Ask Utah Power & Light President Verl Topham about the year-old merger between his company and PacifiCorp and he'll tell you it's a marriage made in heaven.
"It's working, really better than any of us thought it would," Topham said recently.But Blaine Newman, business manager of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 57, which represents more than 2,300 UP&L employees, says the past 12 months have been anything but a honeymoon.
Rumors of layoffs persist and employee morale is "very, very low," Newman said.
"I'm kind of disappointed in the attitude of the company - not keeping us abreast on what's going on and getting information to us. We're told about stuff after the fact," Newman said.
A.M. Gleason, PacifiCorp president and chief executive officer, dismisses Newman's perceptions as union grumbling. "I think it's inherent in labor-management relations that unions chose to focus on the unease because it's a role they can deal with," Gleason said.
Like a good marriage, the UP&L-PacifiCorp union brought together the best qualities of each partner, Top-ham said. Best of all, the utility has delivered on its promise to lower the electrical power rates of its Utah customers, he said.
When the merger occurred, the parties promised to cut household bills by 8 percent over a four-year period. Topham said a 3 percent reduction has been achieved thus far.
UP&L spokesman Dave Mead said merging the systems enables Utah to meet its peak summer demands and Portland meet its winter needs. The generation systems are more efficient because they are producing power throughout the year, not just when power needs peak.
Aside from the rate reductions, UP&L has reaped other benefits, Mead said.
Capitalizing on what it has learned from PacifiCorp, UP&L has stepped up its economic development efforts in Utah. The company is aggressively seeking marketing in the state and what it can offer new industry.
Meanwhile, Gleason counts UP&L's accounting system as one of the benefits PacifiCorp has gained from the merger. He said the system is "superior to we (PacifCorp) have been doing."
Since the union, UP&L has begun contracting work instead of relying on company employees to perform some tasks. It's another practice adopted from PacifiCorp.
UP&L officials says contracting work helps save money because the company does not have to pay benefits for contract hires. But union officials say contract work threatens job security.
Newman said he feared the merger would bring about job cuts. Company officials say there have been no layoffs since UP&L was absorbed by PacifiCorp.
Topham and Gleason are undaunted by the union's unrest. Admittedly there has been a period of adjustment for both entities, but the two presidents foresee a solid future for the company.
"I think the great thing is we've been able to combine the systems and get the benefits out of this merger in amounts much greater than we predicted," Topham said.
Said Gleason: "I think it's gone together very well."