Board members serve three-year terms. The cooperative, which was formed in 1987, has about 31,000 members in Baker, Union, Grant and Harney counties. He noted that OTEC board members often don’t have challengers, and that incumbents who do typically have won re-election. Union members who work for OTEC have been at or near the bottom of the wage scale for IBEW members, Simons said. Union members also have filed a grievance in the June 4 firing of Tom Higgins, a journeyman lineman from La Grande.