MEMPHIS, Tenn — As temperatures are preparing to become more frigid, the Memphis, Light Gas, and Water employee union is working to help customers.
This is the first winter Memphians will have to deal with the utility's rate hike.
Because the city council passed the rate hike last December, bills will increase by 12% over the next three years.
All of MLGW's 400,000-plus customers are expected to feel the impact, including some senior citizens who are on a fixed income.
“When the city council passed that rate increase, I knew then as business manager of this union that we need to act," Corey Hester, the business manager of IBEW 1288 Union, told ABC24. "When you think about our senior citizens who have to make choices of paying their utility bill - those high utility bills, I might add - with the delayed bills or buying food, buying their medicine."
This view is shared by some senior MLGW customers as they approach the winter weather with little assurance about the reliability of their utility service and concerns over the cost of MLGW's new price hike.
“We’ve had rates increase in all services areas over the last six, seven years, and we don’t see any necessarily any service improvements," customer Glenda Hicks said.
IBEW raised $60,000. The money will be credited to 250 senior citizens MLGW customers who qualified through the union's initiative. Organizers hope it pushes the utility to expand and better its cost-saving programs.
“MLGW can and should expand their community, they share the pennies program," Hester said. "This is just one of the many things."
Those who will get this benefit had to already apply and be approved through this workers' union initiative.
Hester said the union hopes to do more of this throughout the year, especially as residents start to feel that rate hike this year.