Sitka’s electrical workers will see a pay increase that city staff say will put them on equal footing with pay scales across the state.
That’s after the Sitka Assembly unanimously approved a negotiated agreement between the city and the union that represents Sitka’s electrical workers at its meeting on Tuesday (9-23-25).
Labor negotiations began with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) — which represents nearly 20 city employees — in April. The first tentative agreement was reached on Aug. 1, but union membership voted to reject it. Negotiators returned to the table and reached a revised tentative agreement earlier this month, which was later ratified.
At the Sitka Assembly meeting on Tuesday, assembly member Kevin Mosher said he was eager to approve the new contract.
“We’ve needed people in the electric department for a long time, and I think this helps bring it up to full retention and continued employment there,” he said.
The three-year agreement includes several changes to the previous contract, including hourly rate increases for general foreman and journeyman lineman, as well as six to 12% pay increases for all other job classes. IBEW employees will also be removed from the city’s health plan and into the IBEW Health Trust starting in November.
Assistant Administrator Josh Branthoover said the city used Petersburg and Ketchikan’s pay scales to determine those rates. He added that the wage increases and changes are important to keeping the city’s electrical positions filled.
“The administration and this assembly have both been concerned about staffing within our electrical department. We want to make sure that staffing is ample to keep the lights on for our citizens. Do you believe that this contract is sufficient to keep people employed within the municipality, specifically within the electric department for the terms of this contract?” Mayor Steven Eisenbeisz asked Branthoover on Tuesday.
“Yes, Mr. Mayor, I do,” Branthoover responded.
Electric Utility Director Ron Vinson said the pay is competitive. After struggling to fill openings over the past year, he said the city has welcomed two new certified linemen over the past few months, and has a third they hope to bring on in December. He said they’ve also had a handful of general foreman applicants.
“The positions are getting filled up,” Vinson said. “I think that the wages are in line with what’s needed to actually recruit qualified candidates from the outside.”
Assembly member Chris Ystad said with increased wages, Sitkans could see a utility hike. But to keep the lights on, and make sure they turn back on quickly after an outage, he said, that’s what it’s going to take.
“I want to stress that in order to have a really good functional electrical department and a good grid, you got to pay for it,” Ystad said.
In response, Vinson said setting utility rates is ultimately the responsibility of the assembly, so he can’t promise anything. But, he said, this alone won’t be a driving factor to increasing rates. Allowing the electrical department to be fully staffed, he said, gives the city the opportunity to reduce costs by moving away from relying on expensive contractors.
“At the end of the day, our goal here — and we focused pretty heavily on it this last year — is to try to stabilize rates and reduce things where possible, and I think we have some good, creative solutions that will prevent us from increasing rates due to this agreement,” Vinson said.
City staff estimate the total increased cost to the city will be $507,853 over the three-year contract, which will go through June of 2028.
