By: Steve Daniels

January 23, 2006, Crain's Chicago Business

Michael Hisel says he lost his job as a ComEd lineman because he refused to leave his two young children home alone in the middle of the night to answer short-notice service calls. Tim Ganatos, a 25-year veteran line worker, says missing a service call because he was attending his daughter's wedding counted against him.

These workers and more than 300 others are suing the utility, saying Commonwealth Edison Co. is asking too much from its front-line employees after reducing their numbers. While Chicago's electric company spent $3 billion to upgrade its power system in recent years, it got rid of too many people who service those lines, union officials say.

The utility says it's actually doing a better job restoring power after outages, but others say deep cuts can compromise future service.

"Unhappy workers typically don't improve performance,'' says Thomas Lys, a professor at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management who studies the utility industry. "Labor unrest makes one question whether (timely service) is sustainable.''

Payroll Chopped

ComEd has cut its total payroll 22% from 2001 through 2004, government filings show. A comparison of electric companies in Boston, Detroit, New York and Pittsburgh shows a stark contrast, with ComEd dramatically cutting workers at a time when other utilities are spending more or holding the line on staffing.

Around 335 ComEd employees last year paid $500 each to file a class-action lawsuit against the company, challenging a 2-year-old policy requiring workers to respond to 35% of calls to fix outages. Another 134 are petitioning to have their names attached to the lawsuit.

Workers say their relationship with the company is worse than it's been in years. A voluntary system in which foremen handled calls to their crews for after-hours work was replaced in mid-2003 with an automated call system. Those who responded to less than 35% of the calls in any quarter would be subject to penalties, starting with an unpaid day off and ending with termination.

Weekend Work

The cost-cutting is placing severe strains on the private lives of workers, the suit says. The linemen are seeking millions in pay they say is owed them for being available to work on weekends, says Chicago attorney Christopher Mammel, who represents the employees.

ComEd's front-line workers-those climbing utility poles, scrambling down manholes and staffing substations-numbered 1,460 at the end of 2004, down 23% from 1,893 at the end of 1998, according to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 15, which represents ComEd employees.

The company won't confirm or dispute the numbers but says cutbacks were necessary during the transition to more competitive electricity markets in which power rates were frozen from 1998 until the end of 2006.

ComEd Chief Operating Officer John Costello won't comment on the lawsuit-ComEd has filed a motion to dismiss it, which is now pending before a federal judge-but says the shift to mandatory calls was necessary. Before the policy was put in place, the company was averaging about a 10% response to its emergency calls. Now, it's at 35%. That's reduced the amount of time people have to wait until their power is restored, Mr. Costello says.

"My responsibility to customers is that when the lights go out, you're expecting those lights will go back on,'' he says.

ComEd plans to hire 190 line workers this year to begin making up for what the union projects will be 320 retirements among front-line employees over the next three years, Mr. Costello says.

That's of little comfort to Mr. Ganatos, who says he was also penalized for missing a call while at dinner with his son who had just returned from active duty in Iraq. The 49-year-old Mr. Ganatos says he "can't turn 55 soon enough,'' referring to a minimum retirement age.

Mr. Hisel, a single father of two sons, ages 3 and 7, was let go last year after serving eight years with the company. He now works for a ComEd contractor and receives reduced benefits.