On Wednesday, Sept. 7, we informed our union-represented employees represented by Local 69 of the Utility Workers Union of America, United Gas Workers, at Dominion Transmission that we could not have them continue to work without a new labor contract.
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Some unionized natural-gas and interstate transmission workers for Dominion in OH and five other states have been locked out in a contract dispute. “We are taking the steps necessary to ensure continued safe operations and reliable service”.
Mack emphasized that their fire system will continue to be monitored at all times, and that emergency calls will still be answered. “We’re extremely disappointed in the union leadership’s actions”.
The post noted that the company “responded to the offer by locking us out”.
The statement says the union refused to vote on the agreement signed August 26, and its members can’t return to work until the contract is ratified. The agreement, however, was never presented to union membership.
He said progress in the talks “would depend on the reasonability of both parties”.
The union went to bat for her as a retiree, she said, and “the company feels as though they would rather be in control and not agree (than to) work to negotiate”. “Our employees certainly deserve a fair contract, and our customers deserve a contract that maintains a prudent and competitive cost structure”.
The points in the contract that the union took issue with are mainly concerning new hires. “Now the pension fund is about $370 million over-funded, so there’s really no reason for that decrease”.
“The thing we are fighting here is corporate greed”, Kitchen said.
Around half of the employees locked out work in West Virginia.
Supervisory and other non-union personnel are being augmented by contractors and temporary workers trained to handle essential tasks. “It was a tough decision, but the lock out was something we felt we had to do”. We are extremely disappointed by union leadership’s action, as they had agreed to “recommend a favorable vote on this mutual agreement”, according to the memorandum of agreement.
Workers were officially notified of the lockout at 12:01 a.m. today by the Virginia-based pipeline and storage operator, said Jason Boyce, vice president of United Gas Workers Union Local 69.
“Our top priority is to safely and reliably meet the energy needs of our customers”, Jeff Murphy, Vice President and General Manager for Dominion Hope, and Brian Sheppard, Vice President-Pipeline Operations for Dominion Transmission, said in a joint release.
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Bradford also stated that the Local 69 considers the lock out to be a clear violation of the National Labor Law Act, and that several labor charges are being filed against the company. One of the main factors we considered in deciding not to strike. was the public’s safety. The union also said in a statement on its website Wednesday that the two sides have also agreed to incorporate the services of a federal mediator.
