Dozens of members from Portland, Ore., Local 125 are enjoying a turnaround in labor-management relations following implementation of the IBEW’s Code of Excellence at the Klickitat County (Wash.) Public Utility District.

Business Manager Travis Eri said the Code is helping his members in the PUD’s electric and water divisions forge stronger workplace bonds with their fellow employees.

“What makes our partnership exceptional is that it’s born out of the ashes of a difficult and stressful relationship that had not served anyone well,” said Eri, who has served as Local 125’s business manager since 2005. “We all knew something had to change, so we committed to building our relationship and regained trust in each other.”

Launched throughout the IBEW by International President Edwin D. Hill in 2007 and in use at scores of locations across North America, the Code of Excellence is designed to foster high workplace standards. Using the Code as a guide, workers and managers commit to demonstrating the IBEW’s SPARQ values: safety, professionalism, accountability, relationships and quality.

The nearly 80-year relationship between the local and the utility had begun to need special attention after an arbitrator upheld a decision to terminate an IBEW-represented worker for just cause.

“The arbitrator determined that ‘just cause’ was not specifically spelled out in our contract and that we had no right to even grieve it,” said Local 125’s Josh Miller, who handled the termination grievance shortly after he became a business representative two years ago.

From then on, Miller said, “our membership could sense the tension, from the union’s stances on things to the atmosphere in their workplace.” At one point, he said, utility officials requested that routine communication with Local 125’s leaders be conducted solely by email.

At the beginning of 2025, though, Klickitat PUD changed leadership and the utility’s board replaced its general manager with Gwyn Miller, a former assistant general manager. (She and Josh Miller are not related.) The change happened during contract negotiations between the two parties that had been up tension-filled up to that point, Josh Miller said.

As Klickitat’s interim general manager, “Gwyn asked if we could include the Code as part of our bargaining agreement, in addition to rendering the arbitrator’s decision silent in future collective bargaining agreement understandings,” said Josh Miller.

“After that, the remainder of the negotiations went really well,” he said, “to the point where we were collaboratively working on solutions in a way that I usually haven’t had the opportunity to do with other utilities.”

Local 125’s leaders worked on Code implementation with Tracy Prezeau, an Education Department international representative who retired in November. They also consulted leaders at Seattle Local 77, who had worked on a similar Code.

A 13-member Code of Excellence committee also was assembled to represent Klickitat’s electrical workers, water workers and apprentices, as well as the utility’s managers, buyers and a renewable natural gas plant representative.

“We wanted invested people to take this on to begin with, knowing that they’re going to transfer their knowledge to others as they grow in their careers,” Local 125’s Miller said.

The parties also worked on commitment declarations that blended the Code of Excellence’s SPARQ with Klickitat’s values of honesty, accountability and customer focus.

In October, Eri, Prezeau and the two Millers conducted the first of several two-hour, on-the-clock Code training sessions at Klickitat’s main facility in Goldendale for all of the utility’s 90 employees, board members included.

“We were real about how negative things had been and how now we can sit in a room and really care about each other,” Josh Miller said.

The utility also provided participants with sweatshirts bearing a specially designed Code of Excellence graphic and commissioned Oregon-based Benchmade to custom-craft nearly two dozen knives as raffled giveaways during training.

“Gwyn said, ‘We want people to know this is important,’” said Josh Miller, who helped secure the knives from Benchmade.

After each training session, participants signed large Code of Excellence posters created for display at the PUD.

“We’re going to also put one up in our union meeting hall, so other employers can see that this is something that they could potentially do with us,” he said.

There also are plans to place the custom Code logo and slogans in prominent locations around Klickitat’s facilities.

Since the Code’s implementation, morale has improved, he said. “Everybody we’ve talked to said they’re happier about coming to work,” Miller said. 

In the meantime, the Code of Excellence committee continues to meet. “We have a lot of action items,” Miller said. “We’re not only focusing on what work gets done, but how it gets done.”

One example is a new safe-driving training course that Gwyn Miller sought out and secured that is “vastly different” from what was conducted in the past in the past, Josh Miller said.“It was a way of collaborating to show our members how we’re doing something immediately to get off to the right start,” he said.

Gwyn Miller has since been named Klickitat’s permanent general manager, and the Code of Excellence has been a top priority for her, Josh Miller said. “Her commitment and leadership are why this Code will succeed,” he said.

“This is a powerful example of how trust can be rebuilt and how IBEW members benefit when respect and collaboration lead the way,” said Ninth District International Vice President David E. Reaves Jr., whose jurisdiction includes Local 125. “When labor and management commit to the Code of Excellence, it changes the culture of the workplace.

“Gwyn said that other utilities have asked her, ‘Do you really think this is going to work?’” Miller said. “She told me, ‘It’s going to work because we’re going to make it work.’

“It’s such a different dynamic now, knowing that partnering is much easier than battling each other,” he said.

Business Manager Eri added that the Code of Excellence “is a choice we have committed to together to ensure that everyone has a terrific place to work.”

“The ability to look beyond our differences, realize the importance of working together and build a stronger relationship is refreshing in our industry,” he said.