NStar cuts benefits 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. "It seems to me like this is real hardball," he said. Utility Workers of America Local 369, which represents about 200 SouthCoast members, got word earlier this week that their health, vision and dental insurance had been canceled. The cancellation took effect Monday, the same day the strike began. Workers walked out after their five-year contract expired. According to both NStar and the union, negotiations for a new contract had broken down. Another labor expert, Kim Wilson of UMass-Dartmouth's Labor Education Center, said NStar's decision to cancel benefits might be an indication of the tone of those negotiations. "In very tense negotiations, very acrimonious negotiations, it happens," she said. NStar spokesman Michael Durand said cutting the benefits wasn't a power play, but an act of responsibility to utility customers. "Our working employees are entitled to a generous compensation package, which includes medical benefits," he said. "We cannot ask our customers to pay for a compensation package for non-working employees." NStar workers said they found out about losing their benefits when they got automated phone calls from Blue Cross. About 100 picketed yesterday at MacArthur Boulevard with another 20 gathering at Shawmut Avenue. Kevin Saulnier, an NStar lineman and chief steward of Local 369 in New Bedford, said he was surprised only by how fast the cancellation came. "We knew they would do this," said Mr. Saulnier, who organized the picketing at MacArthur Boulevard. "The higher-ups in our union told us that they might do it. But we didn't expect it on the first day." He said the union's biggest concern right now is workers who are already sick. "We have people out with cancer and with back problems and a lot of kids who have doctors' appointments this week," he said. Steve St. Marie, 50, who has worked for 30 years doing underground construction for NStar, said he hopes the strike runs out before his prescriptions do. "Luckily, I got them filled before, but they only give you a two-month supply," he said. "I didn't think they'd do this to us." Mr. Durand said yesterday that the striking workers can extend their insurance through COBRA coverage, which would give them their benefits for a limited time, although they'd have to pay the full cost. Mr. Saulnier said COBRA can cost up to $1,500 per month. 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. NStar has made strong statements that the union is trying to distract the public by bringing up safety, which wasn't supposed to be on the table for contract negotiations, according to the company. "Safety has been brought up more by the union to the media than it has during negotiations," Mr. Durand said. "Safety isn't an option here, it's a mandate." Workers seemed most upset yesterday about information printed in The Standard-Times on Tuesday, saying that the average union worker makes $97,000 per year. "That's a complete fabrication," Mr. Saulnier said. Yesterday, Mr. Durand said he was misunderstood. According to NStar W2 forms, he said, the average NStar lineworker made $97,000 last year, including overtime. He said the average call center representative made $56,000, the average administrative staffer made $50,000 and the average underground construction inspector made $126,000. But Mr. Saulnier, a lineman who has been with the company 16 years, said some of those figures are misleading. Including overtime, he said he made $75,000 last year. To make $97,000 in a year, a lineman would have to work between 1,100 and 1,500 hours of overtime, he said.

This story appeared on Page A1 of The Standard-Times on May 19, 2005.

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.