Massachusetts Sens. urge locked-out National Grid workers to help with gas restoration

U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Edward Markey (D-MA) urged National Grid to let gas workers locked out by National Grid to help with the Merrimack Valley’s recovery from the Sept. 13 gas explosions.

The Massachusetts senators sent a request letter to Marcy Reed, president of National Grid of Massachusetts, after meeting with Joe Hamrock, CEO of NiSource, the parent company of Columbia Gas. Columbia Gas is the company that serves the Merrimack Valley, where gas lines exploded at 39 homes last month.

In that meeting with Warren and Markey, Hamrock said he will encourage his subcontractors to consider hiring locked-out National Grid workers to assist with recovery efforts.

Since June, approximately 1,250 skilled gas workers have been locked out from their jobs at National Grid due to a dispute over contract negotiations. Warren and Markey wrote to Columbia Gas last month to suggest hiring these locked out workers to help with the recovery. To date, Columbia Gas has not hired any of the locked-out workers. Instead, they have brought in over 1,000 workers from out of state to assist in the recovery efforts.

In their letter, the senators called on National Grid to make these workers available to help with the recovery.

“We write today to urge you to act in the interests of the Massachusetts communities affected by this tragedy and take any and all steps necessary to ensure the locked-out National Grid workers are involved in the Merrimack Valley recovery efforts, including by encouraging Columbia Gas and its contractors to hire them,” the senators wrote.

The explosions destroyed dozens of homes and left thousands of Massachusetts residents and businesses without gas service. Columbia Gas has been working since then to replace 48 miles of pipelines in the region with the goal of completing repairs by Nov. 19. Columbia gas will need a large workforce of trained, certified gas workers to accomplish that goal.