GREEN RIVER -- Union electrical utility workers at three Wyoming power plants are negotiating a new contract with the Rocky Mountain Power Co., union and company officials say.

The Utility Workers Union of America, Local 127, represents 587 employees at three PacifiCorp power plants in Wyoming -- the Jim Bridger Power Plant east of Rock Springs, the Dave Johnston plant near Glenrock and the Wyodak plant near Gillette -- and transmission line workers across the state.

Company and union officials said this week they are continuing to bargain "in good faith," but both sides indicated there were many issues still to be resolved in the negotiations.

Both sides said they were hopeful a labor walk-out can be avoided.

"Nobody wants to go on strike," said Harold Giberson, a heavy equipment operator at the Jim Bridger Power Plant and head of the Local 127.

"Nobody wins in a strike ... neither the company or the union wins," Giberson said in a phone interview. "Right now, though, we're not even close to a new contract. We are pretty far apart, but it's negotiations."

Dave Eskelsen, manager for external communications for Rocky Mountain Power, said from his Salt Lake City office that the company has successfully renegotiated contracts with Local 127 many times in the past.

"And we have every hope that we'll be able to do it again," Eskelsen said.

"We believe that we have good relationships with our union employees and that we can come to a contract that has mutually agreeable terms," he said. "We're confident we can get there."

Rocky Mountain Power is a division of PacifiCorp, which is part of the MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company. MidAmerican is owned by Berkshire Hathaway, the investment firm that is owned by billionaire Warren Buffet. Berkshire Hathaway is based in Des Moines, Iowa.

Officials expect negotiations to run for several more weeks before union employees vote on the company's expected three-year contract offer.

The two sides began negotiations Aug. 24 and have been meeting a few days each week in Casper, officials said. The two sides will resume talks Monday.

The union has been working under a three-year contract approved in 2004. The contract was extended by the union for two years in 2007 and is set to expire Friday.

Eskelsen said Local 127 employees will continue to work under the current contract while the company and union keep negotiating. This continues unless either party gives written 60-day notice to terminate the contract.

"Even after such notice, there is still ample time for the parties to reach an agreement," he said. "The company and Local 127 have talks scheduled through the end of October, and we remain hopeful that agreement can be reached."

PacifiCorp is one of the western United States' largest utility companies and serves more than 1.7 million electrical customers in seven states.

The Jim Bridger Power Plant opened in 1974 and is located east of Rock Springs in central Sweetwater County in southwest Wyoming.

The biggest of PacifiCorp's Wyoming plants, the Jim Bridger facility burns coal provided by the adjacent Bridger Coal Co. mine and produces 2,311 megawatts of electricity.

The Dave Johnston plant lies six miles east of Glenrock in Converse County along the North Platte River. The facility is one of the largest coal-fired plants in the Rockies, with a total output of 817 megawatts. The plant receives coal from the Power River Basin in northeast Wyoming.

The 31-year-old Wyodak Power Plant is located near Gillette in Campbell County. The plant generates 363 megawatts of electricity, making it the smallest of PacifiCorp's Wyoming operations.

Takeaways

The company's initial offer early in the negotiations included more than 20 cuts in benefits for union workers, Giberson said.

Those included eliminating the pension plan, reductions in vacation time, changes in health care premiums and other proposed "takeaways from Local 127 members and their families," he said.

"These takeaways range from the total elimination of the members' retirement plans to the drastic increase in health care premiums ... they even tried to take Veterans Day away from us, but we ended up getting it back in negotiations," Giberson said.

"Iowa and Berkshire Hathaway needs to realize they're not (negotiating) with Oregon people or Iowa people, they're dealing with Wyoming people who are a special breed," Giberson said. "We stick together and we take care of one another, and we think the company better start realizing that."

Eskelsen said the company was asking for some reductions in benefits from all workers, not just union members.

"Our price for electricity is among the lowest in the nation ... and we want to keep that position," he said.

"We're going to continue to try and be as efficient as we possibly can ... in order to keep the price of electricity reasonable" for the company's customers, Eskelsen said. "We are asking for Local 127 members to pay a bigger share of their (health care) insurance premiums.

"This is consistent with what we have asked from our other union employees and what we've asked from other non-union employees."

He called the union's contention that the company is seeking to scrap employees' pension plans a "mischaracterization."

"What we're asking them to do is make a transition -- again, which other union and non-union employees have already made -- to institute a more flexible and portable 401(k) program," Eskelsen said.

Giberson said once the company makes its final contract offer, union members will vote by mail in a "secret ballot referendum."

"If nothing else, the company has united Local 127 utility workers all over the state ... and they are not going to put up with all these takeaways and letting the company ruin our way of life," he said.

Contact southwest Wyoming bureau reporter Jeff Gearino at 307-875-5359 or gearino@tribcsp.com.