Letter to Madison Residents

To the residents of the Borough of Madison,

We are the IBEW Local 1289 that represents the employees that work for the Borough’s Electric Department. Many of you know us for our consistent work with ensuring your power stays on and our intricate role in Madison’s cherished holiday festivities. When needed in a moment’s notice these employees interrupt their family lives to respond to emergencies in the Borough of Madison, making sure there are minimal outage times and safety of all the residents.  As you have already read from the Madison PBA, the Madison FMBA and the Madison DPW Teamsters letters, IBEW Local 1289 has also been negotiating to come to a fair and equitable contract with the Borough for over a year.

The Borough administration is refusing to come to a fair and equitable settlement of this contract with IBEW Local 1289. We would like to point out that since they have continued to refuse to do so, this decision has caused the town to expend Madison Township time and resources that would otherwise be unnecessary had Madison simply agreed to a reasonable resolution with the Union.

The employees of the Madison Borough Electric Department are proud to say they are one of nine municipalities in New Jersey that offer reliable, quick, and consistent electric service to its customers. Beyond our everyday electrical work, we have helped trim tree for line clearance, assist with Holiday displays, and many other countless services.

This Local is and has been asking for a fair contract to make sure that our employees are fairly compensated for their dangerous and complex work that they perform. Similar to the Madison PBA, we are afraid that the Madison Electric Department may become a “training ground” for employees until they get their proper qualifications to leave for a more competitive paying company. This will not only affect the employees of the Electric Department but it will also affect you, the residents, with longer outage times. The Borough cannot continue to ignore the fact that the Electric Department is not properly staffed nor is it fairly compensated.  When needed in a moment’s notice these employees interrupt their family lives to respond to emergencies in the Borough of Madison, ensuring minimal outage times and the safety of the residents

Respectfully submitted,

Officers and Members of IBEW Local 1289.

Madison Letter