FROM THE
PRESIDENT’S DESK
A MESSAGE FROM PRESIDENT
CRAIG A. PINKHAM
Dear Brothers and Sisters, Local 369 is in unprecedented times right now, and we are stepping up with unprecedented action. Our families, our friends, and our neighbors rely on the essential services that we deliver, including reliable electricity and natural gas, power station generation and steam, wastewater services, and clean water. In a global pandemic, these basic services are the backbone of public safety. We are grateful to all our members who are powering communities across the region with more vigilance and commitment than ever before. We are also grateful to your families and loved ones who are supporting you while you answer your communities’ demand for the essential services that we all provide! Even as some us are able to work remotely from home while others are required to perform work on-site, we are still one Union and we will always protect your rights and safety. You and your family’s health and safety remain our top priority. We are doing everything we can to protect you on the job, and to provide you with the resources you need, when you need them. Please refer to page 5 of this issue for safety tips and, as always, please reach out to the Union Hall for anything you need. Although this pandemic has changed our normal daily routines, COVID-19 has not been able to detract or distract from our commitment to serve our members. We are enforcing contractual language while protecting benefits, securing negotiated wage increases, enforcing premiums, and protecting bargaining unit work for our 24 collective bargaining agreements with our 12 different employers. During a time when 1 in 5 American workers has filed for unemployment benefits, we have negotiated contract extensions with Liberty Utilities Gas and Exelon Generation’s Everett LNG,
resulting in secure contract durations that reflect fair wage increases for all of our members. When we stand together in solidarity, we can overcome anything. We saw that firsthand with the Exelon Mystic Generating Station strike. In early March, dozens of courageous Local 369 members walked off the job to secure contractual language that protects negotiated benefits and key safety provisions for themselves and thousands of residents in the neighboring cities of Everett and Charlestown. Striking is never an easy decision to make, but Exelon made a tough decision very easy. With the future of Mystic Station units 8 & 9 uncertain, this contract secured protections of our current health benefits, 401k contributions, pensions, performance bonuses, retiree medical savings accounts, and a very rich severance package that includes medical coverage. We prevailed and won! After just three days, Exelon executives heard our concerns, and we secured the contract language we demanded that protects our benefits and our grievance and arbitration rights, all while improving the safety and working conditions we were fighting for. We showed our employers a valuable lesson: our solidarity is the greatest asset we have. Our members came together as one Union and brought our collective power to the bargaining table – with great success. A big thank you to all those who drove this endeavor and its outcome: our 3,000 members and retirees, UWUA National President Jim Slevin, Massachusetts AFLCIO President Steve Tolman, Greater Boston Labor Council Executive Secretary-Treasurer Darlene Lombos, IBEW International VP 2nd District Michael Monahan, IBEW Local 103 Business Manager Lou Antonellis, IAFF’s General Secretary-Treasurer Ed Kelly and 3rd District VP Jay Colbert,
PFFM President Rich MacKinnon and Everett Firefighters President Craig Hardy, Teamsters Local 25 President Sean O’Brien, International Longshoreman’s Business Agent George McEvoy and Line Handler Anthony Farmusa, and all of the elected officials who supported us, including U.S. Congressman Joe Kennedy III, Everett Mayor Carlo DeMaria, and Everett City Councilors Stephanie Martins and Mike McLaughlin. Whether it’s standing up to a $34 billion corporation or going the distance to keep the lights and gas on during a crisis, we’ll always fight for public safety. And we will always fight for you. Remember, it’s never about the money... because it is always about the money! Stay safe and stay healthy. In Solidarity,
Craig A. Pinkham President
UWUA LOCAL 369 | SPRING 2020 NEWSLETTER
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