More than 6,000 of AEP’s nearly 22,000 employees, or 28.4 percent of our work force, are represented by labor unions. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) represents 63 percent of our unionized employees, followed by the Utility Workers Union of America, United Steelworkers of America and United Mine Workers of America.

A new three-year contract with the IBEW took effect in early 2009. A total of 36 full-contract and 50 wage-only negotiations were ratified during the year; no agreements were pending at the end of 2009.

We have an excellent working relationship with our unions on safety and health and community outreach. The company and unions collaborate on employee meetings and other gatherings to share safety information and celebrate achievements. We work together on events and projects that support our communities, such as Operation Feed and United Way in Central Ohio. Our annual AEP-IBEW United Way Campaign in Central Ohio raised $1.8 million in 2009. We can accomplish much more working together instead of separately, and we value these partnerships.

We plan to formulate policies in 2010 relating to human rights and child labor. While we do not conduct business outside the United States and therefore have limited risk related to those issues, many of our suppliers have international operations. In addition, we are involved with international organizations through which we occasionally fund specific projects that could potentially make us vulnerable to human rights and child labor issues.

We are committed to increasing diversity within our supply chain and are working to implement recommendations from a 2008 supply chain diversity audit performed by the Small Business Association (SBA). Our objective is to achieve an “outstanding” rating in the SBA’s 2012 audit. Read more about supplier diversity in the Stakeholder Engagement section.