The Communication Workers of America (CWA), representing Frontier employees who repair and maintain telephone poles, filed an appeal in Connecticut Superior Court against the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) alleging Connecticut’s utility regulator has essentially mandated the use of non-union labor by requiring utility pole owners and companies to use third-party contractors – called the Contractor Mandate — to address a backlog of utility pole repairs.
“To comply with the Contractor Mandate, Frontier must utilize outside contractors for traditional bargaining unit work, which nullifies the notification and bargaining process under CWA’s collective bargaining agreement,” the union wrote in its complaint. “As a result, PURA has deprived CWA of the recourse mechanisms specified in its collective bargaining agreement and the union’s ability to prevent the loss of its members’ bargaining unit hours.”
The union is asking the court to “set aside PURA’s final decision,” and argue that “It is is beyond the power of PURA to interfere in the collective bargaining agreement between CWA and Frontier ‘in any manner.’”
At the same time, the presidents of four labor unions representing utility and steel workers for Connecticut Natural Gas, Southern Connecticut Gas, United Illuminating, and the business manager for the International Brotherhood of Electric Workers, sent a letter to Gov. Ned Lamont and Attorney General William Tong indicating their support of CWA’s suit and requesting a meeting to discuss PURA’s recent actions.
“We stand with CWA (Local 1298) because we know firsthand that PURA’s actions and inactions are having damaging consequences for frontline union workers throughout Connecticut’s utility companies,” Charles Piro, Robert Eubanks, Marcelo Assis, Moses Rams, and Josephe Malcarne wrote in their December 16 letter. “As many of us have said for months or even years, PURA’s decisions, while apparently aimed at undercutting utility company management, are inflicting direct, negative consequences on us, their front-line workers.”
The issue dates back to a series of decisions made by PURA in 2022 called the One-Touch-Make-Ready (OTMR) decision, and the Single Visit Transfer (SVT) pilot program, which flowed out of PURA’s working group to examine how to address the backlog of pole repairs. The union alleges from these working groups came the Contractor Mandate, and that PURA threatened to fine the utility companies for not abiding by the mandate.
“The OTMR Decision thus specifically ordered the use of third-party contractors to perform make-ready work traditionally done by CWA members, created a Policy Working Group to carry out that authorization, and enforces the implementation of that process through the threat of imposing tolled fines,” the court complaint says. “Instead of requiring Frontier to reinvest in its workforce and infrastructure, PURA altered the entire market for pole owners and attachers.”
The CWA claims state statute “bars PURA from interfering with CWA’s collective bargaining agreement with Frontier because Frontier is a public service company.”
PURA, whose members are all appointed by Lamont, has come under increasing scrutiny in its regulatory battles with Connecticut’s utility companies – specifically Eversource and Avangrid – and particularly since the 2024 spike in public benefits charges to ratepayers’ electric bills which occurred after PURA delayed COVID-era cost recoveries for the utility companies and extended a shutoff moratorium until spring of 2024.
Previously a rarely mentioned regulatory body, PURA is now the source of political fighting with Democrats largely backing the agency’s decisions to cut electric and gas rates which have led to credit-rating downgrades for Eversource and Avangrid, while Republicans are arguing that it is a regulatory body run amok and will ultimately harm ratepayers down the line.
Both Lamont and Attorney General Tong have enjoyed union support in the past, and Tong, whose office will be defending PURA against the Communications union, has been out-spoken in supporting PURAs decisions affecting utility companies – issuing press releases either chastising utilities for requesting rate increases, or praising PURA for cutting them.
“There’s no way for PURA to shield workers from the harm of its decision,” the union officials wrote to Lamont and Tong. “By crippling utility’s ability to procure safer and more modern equipment, trucks and even resources we need to do our jobs; by threatening to cut training and other benefits we have enjoyed for decades; by cutting back funding for the work we do every day – PURA’s decisions have powerful sway over our day-to-day work.”
“It is unacceptable for a state government body to step in and nullify the hard-earned benefit in agreements we already negotiated and won with our employers,” the letter continues. “Yet that is exactly what PURA has done and continues to do.”
In their appeal to Connecticut Superior Court, CWA is requesting the court find PURA’s actions in violation of state statute, overturn PURA’s decisions, and “grant injunctive relief to halt PURA’s ongoing enforcement of the Contractor Mandate,” until a new process can be found that is consistent with union’s collective bargaining agreement.
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