Business Manager Tony Sapienza
May 5, 2021 - IBEW members working at Central Maine Power voted to approve a new collective bargaining agreement with guaranteed wage increases and annual bonus payments, and without significant concessions of any kind. Voting took place at 15 different locations throughout the state on Wednesday, May 5th. The contract takes effect immediately and runs through April 30, 2025.
March 25, 2021 - At a hearing of the New Hampshire House Labor, Industrial and Rehabilitative Services Committee, the overwhelming majority of people testified in opposition to the so-called “Right to Work” bill. Elected union leaders were joined by rank-and-file union members in urging committee members to vote “Inexpedient to Legislate” on the union-busting bill, SB 61. Similar bills have been considered dozens of times in the State Legislature and have always failed to become law.
March 16, 2021 - A proposal to amend the state’s Kennebec River Management Plan would remove at least two and eventually as many as four dams where IBEW 1837 members work generating electricity. The dams are owned by Brookfield Renewable Partners.
March 10, 2021 - Workers at Central Maine Power Company (CMP) are angry and disappointed by the decision of company officials to give an unusually low 1.4% annual bonus to their non-management employees. At the same time, CMP managers will receive a bonus payout of 8 – 9% of their annual pay.
February 9, 2021 - Anti-union politicians in Concord and out-of-state special interest groups are back at it again. They’re trying to cut wages and benefits for union members by supporting more deceptively titled “Right to Work” legislation, Senate Bill 61.
February 8, 2021 - A union organizing campaign by registered nurses at Maine’s largest hospital has captured the attention of union members and hospital patients throughout Northern New England. It also has earned a rare public endorsement from IBEW Local Union #1837.
December 30, 2020 - At least one good thing has come out of a very bad year: Workers at the Kittery Water District have overwhelmingly ratified their first contract with IBEW Local #1837. The 15 workers at the water utility include office staff, filtration plant workers, laborers, meter readers, service technicians and others.
IBEW Local 1837 represents a total of 46 members at Newington and Merrimack Generating Stations in New Hampshire. These fossil fuel power stations were acquired by Granite Shore Power from Eversource NH in 2018 as part of the legislatively mandated divestiture agreement. Schiller Station was also part of that sales agreement but is no longer operating. Newington and Merrimack provide critical sources of electricity to the ISO-New England electrical grid.
Stewards at Granite Shore Power: Adam Morin and Ezra Carr
There have been numerous watershed moments in the labor movement in Maine and New Hampshire, and for the past three decades – Matt Beck has been at the forefront for nearly all of them. From a contentious effort, which successfully stopped an attempt to bring “right to work,” to the Granite State in 2011 – to supporting his union brothers and sisters on the picket lines during the strike at the New Hampshire Electric Co-Op in 2018 – Beck has had his hand in numerous events through the years, in addition to countless organizing campaigns and contract negotiations.
