After a four-year organizing campaign, IBEW Local 769 won its first contract with Southwest Gas Corporation in Phoenix. The contract, signed in April 2002, covers more than 600 union members in Arizona. The campaign reached a successful conclusion after building trades union members and retirees intervened as consumers in a utility rate setting case.
Courtesy Stan Lubin.

As a result, Southwest Gas was forced to concede that the shareholders, not the consumers, should bear the expenses associated with the favorable resolution of pending unfair labor practice charges. The union-intervenors also succeeded in getting the company's requested rate increase reduced by 30%, thus creating substantial savings for Arizona consumers. Because the hearing delayed the effective date of the rate increase, consumers saved an additional $12.5 million.
Courtesy Stan Lubin.