Title
Honoring the Dedicated Employees of the Philadelphia Gas Works in Recognition of Natural Gas Utility Workers’ Day on March 18, 2025.
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WHEREAS, The City Council of Philadelphia recognizes the employees of Philadelphia Gas Works for their dedicated and continuous 24/7, 365 service to Philadelphians as they seek to distribute safe, reliable, affordable, and sustainable natural gas service to our City on Natural Gas Utility Workers’ Day; and
WHEREAS, The employees of Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW) have provided safe, reliable, and affordable natural gas distribution service to the residents of Philadelphia for nearly 200 years since the utility’s inception in 1836; and
WHEREAS, The 1,600 current employees of PGW serve customers across Philadelphia with an emphasis on innovation and sustainability, acknowledging the urgency of clean and green solutions to alleviate climate change while balancing affordability and reliability for their customers; and
WHEREAS, PGW field service employees, as essential workers, bravely serve Philadelphia daily by improving the safety and reliability of the City’s energy delivery system, detecting and responding to odor leaks (answering 31,000 odor-related calls), facilitating safe digging (answering 80,000 8-1-1 calls), and exposing themselves to potentially dangerous situations alongside other first responders, so that Philadelphians can safely heat their homes, cook food for their families, improve their properties, and operate their businesses; and
WHEREAS, Many of these same field service and other PGW employees proudly belong to and represent Local 686 of the Gas Workers Union, which has provided economic stability for generations of PGW employees and their families; and
WHEREAS, PGW field service employees were among the first on the scene following the tragic January 31 airplane crash in Northeast Philadelphia, rapidly testing and securing gas infrastructure to insure against safety incidents and further tragedy; and
WHEREAS, PGW customer assistance employees assist nearly 1,000,000 individual customer service center calls annually with efficiency, kindness, and professionalism; and
WHEREAS, PGW community affairs employees provide information about energy saving tips and customer relief programs to tens of thousands of low-income Philadelphia households and annually distribute over 80 million dollars to Philadelphians that need support with their energy bills; and
WHEREAS, Natural Gas Utility Workers’ Day was established to recognize natural gas utility workers for their hard work and accomplishments to serve and keep their customers safe; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, THAT THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, Hereby honors the dedicated employees of Philadelphia Gas Works in recognition of Natural Gas Utility Workers’ Day on March 18, 2025.
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