NStar cuts benefits

[Sydnie]

Striking workers lose their health plans
By ROB MARGETTA, Standard-Times staff writer


JACK IDDON/The Standard-Times
NStar employees keep the picket line moving yesterday in front of the MacArthur Boulevard property. NStar workers said they found out they were losing their benefits, effective Monday, when the strike began, when they got automated phone calls from Blue Cross.
Company officials canceled medical benefits for nearly 2,000 striking NStar workers, a move that signals the utility is playing "real hardball," one labor expert said.
"It feels like they're forcing the union to break the strike or possibly even trying to break the union," said professor Tom Juravich, director of the Labor Center at UMass Amherst. "It's a very aggressive move and signals a new watershed in negotiations for this company.

<snip>

The striking workers said the union's contract dispute with NStar has nothing to do with wages. Instead, they said, they're concerned about retirement benefits, understaffing and an aging electrical system that may put linemen and other workers in danger.
NStar wants a new contract that would eliminate vision and dental coverage and cut life insurance by two-thirds for retirees when they turn 65, Mr. Saulnier said.
The company would also be able to shut off retiree benefits at any time, he said.
Mr. Durand said the company wants the stipulation that it can remove retiree benefits because, with rising health costs, it can't guarantee it can fund those benefits indefinitely.


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[OKthatsIT]

1. This company has been cited so many times with

breaking the law.

Poor people, medical emergencies, infants and elderly living the homes....if the bill isnt paid, they shut it off. Mass laws prohibit this where 'harm' would be caused by shutting off their utilities. The company ignores the laws until they're forced into court...they turn it back on only to avoid court costs, hoping to a least frighten the customers into paying them off. Most people who are under great financial stress, in poverty, will try to avoid any confrontation in court because they have no money for a lawyer.

[wicket]

2. I use NStar

I hate them- but I don't think I have any other choice. *sigh*