Niagra-Mohawk Threatens use of Strikebreakers Against IBEW Local 97 (Syracuse NY)

UNION: THUMBS DOWN ON NIMO OFFER
By SEAN TREACY, Staff Writer

OSWEGO -- After meeting late into Wednesday morning with Niagara Mohawk, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 97 contract negotiating committee is unanimously recommending its members reject the company's final contract offer.

Union members have been meeting across upstate New York the past week voting on whether to allow union leaders to strike. Oswego County employees met at the American Foundry in Oswego Wednesday for that purpose and votes will be tabulated in Syracuse today.

Both organizations paint a different view of the final offered contract.

According to an IBEW release, the contract "significantly reduces" current benefit levels, including short- and long-term disability, reduction of future pension increases and fails to "resolve the inequity" between transition group and non-transition group employees.

Union leadership also asserts the company's contract offer doesn't detail plans to eliminate specific departments or contract out bargaining unit work.

A Niagara Mohawk release says its plan provides employees with an average annual salary of $57,000 with an average $1,200 signing bonus, $3,400 in wage increases and "bonus opportunities" of $3,700 over the 30-month term of the contract.

The offer, the company said, also includes "layoff protections" and an "overall enhancement" to the benefit package.

Niagara Mohawk, based out of Syracuse, is an energy distributor and subsidiary of National Grid, which is based out of London, England.

According to Niagara Mohawk's Web site, the power company provides electric service to approximately 1.5 million customers and natural gas service to approximately 540,000 customers in upstate New York.

Niagara Mohawk used to generate power through its ownership of Nine Mile Point One and Two nuclear power plants in Scriba, but it sold both plants to Maryland-based Constellation Energy in 2000. Niagara Mohawk and National Grid completed their merger in 2002.

The union has existed in its current state since 1994 when 12 unions representing Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. workers merged together. According to their union office in Syracuse, Niagara Mohawk workers have never gone on strike.

The company has said it is prepared to operate without union workers if it has to.