Emera Maine and a union representing about 175 of the utility’s employees reached a tentative agreement about two hours after the midnight expiration of the union’s current five-year deal.
Dick Rogers, business manager for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers 1837, said he hopes to schedule meetings for members to vote on the proposed contract this week.
“If people want more time to look at it, I don’t want them to read it one minute and vote on it the next,” he said. “But it will hopefully be done by Friday.”
The union will hold a vote in Bangor for its members working in Emera’s Bangor Hydro Electric district and a vote in Presque Isle for its members working in the company’s Maine Public Service district.
This is the first contract negotiated by the union since Bangor Hydro Electric Co. and Maine Public Service became Emera Maine.
Rogers declined to discuss on Wednesday the contract terms that were at issue up to the expiration deadline Tuesday at midnight, but he said the process was typical in taking until the last minute.
“We like to tout mutual gains,” Rogers said, referring to a collaborative approach for bargaining. “It’s a great concept, but they all end up in typical bargaining where it’s the last 24 hours where we seem to get things done.”
Rogers said the process this year was difficult but typical of bargaining in which he’s been involved in recent years.
“It’s still a struggle for membership to see the huge profits these companies are making and then see some of the initial proposals that they put on the table,” Rogers said.
The union represents about 1,600 members in Maine and New Hampshire, including at Central Maine Power Co., Public Service of New Hampshire and WGME-TV 13.
Susan Faloon, a spokeswoman for Emera, confirmed the parties had reached an agreement but declined to comment further until the union membership has an opportunity to vote on the deal.
Rogers said involvement of a federal mediator helped negotiators work out a package they felt comfortable taking back to the membership, but he said late Wednesday that he “[doesn’t] really have a flavor yet for how they’ll vote.”
Emera Maine, which includes the former Bangor Hydro and Maine Public Service territories, delivers electricity to 154,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers across 9,350 square miles in five counties in eastern and northern Maine.