Water company employees picket local office

Elizabethtown says supply won’t be affected, but customers’ bills may be estimated.

By:Alec Moore
   Local Elizabethtown Water Co. employees are picketing outside the company’s Hillsborough-Belle Mead office on Raider Boulevard this week as part of an organized job action over wages.
   Company officials say the strike will not affect water safety or supplies, although the company will not be taking meter readings during the strike and will estimate customers bills.
   Harry Hill, a shop steward and 13-year Elizabethtown Water employee, was among those picketing outside the company’s Hillsborough-Belle Mead office.
   "This is hard, this is really hard," said Mr. Hill, who noted that this is the first time Elizabethtown Water laborers have gone on strike. "I guess this is what happens when a family owned business gets turned over to an international conglomerate," he said, referring to Elizabethtown Water Co.’s acquisition by Thames Water, an English subsidiary of the RWE Group, a German company, in November 2000.
   The strike began just after midnight on Feb. 1, the expiration date of the contract for the 241 unionized laborers from Local 423, Utility Workers of America, who say they will not go back to work without a "fair contract."
   "We just want a fair and reasonable settlement and the company hasn’t come up with that," said union representative Mike Esposito, who said contracted laborers hired to fill in for the striking workers are performing duties for which they lack the appropriate knowledge, skill and experience to perform.
   "The repairs these contractors are making are shoddy at best," said Mr. Esposito, a 13-year Elizabethtown Water employee and union member, who also said that since the strike began Elizabethtown Water has in some cases assigned administrative personnel to fill in for labor personnel at the company’s treatment facilities.
   "I know I wouldn’t want a secretary treating my drinking water," he added. Mr. Esposito would not comment on what stipulations or wage hikes the union wants to see in a new contract.
   Donna Gregory, Elizabethtown Water Co. spokeswoman, refuted Mr. Esposito’s allegations regarding the qualifications of its workers filling in for the striking laborers.
   "We have qualified trained people working," she said, adding that no administrative personnel have been assigned to duties for which they are not qualified.
   In a press released statement, Elizabethtown Water Co. said it offered the union laborers a wage increase equating to more than 4 percent per year over the course of the three-year contract and a $500 lump sum payment to each employee at the end of each contract year.
   The striking laborers include station operators, construction and maintenance personnel and meter readers. Elizabethtown Water will not be taking meter readings during the strike and billing for the strike period will be based on estimated water usage.
   Elizabethtown Water provides service to about 1 million customers in Somerset, Middlesex, Union, Hunterdon, Burlington and Ocean counties. Thames Water Co. reported net profits of about $91.8 million in 2001, according to financial reports on the company’s Web site.