IBEW 1837 Members at Versant Power Approve 2-Year Contract Extension

IBEW Local 1837 members at the electric utility serving a large swath of northern and eastern Maine have approved a two-year contract extension offer with pay increases for all classifications and no change in their health insurance premiums or other benefits for the term of the extension.

Effective June 1, 2022, all workers will receive at least a 2 percent wage adjustment followed by a 3 percent wage increase in January, 2023 and another 3 percent increase in January 2024. First class lineworkers, electricians and those in customer service representatives will receive larger pay increases to bring them up to the pay level of workers in comparable jobs at Central Maine Power, Maine’s largest electric utility. A 30-minute paid lunch was added to some job classifications resulting in a 30-minute shorter workday for those workers.

“We’re grateful to our Union Negotiating Team, Stewards and members for their participation in the process,” IBEW 1837 Assistant Business Manager Renee Gilman said. “Although we thought this was a good deal for our members, we heard from some that weren’t completely satisfied with Versant’s offer and we plan to raise those issues with the Company at upcoming Labor-Management meetings.”

IBEW 1837 represents 226 employees at Versant Power. Versant serves 159,000 customer accounts in northern and eastern Maine. The company is owned by Calgary, Alberta-based ENMAX Corp and was formerly Emera Maine.