Long Island National Grid Workers Reject Company’s Contract Proposal

Mei W.

Unionized National Grid workers in Long Island, New York, voted down the company’s contract proposal on March 7, with a 71% vote to reject it. Negotiations are scheduled to resume following workers’ rejection of what the company called its “best and final” contract proposal. While the existing 4-year contract from 2021 was set to expire midnight of February 13, the company and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) agreed to extend the date to March 28. If workers do not approve a contract by then, they may strike.

The union represents 1,200 Long Island National Grid workers, 7% of the company’s workforce in the country. National Grid is a British gas and electric utility company which has expanded its monopoly on the East Coast since the 1990s.

The rejected contract included a costly new health insurance plan with Aetna, 3% annual “raises” in wages, adding up to cuts to real wages, and a negligible increase in pension benefits. According to the union, workers were enraged when presented the contract at a meeting. While the union had been negotiating for a cheaper health insurance plan, inflation-adjusted wages, and improved pension benefits, workers would have to pay $117 per week to get coverage under the company-proposed Aetna plan, which will increase to $153 by the fourth year of the contract. As workers have told monopoly media, the 3% yearly increases in wages are not nearly enough to cover high living costs in Long Island, which is around 50-60% more than the national average and is increasing at a rate that is 75% higher than the rest of the country.

Preliminary bargaining for a new contract between National Grid and the union began in December, and negotiations took place throughout January and February. On February 5, 99% of unionized workers voted to authorize a strike if a contract was not negotiated by February 13. Five days after the vote, National Grid sent letters to workers stating that if they go on strike, their health insurance coverage will be withheld during the duration of the strike. In 2018, National Grid locked out 1,250 workers in Massachusetts after the union refused the company’s proposed contract, leaving workers jobless and without health insurance for almost 7 months.

Image: Workers hear the “best and final offer” during a union meeting, IBEW Local 1049

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