This is the next post in our series that will take a deeper look at each of our affiliates. The series will run weekly until we’ve covered all 65 of our affiliates. Next up is the Utility Workers (UWUA).
Name of Union: Utility Workers Union of America
Mission: UWUA is committed to a society where all workers and their families live and work with dignity; where there is an economic and political mandate for a more equitable distribution of the nation’s wealth for all those performing useful service to society; where workers have a collective voice and power in the workplace; where economic well-being is achieved for our members and all workers; and where work is satisfying and fairly rewarded. To accomplish these goals, UWUA commits to the following: bargaining contracts that provide for improved wages and working conditions and ensure that our collective voices are heard and honored; building a strong and united union that also stands firm with other unions; organizing the unorganized workers in our industries so that all workers can enjoy the highest possible level of wages, pensions and benefits; staying united, recognizing our common ground and goals, and not being divided by forces of discrimination, corporate action or disharmony; participating in our democratic societies and ensuring that unions maintain a vital and central role in the political, social and economic life of our countries; working for social and economic justice; leaving the workplace a better place for our children and our children’s children; and participating in regulatory, legislative, legal and electoral proceedings to protect the interests of consumers and the public (including our members) in reliable, safe and environmentally sound utilities at affordable, just and reasonable costs.
Current Leadership of Union: James Slevin serves as national president, having been elected in July 2019. He was born the son of Irish immigrants and raised in a union household in the Bronx; his father was a UWUA shop steward. He graduated from Mount Saint Michael Academy and began his union career as a carpenter. In 1987, Slevin signed on as a utility worker at Consolidated Edison. Working his way up from helper to cable splicer, Slevin became a Local 1-2 shop steward in 1989. He was elected as an officer of Local 1-2 in 2005 and was appointed as president of the local in December 2013. He was elected to that position in March 2014 and reelected in March 2017.
Patrick Dillon serves as national executive vice president. Craig Pinkham serves as national vice president. Mike Coleman serves as national secretary-treasurer. UWUA has 20 executive elected board members.
Current Number of Members: 45,000
Members Work: Underground and aboveground repairing the electric grid; perched high atop wind turbines; powering America in coal, natural gas, nuclear and hydroelectric power plants; ensuring the lights stay on around the clock; meeting the future in energy storage facilities and on utility-scale wind and solar farms; keeping customers healthy by providing clean drinking water, treating wastewater and maintaining water systems; operating and maintaining municipal services; in office and technical settings; responding to consumer needs; and preparing for energy and water system repairs and the future of utility infrastructure.
Industries Represented: Energy, electric, gas, steam, water, and related professional, technical and service industries.
History: UWUA’s earliest roots trace back to utility workers in New York, Michigan, Pennsylvania, California and Ohio who in the 1940s worked for companies such as Consumers Power, Consolidated Edison, West Penn Power and Southern California Gas. The efforts of a scattered group of recently formed unions to gain leverage against powerful employers led to the formation of the Utility Workers Organizing Committee (UWOC). In 1942, more than 50 delegates representing approximately 180 local unions gathered to gavel in the first constitutional convention of the UWOC. Eventually a new national organization formed, composed of all the local unions affiliated with the UWOC and the Brotherhood of Consolidated Edison Employees, called the Utility Workers Union of America, CIO, which chartered on Aug. 1, 1945. The first constitutional convention of that organization gaveled into session in 1946.
In 1955, the UWUA, which was an affiliate of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), became an affiliate of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) when the CIO rejoined the AFL to form the AFL-CIO.
In 1969, the UWUA started to face some of its toughest battles to date as President Nixon initiated efforts to deregulate the utility industry. These policies continued through President Carter’s administration and President George W. Bush’s administration, when the Energy Policy Act became law. In response, the UWUA sought to become more politically active. In 1979, the UWUA established the Committee on Political Education fund to allow members to voluntarily make political donations. The UWUA spent the 1980s and ’90s fiercely contesting deregulation at the state and federal levels.
In 2003, UWUA set up the National Health and Welfare Trust Fund to support members facing increased costs and/or cuts to their health care benefits. Today, some 8,200 members are covered by the fund. At the turn of this century, UWUA embarked on several initiatives to defend gains members made at the bargaining table, protect jobs and secure good wages. As part of this effort, in 2008, the national established the Power for America Training Trust Fund and later expanded it to offer vigorous training to place veterans in good union jobs. At the 2015 constitutional convention, the UWUA formed five committees representing various members’ interests in order to better support these constituent groups: the Veterans Committee, the Women’s Caucus, the Safety Committee, the Human Rights Committee and the Young Workers Initiative Committee. UWUA continues to fight to protect its members’ jobs and to organize new members.
Current Campaigns/Community Efforts: Legislative and policy action; Committee on Political Education; online store; Human Rights, Safety, Veterans, Women’s Caucus and Young Workers Initiative committees; Power for America Training Trust Fund, scholarship, military assistance and safety training programs; The Utility Worker magazine.