“The strike was absolutely worth it,” explained Jim McLaughlin, a 15-year NStar veteran who works as a meter reader. “The company was looking to take back a lot of stuff that people who came before us fought to get for us, and I thought it was important to fight for them, and for our future.”

The company agreed to add 150 new positions, many in maintenance. This was one of the union’s principal demands.

A popular chant on the picket line—“Hey, hey, Tom May. How many dogs have you killed today?”—illustrated the demand for more maintenance workers. It referred to several recent incidents in which dogs were shocked by “stray voltage” from walking near power lines that had not been well maintained. May is the company’s central executive officer. Pickets also carried dog leashes—with no dog on the end—to further illustrate the point.

Workers also won a 3 percent wage increase over each of the four years of the agreement. Health coverage was extended to domestic partners for the first time.

The new agreement includes some of NStar’s concession demands. The company introduced a four-day work schedule for some of the power linemen and now has the authority to assign them to work on weekend days; a second tier was added to the pension plan, lowering retirement benefits for new hires; and the health care co-pay for workers was raised from 15 percent to 20 percent.

“Everybody came together. That was the good part. We got to know a lot of people on the picket lines and we’ll all stick together a little more now,” explained Dave Alfonso a 30-year veteran in the industry.

UWUA Local 369 represents utility workers that work in the company’s electrical division. The United Steelworkers (USW) represents about 300 workers at NStar that work in the gas division.

At the beginning of the strike, USW members honored the picket lines. Eventually, with the consent of the UWUA leadership, they returned to work.

The Steelworker’s contract at NStar expires in 10 months.

Sarah Ullman and Laura Garza contributed to this article.  
 
 
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