DOMINION EAST OHIO Workers vote to ratify five-year labor contract

Union members also got $500 signing bonuses and pension improvements.
YOUNGSTOWN -- Dominion East Ohio workers voted 803 to 199 Friday to ratify a new five-year labor contract providing annual raises of 3 percent the first three years and 3.25 percent the last two years.
With the tentative agreement having been reached last Saturday, the executive committee of Local 555 of the Natural Gas Workers Union had voted 24-0 Monday to recommend that workers approve the contract.
Union Business Manager Nino Piccolli said Friday night that union members had been paying $30 a month for family health care insurance, but that will increase to $40 Jan. 1, and go up every year till it hits $100 a month in 2006.
The contract also calls for reductions in the company match on 401k retirement plans, but the company will still match 3 percent or 4 percent of each employee's contribution, depending on the worker's seniority, and the contract improves pensions.
Piccolli said this contract provides the biggest improvement in pensions since 1973. He noted that in addition to the improved pensions, retiring workers will get a monthly supplemental payment of $10 for every year of seniority. That means a worker retiring with 30 years service would get $300 a month in addition to the pension, he said.
Bonus: In addition, the union members got a $500 signing bonus, Piccolli said.
The contract is retroactive to and runs five years from June 15, he said.
The union represents 1,200 workers in several Ohio cities, including more than 100 in the Mahoning Valley. The union represents meter readers, construction and maintenance crews and customer service representatives. The last contract expired June 15, but both sides agreed to continue negotiating.
This is the first contract between the company and Local 555 since Dominion Resources of Richmond, Va., acquired East Ohio Gas last year.