replacement workers as well as reassigning 46 existing employees who are not part of the 155-member International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

While continued service is the goal, EWEB cautions that delays in new connections and repairs are likely. Multiple water main breaks and service leaks could "result in extended outage times and potentially greater water damage to customer property," the plan says.

With some exceptions, such as continued operations at hydro plants, most work not directly related to electrical and water service will be curtailed, EWEB spokesman Marty Douglass said.

"Everything else is back burner and second priority - it's work that's going to be delayed," he said.

EWEB would stop all construction during the life of a strike. With construction season approaching, the utility has notified the city of Eugene's public works department about possible delays in extending electrical or water service to new projects, Douglass said.

The utility hopes to hire fewer than 10 replacement workers from outside EWEB's existing ranks for electrical work, Douglass said. All replacement workers assigned to technical jobs will have the required certification or journeyman status, he said.

Under EWEB's plan, service disconnects for lack of payment would be temporarily halted. Procurements would be made on an emergency basis without competitive bidding.

The plan envisions security fences for employee parking and the hiring of security personnel to protect EWEB employees and customers. The elaborate plan instigates an Incident Command System for decision-making, and identifies Jim Origliosso, EWEB's customer and financial services division director, as incident commander.

Parts of the plan were implemented as soon as the utility and union declared an impasse in negotiations last month. Additional tasks, including interviewing potential replacement workers and contractors, were to have begun once the union voted in favor of a 10-day strike notice last Thursday.

Other tasks are date-specific: Suspend the regular duties of in-house replacement workers two days before a strike; install temporary locks at various facilities one day before a strike.

EWEB's elected commissioners are scheduled to review the plan tonight.

They also are slated to adopt two resolutions: One, pertaining to strike preparedness, spells out the curtailment of pay and benefits to striking employees, and the designation of extra pay to other employees asked to work extra hours as a result of a strike. The other resolution reaffirms the board's intent to implement its "last and final" offer should a strike occur.

EWEB officials declined Monday to give a dollar estimate of how much a strike would cost in replacement worker pay, security and other expenses. The financial implications may be discussed at today's board meeting.

EWEB has never encountered a strike - has never had union-represented employees, in fact, until electrical and other workers voted to join the IBEW in 2004. The workers' initial contract expired last December.

The utility serves about 85,000 customers in the Eugene area and the McKenzie River valley.

WHAT'S NEXT EWEB commissioners review strike contingency plan When/where: Today, 7:30 p.m., EWEB Board Room, 500 E. Fourth Ave.