Union advising striking JCP&L workers to ratify contract

[struggle4progress]

By BONNIE PFISTER
Associated Press Writer

March 13, 2005, 4:26 PM EST

TRENTON, N.J. -- The union representing 1,350 workers at Jersey Central Power & Light is urging members to approve a four-year contract offer when they vote Tuesday, union leaders said Sunday.

After 14 straight hours of bargaining, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers System Council U-3 reached a tentative agreement with New Jersey's second-largest utility Saturday night that could end the three-month-old strike.

Neither labor nor management would discuss details of the agreement Sunday, but IBEW spokesman Jack Moriarty said workers could be back on the job Wednesday morning if they ratify the accord. That would end what he called a very stressful period for the workers.

"This has been brutal," Moriarty said. "These are very normal middle-class folks. Many people have had no health care since January." <snip>

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newjersey/ny-bc-nj--jcpamplstrike0313mar13,0,4227836.story?coll=ny-region-apnewjersey