 Life is good all this month at Appalachian Wireless. Get the LG G5 for just one penny with sign-up or renewal of a two-year service agreement. That's almost $100 off the regular price. Better service, bigger savings. That's today's Appalachian Wireless. This morning, nearly 50 people stood just off US 23 in Coal Run holding signs supporting local Asplend workers. Members of the IBEW or International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers from several states say Asplend workers from this area are not treated fairly. These people in this area in eastern Kentucky are being discriminated against by the lack of pay. They take advantage because we live in eastern Kentucky. That's no reason. When your pie is out in the middle of the night and all the lights are out and they go out and find a tree that's laying across the pire lines, these are the people that can clear that so your pie comes back on. Asplend employees from as far away as Delaware came to support local workers who do the exact same jobs for half the money. From what they were telling me easily with our whole total package, our medical benefits, our retirement plan and our salaries, easily double. It's actually the same exact job other than we don't have as much mountainous terrain as they do here. IBEW representatives also cited two electrocution deaths in the past two years as illustrations of the lack of safety training for local Asplend workers. They get these LCQ books that they basically have to read, but that's not the same as taking the time to actually physically teach somebody how to do it like we do. We have apprenticeship programs in other parts of the country. Protesters this morning also issued a plea to Kentucky Power to enter into a quote better contract with Asplend. The Kentucky Power officials say that wouldn't necessarily solve the problem. We competitively bid our price our right away of vegetation management out to companies like Aspen. We'll continue to to competitively bid our those services out so that we can get the prices as low as possible. They're complaint I guess what the protest is to me is more with their organization than with us but that's their right to come out and protest and there's nothing we can really do about it. IBEW representatives told EKB News they will be spending the next two days in meetings with Asplend corporate officials and they're optimistic things will improve. Reporting from Coal Run Village, I'm Shannon Deskins for EKB News.