On March 27, 2004, we entered into a Memorandum of Agreement on the use of outside contractors. We established SWAT Teams as part of the agree-ment who would work out the details in each department or division.

Over the past 2 years, this Agreement has worked fairly well for both the Local and the Company. Since returning from our work stoppage, however, the Company has failed to cooperate in continuing this practice.

The Company has violated the Contractor Agreement as well as our contract by not meeting on a regular basis, as was specified in the Agreement, and by not giving preference to utility worker contractors. Even though a few areas have come to agreements as to how their area would handle the distribu-tion of work, this did not happen until after 4 or 5 months into the year; which is unacceptable. In some areas the Company cannot agree at all.

The reason for the SWAT Teams and the Contractor Agreement is to resolve any issues before they become bigger problems.\

We bargained in good faith because it benefited the Company and our Local going forward. The Company need-ed this for the business and now they want more. This is noth-ing but Corporate Greed. We want what the Contract and the Contractor Agreement guarantees. We have tried to balance our needs with the Company’s needs, and guess what? Corporate Greed has taken over.

The only way we are going to resolve this issue on a long term basis is by demanding and enforcing staffing levels. Presently the utility companies can’t hire fast enough and when they do hire it takes almost 5 years before these new employees can safely contribute. To fix this problem once and for all we need staffing levels!

This problem is not just at NSTAR. The 11 Massachusetts and Rhode Island local unions from National Grid formed the Utility Safety Alliance (USA) to address issues at National Grid regarding contractors, staffing, training, safety and procedural changes within the Company.

The Local is also monitoring the use of contractors in gen-eration at our fossil and nuclear plants. The bottom line is this work is our work and we are all going to have to be vigilant in protecting it.