Local electricians, facing a shortage of work on the South Coast, will forgo a scheduled pay raise next week.

Members of the Local 932 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union voted unanimously to surrender a 50 cent wage increase and to  extend their contract with employers by 18 months.

In exchange, employers are expected to pay for an anticipated health insurance rate hike in January.

Wages for local IBEW journeyman workers will remain at $31.97 per hour, while union leaders try to keep South Coast electricians marketable during the recession.

"We suffered hard, like all construction," said Local 932 business manager Robert Westerman. "We're running about 20 percent unemployment along the South Coast for electrical construction."

The July 1 wage increase would have covered an increase next year in health care costs, but the North Bend-based Local 932 quickly worked out a coverage plan with the National Electrical Contractors Association, a multi-employer bargaining group on the South Coast.

For now, contractors will pay projected raises in employee health insurance costs.

"You've got a group of laborers and a group of contractors that are willing to jointly face these issues rather than fight about it. That's our tradition," said R. Terry Hatch, executive manager of the Oregon Pacific-Cascade chapter of NECA.

Union contracts also will be extended to December 2010. The current contract would have expired later this year.

"Had (Westerman) not been willing to do that, we would have been in contract negotiations. That gives us another break," Hatch said. "It's going to be a win-win for all of us."

Hatch did not rule out the possibility of renegotiating wage increases if the economy rebounds.

"If we mutually agree to do anything, we can do something at any time," he said.

Both groups hope to avoid passing costs to customers. That would render union electricians less competitive against non-union contractors, Hatch said.

Local 932 meanwhile is turning to Oregon's Legislature for "shovel-ready" stimulus jobs, such as upgrades at Coos Bay's armory or Southwestern Oregon Community College, and training workers for "green jobs."

"We're out there trying to find what jobs are coming available," Westerman said. "You'll see an increase in solar installations on both residential and commercial projects."

The local union chapter also supports a liquefied natural gas terminal at Jordan Cove.

"We feel that would be a godsend for construction companies in the economic downturn, if they had a three-year project they could work on."

Union leaders considered other measures, including pay cuts. But they remember a 25 percent pay cut in the 1980s that failed to improve employment.

"It didn't happen," Westerman said. "What did happen is it drove down wages for the entire industry.

"Right now we're doing everything we can to maintain our members' wages in the current economy."

Local 932 serves 185 workers in Curry, Coos, Lincoln and western portions of Lane and Douglas counties. The chapter's most recent raise was $1 per hour in January.

According to Hatch, similar discussions between IBEW and contractors on electrician wages will take place in the Willamette Valley and throughout southern Oregon.

"Local 932 made the hard decision first," he said.