Ibew

Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. and the union that failed almost two years ago to organize its workers have agreed to hold a second election in mid-October.In exchange, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers will drop complaints with federal authorities contending that the utility violated national labor laws just before a representation vote in December 1996.The decision to drop the complaints comes just two months before the National Labor Relations Board was to hold hearings to determine if BGE coerced and intimidated employees and pledged raises if its workers rejected the IBEW.

Baltimore Gas and Electric Co.'s merger with the Potomac Electric Power Co. is under fire from a Washington labor union, which is seeking a Baltimore County Circuit Court decision on whether the $2.9 billion corporate marriage is in the public's best interest.The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers' petition for judicial review is likely to delay the merger for months.A BGE spokesman declined to comment on whether the IBEW action could stop the proposed merger because the state's Public Service Commission, which ruled in favor of the merger April 16, has yet to decide whether it believes that the matter remains under its jurisdiction.

The National Labor Relations Board, as expected, charged Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. yesterday with 17 violations of federal labor laws stemming from a union election in December 1996.The charges, announced by the NLRB's regional office in Baltimore, contend that the utility intimidated employees, refused to allow workers to distribute union material for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, forced employees to watch anti-labor videos and pledged a pay raise of up to 17 percent if the organizing effort was defeated.

In a surprising victory for union organizers, electricians from Eastern Europe who came to the United States under a visitors exchange program have voted unanimously to join the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. The vote, which was formally tabulated in Baltimore yesterday, means the IBEW will have the right to negotiate a contract for the workers with USA-IT Inc. , the Greenbelt company that brought hundreds of workers to the United States from Romania, Bulgaria, Poland and other Eastern European countries.

Westinghouse Electric Corp. will continue negotiating today with a union representing 1,850 clerical and technical workers in Anne Arundel County whose labor contract expired late Sunday.The company reached a tentative agreement yesterday with a national bargaining committee representing three other unions, two of which have members at Westinghouse Electronic Systems Group in Linthicum.Contracts expired at midnight Sunday, but the unions agreed to continue talks beyond the deadline, company officials said.

Workers at Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. rejected a unionization drive by a nearly 4-1 margin, defeating efforts by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers for the fourth time in 14 years. After two days of balloting run by the National Labor Relations Board that ended Friday, the final tally was 1,135-304 votes, rejecting the union. The lopsided outcome keeps the Baltimore utility as one of the few utilities in the country that is nonunion. "We are extremely pleased that once again BGE employees have chosen overwhelmingly to remain union-free," BGE spokesman Rob Gould said.

BOSTON -- Bell Atlantic Corp., the largest U.S. company providing local phone service, and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers said yesterday that they have reached a tentative agreement on a two-year contract that will increase wages and pensions for more than 13,000 employees.Two similar companies, US West Communications and Southern New England Telecommunications Corp., continued to negotiate labor agreements with the other major union in the industry, the Communications Workers of America.

For the third time in five years, 2,400 employees of Constellation Energy Group Inc. will vote starting tomorrow on whether they will be represented by a union. Efforts to unionize the workers in 1996 and 1998 were rejected by employees. Officials at Constellation, the parent company of Baltimore Gas and Electric Co., which has been nonunion throughout its 184-year history, want employees to once again send a decisive message that they want to remain union free. But leaders of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers - the labor group that has attempted to organize BGE twice before - desperately want to make a breakthrough at the historically anti-union utility.

The Officers and Members of Local Union #24 I.B.E.W. regret to announce the death of Retired Brother JAMES G. RUARK and extends sincere sympathy to his family.

The Officers and Members of Local Union #24 I.B.E.W. regret to announce the death of Retired Brother MICHAEL D DIXON and extends sincere sympathy to his family.