The workers hit the picket lines on Saturday as temperatures soared into the triple digits and storms knocked out power for 57,000 customers over the weekend, according to PECO. The utility\u2019s website reports<\/a> all but about 1,000 outages have been restored.<\/p>\n The striking employees are expected to return to work Wednesday.<\/p>\n \u201cOur three-day strike showed just how much PECO needs Local 614,\u201d Anastasi said. \u201cWithout our labor, our expertise, and our experience, PECO saw widespread outages that they were slow to address. We are not easily replaced. We feel deep appreciation for the ratepayers and the public, whose support for our members never wavered, even in the heat and the storms.\u201d<\/p>\n PECO provides electricity to 1.7 million residents and businesses in Philadelphia and the surrounding suburbs. It also serves about 550,000 suburban customers with natural gas.<\/p>\n The union said some of their workers are paid 30% less than the prevailing wage and pointed to company profits as the reason for wage increases.<\/p>\n \u201cFor years, PECO has disrespected, devalued, and denigrated the men and women who keep the lights on and gas flowing,\u201d Anastasi said. \u201cManagement stole our pensions, eroded our medical benefits, and exploited our wages while jacking up rates, recording record profits, and skimming the fat for the C-suite. This contract begins to right those wrongs.\u201d<\/p>\n PECO\u2019s profits jumped 50% last year as a result of the 2025 rate increase. PECO is a subsidiary of Exelon, a publicly traded company that owns six utilities, including Atlantic City Electric and Delmarva Power and Light. Exelon\u2019s President and CEO Calvin Butler earned $24.6 million in 2025, including stocks<\/a>.<\/p>\n The deal means PECO will not have to rely solely on out-of-state contractors at the height of storm season.<\/p>\n It also avoids ratcheting up the tension that had already plagued the picket line, with each side lobbing accusations against the other.<\/p>\n On Saturday, the union said three of its members were assaulted by company security in separate incidents. PECO denied the allegations.<\/p>\n PECO said it has had to beef up security to accompany non-union workers to repair outages because \u201cunion protestors are showing up at restoration sites and impeding that work.\u201d<\/p>\n The union disputed that, saying it had engaged in lawful pickets and accused PECO of deliberately disabling its publicly accessible power outage map to avoid transparency. The company said it disabled part of the website detailing outages due to security concerns, but said the number of outages is still viewable.<\/a><\/p>\n Anastasi said earlier on Monday that if IBEW Local 614 workers were in the field, instead of out-of-state contractors, the lights would have been turned on quicker.<\/p>\n PECO and the union have also been at odds regarding each side\u2019s commitment to reach an agreement. Both have filed unfair labor practice complaints.<\/p>\n But by Monday night, both sides seemed eager to move forward.<\/p>\n \u201cWe value our long-standing relationship with IBEW Local 614 and appreciate the efforts of both bargaining teams in reaching this agreement,\u201d PECO said in a statement. \u201cThe proposed contract recognizes the contributions of our employees while supporting our responsibility to deliver reliable, affordable service across southeastern Pennsylvania.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe look forward to continuing our partnership with IBEW Local 614 as we remain focused on serving our customers, powering our communities, and supporting the region\u2019s continued growth and success.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" PECO strike ends after dangerous heat, storms and rising tensions The workers hit the picket lines on Saturday as temperatures soared into the triple digits and storms knocked out power for 57,000 customers over the weekend, according to PECO. The utility\u2019s website reports all but about 1,000 outages have been restored. The striking employees are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33950,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/07-04-2026-k-paynter-PECO-strike.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11573],"tags":[5611,3338,21334,471,3640,1055,23968],"class_list":["post-33949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-philadelphia-breaking-news","tag-agreement","tag-ends","tag-peco","tag-reaches","tag-strike","tag-union","tag-utility"],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/07-04-2026-k-paynter-PECO-strike.jpg",0,0,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/07-04-2026-k-paynter-PECO-strike.jpg",0,0,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/07-04-2026-k-paynter-PECO-strike.jpg",0,0,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/07-04-2026-k-paynter-PECO-strike.jpg",150,150,false],"medium":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/07-04-2026-k-paynter-PECO-strike.jpg",300,300,false],"large":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/07-04-2026-k-paynter-PECO-strike.jpg",1024,1024,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/07-04-2026-k-paynter-PECO-strike.jpg",1536,1536,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/07-04-2026-k-paynter-PECO-strike.jpg",2048,2048,false],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/07-04-2026-k-paynter-PECO-strike.jpg",370,265,false],"kava-thumb-s":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/07-04-2026-k-paynter-PECO-strike.jpg",150,85,false],"kava-thumb-s-2":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/07-04-2026-k-paynter-PECO-strike.jpg",230,230,false],"kava-thumb-m":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/07-04-2026-k-paynter-PECO-strike.jpg",400,400,false],"kava-thumb-m-vertical":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/07-04-2026-k-paynter-PECO-strike.jpg",370,500,false],"kava-thumb-m-2":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/07-04-2026-k-paynter-PECO-strike.jpg",570,450,false],"kava-thumb-l":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/07-04-2026-k-paynter-PECO-strike.jpg",1170,650,false],"kava-thumb-xl":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/07-04-2026-k-paynter-PECO-strike.jpg",1920,1080,false],"kava-thumb-masonry":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/07-04-2026-k-paynter-PECO-strike.jpg",600,999,false],"kava-thumb-justify":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/07-04-2026-k-paynter-PECO-strike.jpg",640,640,false],"kava-thumb-justify-2":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/07-04-2026-k-paynter-PECO-strike.jpg",1280,640,false]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"#RiseCelestialStudios","author_link":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/author\/ralph-c\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"Philadelphia Viral News<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"PECO strike ends after dangerous heat, storms and rising tensions The workers hit the picket lines on Saturday as temperatures soared into the triple digits and storms knocked out power for 57,000 customers over the weekend, according to PECO. The utility\u2019s website reports all but about 1,000 outages have been restored. The striking employees are…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33949"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33951,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33949\/revisions\/33951"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}