As we speak contract negotiations have formally started between National Grid and Local 369 for our members working in Northboro at the Customer Service Center. Our first meeting with the Company took place in the last week of February at Westboro.

This meeting started in the usual format of establishing and agreeing to the set ground rules, meeting schedules and the various locations for these meeting to be held. Next agenda item was to exchange initial contract proposals. For the Company it was quite straight forward, add the “F”- word to every existing article. We all know and/or have experienced exactly how diluting and abusive “flexibility” can be.

As we have seen in recent negotiations and what has proven to be most beneficial, our established bargaining committee is constructed from our members to whom this contract will apply. This happens to be the Local’s most valuable resource in these negotiations. Who better to negotiate working conditions and benefits for our members than those that will themselves work and live by the terms negotiated? The committee members are Nancy Wentworth, Local 369 Executive Board/Vice President, Judy Bushway Chief Steward, Michael Fulmine Steward, Eric Kaufman Steward, and Andrea Kwaske Steward. We have met several times as a committee formalizing proposals for these talks. Along with those meetings, the committee members themselves have spent and will continue to spend much of their own time preparing and formalizing their thoughts and strategies. This is a huge responsibility to step up to! I would certainly like to recognize these members and those of the various sub-committees for stepping up to the challenge.

Currently at National Grid, and more specifically, to these negotiations in the Call Center there is a major transition taking hold with the recent merger with Keyspan. Within that transition alone there are numerous issues yet to be decided that will have a direct effect on these negotiations. It is still undetermined how National Grid will handle their call centers moving forward with gas and electric, whether those calls, gas or electric, will be handled by separate work classifications and/or separate work locations. The location of these centers is certainly of concern for our members for the most obvious reasons. Recent members working in Nothboro are now commuting from Rhode Island as a result of the Narragansett Gas acquisition and the transfer of that work.

These issues will certainly be a major part of the up-coming discussions as negotiations progress. These decisions along with others that come to light will give the committee a better direction in where we need to take our proposals to protect and ensure the best for our members. As always members will be kept up to speed of significant information with “Notices” posted throughout the work area as these talks progress.