Went to a NYS Electrical Workers Association meeting where I sit on the Executive Board. The International was also in attendance. We had discussions on new technology and our changing industry.
Also had a meeting last week with the Governor, PSC and Department of Labor on renewable energy in our brown fields with our stations being shuttered to look to repower.
Heard there is a letter of intent to buy the Huntley Steam Plant which is our coal plant in Buffalo. We do not know who the buyer is. We have our attorney looking at it since we still have successor language and will see what we can do depending on who buys it.
NATIONAL GRID
Gas Enablement meeting in Service. This will also include Gas and Clerical. They are talking about I-pads. We have an agreement with the Director of Labor that nothing will happen until we sit down and negotiate. They want to start in the fall. There are a lot of ideas out there and nothing will be implemented without sitting down with us. Operations has not bought into it yet. We hopefully will end up with more back end jobs.
CMS will be reaching out to our members to get their input about Service in regards to security issues with the I-pads. They are still looking at improvements in Service especially with Collections in possibly two man areas and some kind of Code Blue.
Cash Balance issue – have a meeting scheduled on April 30th with the Local 97 Benefits Committee to go over ideas and then with the company on May 9th to see if there is anything we can work out for the 600 left out of the transition group.
Ignite Youth group met in Syracuse. The group is coming together nicely with more members joining. They have a lot of good ideas for 2019 so keep an eye out for upcoming events.