PECO employees union allege company isn’t bargaining in good faith as midnight deadline nears

This story is part of the WHYY News Climate Desk, bringing you news and solutions for our changing region.

From the Poconos to the Jersey Shore to the mouth of the Delaware Bay, what do you want to know about climate change? What would you like us to cover? Get in touch.

The union representing PECO’s 1,600-member workforce, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 614, said the company is not bargaining in good faith as the current contract is set to expire at midnight on April 1. The union filed an unfair labor practice complaint with the National Labor Relations Board on Tuesday, claiming the company has not put forward any meaningful counter proposals surrounding the bargaining unit’s most important issues – wages, retirement and health care benefits.

About 25 union members stood outside of the company’s Center City headquarters Tuesday morning to call attention to what they say are PECO’s efforts to break the union. They said the current contract includes wages and benefits below industry standard.

“The corporate idiots that run this place make well above industry standard on their private jets, they’re not working on Christmas morning, their children don’t miss them. Their bodies don’t ache,” said Larry Anastasi, IBEW Local 614 business manager.

The stalemate comes one day after PECO filed a rate hike request with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission. The utility is asking for electricity rate increases that would raise the average residential customers’ bills by $20.08 a month. For its suburban gas customers, PECO is seeking to raise monthly rates for a typical customer by $14.52.

The rate request follows 2025 increases of 10% and 12.5% for electricity and natural gas customers, respectively.

The 2025 rate hike resulted in record profits. PECO’s net income shot up 47.7% to $814 million in 2025 over the previous year, according to earning reports by its parent company Exelon.

Exelon President and CEO Calvin Butler earned more than $15.6 million in 2025.

Anastasi called this “an atrocity.”

“Why do they get these rate increases? Why does everyone pay more?” asked Anastasi. “Because in Harrisburg, they turn a blind eye, they rubber stamp it. They let them increase again and again with no accountability. PECO is putting in for another rate increase because 50% profits isn’t enough.”

The company said the average PECO lineman, a dangerous job that risks electrocution and earns the highest wage in the bargaining unit, made a salary of “$243,569 (including overtime)” in 2025. The company said in a statement that is “well above industry benchmarks.”

“Our employees, if you look at the compensation, they make a great wage,” said PECO Chief Operating Officer Nicole LeVine. “We’re looking to increase what they’re already given, including some opportunities for retirement and I think we have a great benefit package here at PECO now, and I think we’ll be able to come to some agreement.”

Anastasi said one of the major sticking points is that new hires, or about 600 of the current union membership, are excluded from earning a pension, and instead have to make contributions to 401(k)s.

“We are for workers that get up in the middle of the night [and go] in manholes with rats and roaches and needles. Linemen that go 80 feet in the air to work on 34,000 volt [power lines.] People that run into houses to take people out because their house is going to blow up,” he said.

The union represents gas workers, electric workers as well as office workers who staff customer service lines.

PECO lineman James McGill said he’s lost two friends and co-workers over the 34 years he’s worked for the company.

“I’m one of the guys you see outside your window in the middle of the night when your power’s out, up in the bucket truck,” McGill said. “The work is deeply challenging. We work around the clock, in the rain and snow and sleet, and even in the bright sunshine. … We risk electrocution from the high voltage lines we service. We even worry about falling from our buckets or from the poles.”

PECO had provided regular defined benefits to all employees for years, according to attorney Stuart Davidson, who represents the union at the bargaining table. Davidson called the current 401(k) “poorly funded.”

“This is not an industry standard of a highly dangerous industry,” he said.

The union has yet to schedule or hold a strike authorization vote, without which, members will not walk off the job.

Still, LeVine said the company has a contingency plan to ensure no halts to service should the membership decide to strike.

“We want to make sure that they get a fair and equitable contract,” LeVine said. “We also want to make sure that it’s one that’s affordable for our customers because we know that they’re dealing with some affordability issues now. We believe we’ll be able to reach a fair deal for everybody.”