GAS — In the past six months there have been sweeping changes in the New Bedford and Plymouth Gas service department. The company has implemented a mobile dispatch system called ADVANTEX. Since March we have had several meetings before we were able to reach an agreement that was workable.

This system automatically assigns the daily service work to computers in the Gas Service Tech’s vehicles. We were able to protect all jobs.

I’d like to thank the negotiating committee Adrian Boulay, Bill Sylvia, Josh Trombly and Leo Roy for all their hard work which protected everyone in the implementation of this system.

ON THE ELECTRIC SIDE — There has been a push company wide to step up maintenance in the major stations doing breaker overhauls, relay testing, tap changer overhauls and more. As a result of this scheduling of maintenance the O&M departments should be busy this fall in preparation for the winter peaks and also next spring in preparation for the summer peaks.

NGRID — Recently National Grid informed all of the unions on the property that they would be doing a Health Benefits audit to confirm they were insuring the right people. As a result, they are asking ALL employees to submit children’s birth certificates, marriage licenses and the latest 1040 form submitted to the Federal Government.

Rightfully so, this caused an immediate reaction from the members of all the locals. After much investigation with the other Locals and our legal council and correspondence with the Grid it was established they do have the right to request this information. Because they are a self insurer they maintain “sole discretion to manage and administer all benefits, including, but not limited to, matters such as the delivery of benefits, the selection of insurers, trustees or administrators, funding, investment management and the process and procedures for benefit processing” as stated in the bargaining agreement in Article 9 section F.

In closing I hope everyone had an enjoyable summer and please have a safe fall season.