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PECO workers will walk off the job on the Fourth of July if no contract agreement is reached, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 614 announced on Thursday. The move comes after five months of negotiations failed to produce an agreement.
Speaking at a rally to announce the impending strike in Washington Square Park, IBEW Local 614 Business Agent Larry Anastasi said the union did not come to the decision lightly.
“We know the impact that will be felt across Philadelphia and its four counties,” Anastasi said, as hundreds of PECO’s union workers stood behind him.
The union represents about 1600 employees, including linemen, gas odor responders and technicians, call center employees and other back-office employees. They have been working without a contract since April 1. It would be the first strike in PECO’s 145-year history. The national energy company Exelon acquired PECO in 2000.
Anastasi used the backdrop of Washington Square Park in Old City and the upcoming 250th anniversary celebration of the Declaration of Independence to emphasize the battle he said the union is facing.
“We understand that the strategy of Exelon, a company of kings, a monopoly of monopolies, have decided that they want us to go on strike,” Anastasi said. “They never intended to bargain. They forced our hand because they think that this will divide us.”
Anastasi said the company has not made any counter-proposals across the table on the two main issues: wages and benefits.
“The tyranny that this country faced 250 years ago was dealt with very close to this location, and men far greater than me decided that they were going to fight those kings and that tyranny.
They said, ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,’ and for some strange reason…they don’t think we are equal, and if you look behind me, you can see what happens when you treat a bunch of men and women who do a very dangerous job unequal.”
Anastasi said PECO workers are paid 30% less than their counterparts at other utilities in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
PECO Chief Operating Officer Nicole LeVine disputed the union’s position, saying the company is offering a fair wage.
“We’re not the highest and we’re not the lowest, we try to hit right in the middle,” LeVine said. “[It’s] a very competitive package for all of our positions.”
LeVine said the timing of the strike would be “unfortunate.”
“People are going to be coming in from literally around the world because we’re really going to be on the national stage,” LeVine said. “We have FIFA going on. We have the 250th anniversary of our country going on. We want people here to leave Philadelphia, knowing that we’re a great city.”
LeVine said the company always has a plan in place should a work stoppage occur.
“We’ll seamlessly pull the trigger to act on the plan, and our customers will not see any interruption of service or delay in restoration throughout and the same safe and reliable, service for our gas and electric customers that they should be used to,” she said.
LeVine added that the company wants to utilize a federal mediator.
The next scheduled contract talks between the union and PECO are set for July 2, two days before the planned strike.
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Why are PECO workers planning to strike?
About 600 workers, who have been hired since 2021, do not enjoy the same regular defined benefits as more tenured employees, and instead are provided a 401(k) plan that the union calls “poorly funded.”
In addition to getting those employees added to the pension rolls, the union wants the retirement benefits to be based on gross payroll instead of the current base salary structure, which does not take overtime into account.
Another sticking point is that those hired after 2014 are not eligible to participate in the retiree medical savings account plans.
Anastasi said the industry standard is to provide all workers with these retirement benefits.
The union had originally sought a 10% wage hike across the board, but said it has lowered that ask to 5.5 % for this year, followed by two years at 8% and two at 7.5%. Anastasi said they are frustrated that the company has not offered any counters, but instead, remains committed to its original offer that is far lower than the union’s current proposal. He said the offer for call center workers, 98% of whom he said are female, is lower than the rest of the majority-male workforce.
“We aren’t taking less for our women members,” he told WHYY News.
Call center employee Joy Rodriguez called the current offer unfair.
“I think it’s terrible that they don’t believe we deserve the same raise as the men out in the field,” Rodriguez said.
LeVine said their offer would provide a 20% wage hike over the five-year length of the contract for employees who work in the field and a 16% raise over five years for those who work in the call center.
“We have a very comprehensive process that looks at similar positions across the industry as well as throughout the region, and we are very competitively placed with that market analysis,” LeVine said.
Wendell Young, leader of UFCW local 1776, speaking in Washington Square Park on June 25, 2025. (Susan Phillips/WHYY)
How would customers be impacted?
PECO provides electricity to 1.7 million ratepayers in Philadelphia and the surrounding suburbs. It also serves about 550,000 suburban customers with natural gas.
The workers said the impending strike will leave customers served by improperly trained contractors.
“People’s lives could always be in danger when unqualified, unskilled people are working the system,” said IBEW Local 614 assistant business manager Jimmy McGill, who also works as an aerial lineman for PECO said. “It’s an aging infrastructure … and all the qualified people who respond to gas odors will be on strike as of midnight, July Fourth. It is a concern of ours, and that’s why we don’t take this lightly going on strike.”
But LeVine said the company always has a plan in place should a work stoppage occur and will utilize properly trained contractors and nonunion employees.
“We’ll seamlessly pull the trigger to act on the plan, and our customers will not see any interruption of service or delay in restoration throughout and the same safe and reliable service for our gas and electric customers that they should be used to,” she said.
How has PECO responded?
Both sides have filed unfair labor practice complaints. PECO said that while a federal mediator has been assigned to the case to aid in negotiations, “the union has not agreed to participate.”
“We think a federal mediator really would be a great option here, but for months, the union has declined that option,” LeVine said.
At the rally, Anastasi said the union would be willing to meet with the mediator.
PECO and the union are also at odds regarding each side’s commitment.
PECO said they are “committed to engaging in good-faith negotiations” that are fair to their employees and the ratepayers.
“We have requested earlier negotiation sessions and remain ready to meet at any time, including nights and weekends, but have not received a response,” PECO said in a statement. “We remain focused on continuing productive discussions and we remain ready and available to meet.”.
But Anastasi disagreed.
“And when we show up they reject every offer and make us wait eight hours and then we leave,” Anastasi said at the rally. “That’s not bargaining and it’s certainly not bargaining in good faith.”
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PECO is Pennsylvania’s largest electricity and natural gas provider and its roots trace back to the 1880s. In 1902, it was incorporated as the Philadelphia Electric Company. Exelon, a publicly traded company that owns six utilities, including Atlantic City Electric and Delmarva Power and Light, acquired PECO in 2000. The parent company’s president and CEO Calvin Butler earned $15.6 million in 2025.
The union points to recent company profits, Butler’s salary and the bonuses earned by managers, which range between 7% to 30%, as why the company can afford to provide higher wage increases.
PECO’s net income shot up 47.7% to $814 million in 2025 over the previous year, according to earning reports announced earlier this year by its parent company Exelon.
Exelon attributed its overall 12.5% increase in net income for 2025 in part to PECO’s gas and electricity rate hikes approved by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission at the end of 2024. WHYY News’ reporting on the earnings and the company’s subsequent rate hike request created a backlash that included criticism from Governor Josh Shapiro. In an unprecedented move, PECO withdrew the proposal. Resulting legislation to limit the profits of investor owned utilities recently passed in the Pennsylvania House unanimously.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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