Filing says utility closed pension to new hires mid-contract talks
Union workers at an Arizona gas utility say the company froze pensions for new hires while contract talks were still alive.
On November 26, 2025, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local Union 1116, filed a lawsuit in federal court in Arizona against UNS Gas, Inc., an Arizona public service corporation. The filing says the utility shut new employees out of a pension plan while the parties were still negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement.
According to the union, the company and Local 1116 were parties to a contract that ran from June 24, 2021, through June 23, 2024. That agreement incorporated a pension benefit plan known as the Pension Trust Benefit Plan and deemed it maintained pursuant to the collective bargaining agreement. The filing says the pension, along with a Tucson Electric Power Company 401(K) plan, continued to be maintained after the stated end date while the sides bargained over a successor contract.
Talks over that new agreement began on or about March 2024 and continued through 2024 and into 2025, including negotiations with the assistance of a federal mediator. From the outset, the union says, one of the key disputes was whether newly hired employees would continue to be covered by the Pension Plan.
The union contends that company negotiators pressed to close or “freeze” the pension for new hires and move them to a new 401(K) Plan instead. On or about February 17, 2025, company representatives allegedly declared that negotiations were “deadlocked” and presented what they described as a “last, best, and final offer.” The union says that proposal would close the pension to any new hires as of June 1, 2025, and provide a new 401(K) Plan for those workers.
Union negotiators tentatively accepted the overall offer around February 25, 2025, but only if members ratified it. A ratification vote that began on March 24, 2025, resulted in rejection of the tentative agreement, and the union says it promptly informed the company.
The filing states that on or about April 9, 2025, UNS Gas told the union it would declare an “impasse” and move ahead unilaterally with the terms of its February offer. On April 10, 2025, the company sent a notice to union‑represented employees saying it would implement that last offer and that “the pension plan will be closed to new hires starting 6-1-25.”
Local 1116 argues there was no true impasse. As of April 10, 2025, the union says, there had been no strike, both sides were willing to keep meeting and the union remained open to further bargaining on the pension and other issues.
The filing also describes a “204(h)” notice sent on April 15, 2025, advising employees that changes to the pension would “take effect on June 1, 2025” and would include freezing the plan for new hires. The union says the company then closed the pension to new hires on June 1, 2025, and, on information and belief, modified the plan so it could be amended and terminated for any reason by the Board of Directors of Tucson Electric Power Company. The union maintains it never agreed to give the company unilateral authority over the plan.
Local 1116 accuses UNS Gas of breaching the 2021 contract, repudiating the agreement and refusing to bargain in good faith. It says the company’s actions have harmed current and future employees by depriving them of contractual pension benefits and have undermined the union’s role in collective bargaining.
The lawsuit asks the court to declare that UNS Gas violated federal labor law, to order the company to stop closing the pension to new hires without bargaining and union consent, and to award compensatory damages, attorneys’ fees and costs. The allegations have not been proven, and the court has not yet made any determination on the claims.
