200 hydro staff on picket line; Utility says it's business as usual

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Management staff are manning the switches at Canada's largest hydro control centre in Barrie after 200 members of the Society of Energy Professionals went on strike June 1.

The union, which includes about 1,000 highly skilled engineers and other professionals in supervisory positions around Ontario, is trying to preserve its salary and benefits package.

"The society has been living in a dream world," said Peter Gregg, vice-president of Hydro One, the transmission successor to Ontario Hydro.

About 150 strikers picketed the Ontario Grid Control Centre on Sarjeant Dr. in Barrie from 5:30 a.m. June 1.

The union refuses to make salary and benefits concessions and is threatening to take the strike province-wide.

With the strike, union officials say, Hydro One is risking another blackout like the one that hit Ontario in August 2003.

But Gregg said Ontario residents should feel no effects from a strike due to a contingency plan Hydro One has had in place for some weeks.

A key issue is Hydro One's demand that new employees take 10 per cent less pay and reduced benefits. It also wants society members to work longer hours with no increase in pay.

In a news release, Hydro One said the highest-paid energy professional earned $182,000 last year with overtime and many earned over $100,000.

An engineer with 30 years' service retiring in 2007 would get an indexed pension of around $75,000 a year.

"We fail to see how the company's desire to address these legitimate cost items are grounds for a strike," Gregg said.

But striker Tom Irvine, who has spent 21 years on the job, said many workers sacrifice family life to work long hours when things go wrong — such as the blackout of 2003.

While the union has asked Premier Dalton McGuinty to force Hydro One back to the table, Energy Minister Dwight Duncan has refused to step in.

Gregg said Hydro One is willing to meet with the union at any time. But the union's Michelle Duncan said the employer refused to negotiate after the union's last offer. "The ball is in their court," she said.