Union members protest OTEC headquarters over labor dispute in Baker City

Union members stood outside Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative’s Baker City headquarters on June 23, carrying signs and warning that a labor dispute could escalate into a strike. The protest put a local utility’s work force at the center of Baker County public life, with line crews and contract negotiations now tied to the reliability of electric service across eastern Oregon.

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 125 said it had issued a 30-day strike notice while pressing allegations of unfair labor practices. Nick Simons of La Grande said the dispute centers on Tom Higgins, a La Grande lineman with 24 years of service who was recently terminated, and said the union is seeking to get Higgins’ job back through the grievance process.

The conflict matters because OTEC is not a distant regional company. The Baker City-based cooperative says it serves about 32,000 meters and nearly 60,000 residents in Baker, Grant, Harney and Union counties over more than 3,000 miles of overhead and underground lines. Around 40 employees across that territory are union members, including linemen who respond when storms, tree damage, vehicle crashes or equipment failures knock out power in towns and rural areas.

OTEC’s outage center already shows how much the cooperative depends on its line crews. The utility says customers can report outages, track restoration progress on a real-time map and review safety guidance for downed lines and generator use. Any prolonged labor disruption would raise immediate questions about outage response, repair speed and routine maintenance for homes, ranches and businesses that rely on a fast restoration after a blackout.

The protest also landed during a busy stretch for the cooperative. OTEC announced nominations for its 2026 board of directors election on May 11, and it has a proposed purchase process underway for PacifiCorp’s Wallowa County service territory. At the same time, the company has been investing in workforce development, saying in October 2025 that a Baker Technical Institute lineworker school in Baker City was scheduled to begin training its first cohort in spring 2026.

OTEC has emphasized the broader role its crews play beyond county lines as well. In January 2024, the cooperative said it sent a five-man crew to western Oregon to help restore service after severe winter weather, underscoring that its linemen are part of a regional mutual-aid system that can be called on when major outages hit. That same pool of workers is now at the center of the labor fight in Baker City, where the next round of negotiations will determine whether a public protest becomes a work stoppage.