New 4-year deal for Eversource Energy natural gas workers

HARTFORD — Eversource Energy has reached a new four-year labor agreement with two union locals representing its natural gas workers in Connecticut, company officials said this week.

Members of Locals 420 and 457 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers already have ratified the new contract, according to Eversource officials. There are 280 unionized workers from two IBEW locals who will be covered by the contract, Mitch Gross, a company spokesman, said Tuesday.

Negotiators with the company reached a tentative agreement Nov. 21, according to Gross. The union members ratified the agreement Nov. 30, he said, the same day that the previous contract was scheduled to expire.

Chris Hall, Eversource’s vice president of Employee & Labor Relations, said the new contract recognizes “our employees’ dedication and skill in providing safe and reliable gas service to our customers every day − no matter what the emergency is or what the conditions are.”

Joseph Malcarne, business manager of IBEW Local 420, said the new contract “new contract shows these hard-working sisters and brothers that they are valued and needed.”

“The contract allows, at a minimum, 20 new safe, good paying jobs for the people in Connecticut, in the next two years,” Malcarne said. “Customers can feel confident in the gas system they rely on thanks in part to our committed members who will continue working on it every day.”

The new contract’s other key provisions include:

Increasing employee safety-related training allowances.

Annual wage increases of 3.25 percent for the first year and 3.00 percent per year for the remaining three years of the contract.

Creating afternoon and evening shifts to support 24-hour coverage in the utility’s meter services department.

Adjusting overtime premium enhancements to improve employee productivity.

The union locals represent more than 1,500 Eversource workers in a variety of job types, including gas technicians, electric line workers, technicians and mechanics, working throughout the company’s territory in Connecticut.