Following months of investigations and weeks preparing for trial, Unfair Labor Practice charges filed against Central Maine Power Company (CMP) by IBEW Local 1837 were settled just days before the trial was set to begin.
Immediately after the Union was certified to represent them, the Company announced that members of a unit of 47 employees would not be eligible for merit increases, for the all-employee incentive bonus, and certain other programs. Believing the changes to be illegal unilateral changes to mandatory subjects of bargaining, IBEW had attempted to convince CMP to withdraw the letter. When the Union was unable to persuade the Company to change their position, charges were filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
As efforts to secure a first contract for the newly organized group dragged along unproductively through the summer and into the fall, CMP engaged in numerous instances of bad-faith bargaining, and made numerous unilateral changes to the employees’ working conditions such as changing pay grades and titles of employees, modifying the Performance Management Process, refusal to bargain over job descriptions, changing health insurance rates, making bargaining proposals which sought to maintain total company discretion regarding wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment, proposed and insisted on non-mandatory subjects of bargaining by seeking to exclude part-time employees from the Unit. These actions were added to the original charges.