America’s Fortune 500 companies are used to getting what they want. But in Baltimore, two of the country’s biggest utility companies are finding that a surge of people power just might short-circuit their plans for a $7.9 billion merger.The source of that surge? Good Jobs Better Baltimore, the new community coalition with 18,000 members, including many 1199ers.Just before Labor Day, the coalition held the latest in a series of creative actions highlighting the problems with the proposed purchase of Baltimore’s Constellation Energy by Chicago-based Exelon Corp.Building on the tradition of Labor Day telethons, Good Jobs Better Baltimore held a “TELL-A-Thon” at Constellation’s Inner Harbor headquarters. Dozens of Good Jobs members stood up on an old-school soapbox and spoke about the many downsides of the merger.Constellation owns Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE), the local utility whose electric rates jumped 104 percent over the last decade, and its planned merger contains no guarantees that rates won’t spike again.There are also serious concerns about job loss in Baltimore since the merged company’s headquarters would move to Chicago. Those concerns only intensified last month when Exelon’s president admitted that the merger’s “most impactful” job cuts would be in Baltimore.But Good Jobs Better Baltimore is making sure the merger isn’t a done deal. The coalition has filed as an intervener in the upcoming merger hearings being held by Maryland’s Public Service Commission (PSC), which has the power to modify or reject the deal.Coalition members have also taken their case directly to Constellation CEO Mayo A. Shattuck III. After an online letter-writing campaign, Shattuck met with a Good Jobs Better Baltimore delegation in early August.The delegation, which included 1199 members, presented Shattuck with the coalition’s plan for a people-powered merger. The proposal included $810 million in community benefits, a commitment to keep good jobs in Baltimore, and the re-regulation of Maryland’s electricity market (it was deregulation in 1999 that led to the disastrous rise in rates).The delegation has yet to receive a response to its proposal from Shattuck. But the Baltimore Sun business section gave the proposal and the meeting front-page coverage.Next up for Good Jobs Better Baltimore is this fall’s PSC hearings, where the group will formally present its alternative merger plan to the commission. Backed by its 18,000 (and growing) members, the coalition will make a forceful case that it’s time for the PSC to cut Baltimore electric rates, not Baltimore jobs.To learn more about the campaign, visit Good Jobs Better Baltimore. See more at: http://www.1199seiu.org/baltimore_s_people_power_surge_continues_region#sthash.0Njh1i30.dpuf