Linemen go on strike

New Hampshire Electric Co-op hires private crews to fill the gap

PLYMOUTH — The New Hampshire Electric Cooperative is meeting its staffing needs with private line crews and non-union employees since talks broke down yesterday between management and members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1837.

“It’s disappointing that it has come to this,” said company spokesman Seth Wheeler. “The company has activated a contingency plan that will provide for adequate coverage of power outages and protect public safety.”

Dick Rogers, the business manager for the union, said the workers had delayed striking last week to give management an opportunity to come back with a contract they could accept. Instead, when the two sides got together Monday morning, there was no change in the language concerning pensions, the only remaining sticking point for union members.

“These guys worked all weekend on storm outages because the company said it would be coming back with substantive changes to address our concerns,” Rogers said. “That didn’t happen.”

The union went on strike shortly afterwards.

The company’s offer contained a clause saying it could change the terms of the pension and 401(k) plans without further negotiation with the union.

“It’s all about balancing the books, not about the pension failing in any way,” Rogers said. “They want to be able to take from our pensions, and that’s not right for anybody, whether they’re union or non-union.”

Wheeler said it is a matter of having the flexibility to deal with a potentially damaging financial situation that may arise during the term of the multi-year contract.

“We want to make the union and non-union employees on par,” Wheeler said. “They have the same benefits. The company just has the ability to make a change if it causes a financial risk.”

Rogers says that makes no sense. The chief executive officer of the cooperative makes $354,000, plus $90,000 in benefits, according to the Co-op’s 2016 income report. The top 12 executives make $2.2 million with $600,000 in benefits, he said.
“If they’re in financial trouble, take the money out of their salaries,” Rogers said, “not the highly skilled, hardworking, dedicated workers who are out in all kinds of weather.”

The previous contract expired April 30 when the union refused to accept changes in the pension coverage. In addition to asking for the ability to change the terms of the pension and 401(k) without further negotiation with the union, management wanted to raise the qualifying age for full benefits from 62 to 65. Rogers said they reluctantly accepted the other provisions, but would not budge on the flexibility of the pension plan.

Thursday night, the union rejected the company’s final offer on a 79-1 vote. Members in the smaller Warehouse bargaining unit voted unanimously to reject the contract and authorize a strike.

“The company’s continued insistence on this extreme proposal would make NHEC one of the only unionized electric utilities in the country to have such disastrous language affecting worker retirement plans,” said Rogers. “The company was clear this was not about a failing pension plan but rather that they want to be able to balance the books on the backs of their workers by changing the plan at any time they wished.”

Wheeler said representatives of the Co-op and the union had met 18 times in the past several months to arrive at a contract agreement.

“The company remains committed to working with the union and has requested the involvement of a federal mediator to restart the contract talks,” Wheeler said. “At this time, there are no new negotiating sessions scheduled.”

The Co-op has hired private certified line crews who will be accompanied on any outage calls by non-union NHEC employees who are familiar with the service territory, Wheeler said, adding that NHEC’s control center will still be staffed 24 hours a day. Members should still report outages to the NHEC Outage line at 1-800-343-6432, or online at www.nhec.com.