Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share National Grid unionized workers reject company's contract
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
National Grid unionized workers reject company's contract
Nearly four in 10 school board members are current or former teachers, according to a survey by the NYS School Boards Association, reflecting the rising influence of the state’s largest teachers’ union in electing its members to public office. Michael Gormley reports in NEWSDAY that the Pipeline Project of the New York State United Teachers union has helped elect more than 400 of its members to the more than 700 school boards since 2015, according to the union, which has nearly 700,000 members.
Supporters say union members can provide school boards with direct insight from classrooms on curriculum, education policy, student needs and funding priorities. The project is also helping members win seats in the State Legislature and in Congress, according to the union.
But the Pipeline Project has also drawn criticism that the already politically powerful teachers’ union now has a conflicting interest in school boards, which determine spending, including teacher compensation, and set instruction policy in a state with some of the highest property taxes in the nation. State law doesn’t allow teachers and other employees of a school district to serve on that district’s school board as a guard against conflicts of interest, but teachers can serve on their local school boards if they work in other school districts.
In addition, Ken Girardin, director of research at the Empire Center for Public Policy think tank, concluded in his 2023 study that current teachers who work in other districts still pose a conflict by potentially promoting policies to benefit teachers as a group over fiscal prudence. He also said retired teachers and family members of teachers also pose potential conflicts on school boards.
The teachers union, however, said Pipeline and the expertise and funding it provides works for the whole community, and will continue to put more members in elected roles.
***
Members of National Grid’s unionized workforce overwhelmingly rejected the company’s "best and final" contract offer in a vote tallied yesterday afternoon, giving both sides about three weeks to reach a new pact before a potential strike. Mark Harrington reports in NEWSDAY that members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1049 voted 617 to 252 to reject the London-based company’s contract offer in a mail-in ballot. The union represents nearly 1,200 workers who operate the National Grid’s natural gas network and LIPA-contracted power plants.
Their contract expired last month but both sides agreed to a contract extension to March 28. The existing four-year contract, which includes no strike and no lockout language, remains in place.
National Grid, in a statement last night said they are “disappointed the tentative agreement we signed with Local 1049 leadership was not ratified by the members, and will continue to negotiate in good faith for a deal that is fair for our hard working employees and affordable for customers.”
"The membership is unhappy and angry at the offer that was given to us after two months of negotiating," said Pat Guidice, business manager for the local, after the vote. "We intend to go back to the table as soon as possible to get an agreement that meets the needs of both sides so we can go on doing our jobs for our Long Island neighbors."
***
PSEG Long Island expected to begin work today to remove another section of giant steel high-voltage poles in Eastport, this time on a stretch of roadway that has seen at least two pole-related fatalities. Mark Harrington reports in NEWSDAY that the utility plans to remove five steel poles around a section of County Road 51 that intersects with County Road 111, and replace them with underground lines, according to the company. Two other steel poles will be replaced with shorter "riser" poles that transition the line from overhead to underground. The work includes placement of four new wooden distribution poles on the shoulder of the highway.
The cost to put the poles underground is $7.1 million.
The entire steel pole project originally cost $31.7 million,
The Long Island Power Authority, which owns the system and hired PSEG to manage it, in November changed its policy and now mandates that all new high-voltage lines like the Eastport project, with 69,000-volt capacity or above, be considered for placing underground first.
Despite investigating the Eastport steel pole placement in 2021 following the two fatalities, PSEG has indicated no plan to remove any more of the nearly 200 poles that remain on a five-mile stretch of County Road 51, from Eastport to Riverhead. Many are only a few feet from the high-speed highway with no guardrails to protect them.
***
In an ongoing effort to mitigate the negative impacts of cut-through traffic on residential streets during rush hour...the morning and afternoon trade parades...the Southampton Village Board listened to several different options offered by engineering firm VHB at its board meeting last week.
Cailin Riley reports on 27east.com that the presentation, made by Ryan Winter of VHB, included several potential changes for different problem areas in the village, and options that would perhaps represent a compromise for residents on those streets who have expressed differing views and strong feelings over the last few months about what can and should be done. Winter shared several options that the firm has been proposing, the result of six months of review and analysis, in coordination with the Southampton Village police force and department of public works, of the traffic flows and speeding issues on Somerset Avenue and Pleasant Lane and other streets between County Road 39 and Hill Street. Winter stressed that none of the proposed plans have been finalized, and that the presentation was meant to inform residents and the board of several options in an effort to solicit some feedback. For Somerset Avenue, and several other streets, adding speed tables and roadway striping — with double yellow lines and a shoulder edge line — were two popular ideas. Speed tables located both before and after the 90-degree curve — at an appropriate distance away — would help alleviate speeding on that road in that sensitive area, he said. The firm is also proposing green space bump-outs near the curve that would reduce the width of the road and force motorists to take a slower and more exacting approach on that curve.
***
It’s not unusual across the East End to see chest-high piles of bamboo along the roadsides as local towns begin their free seasonal leaf and brush pickup.
But the Town of Southold, which has been working for years to improve the quality of the compost it makes from the yard debris at its municipal waste site in Cutchogue, wants residents to stop piling invasive species at the roadside, because they can’t be used to make compost without contaminating it with weeds.
“It actually costs us money to dispose of it. It’s not free. The landfill cannot turn it into a mulch product,” Southold Town Highway Superintendent Daniel J. Goodwin told the Southold Town Board at its work session this week. “These are invasives that should not be spread around, and placing these materials, typically bamboo, in large piles, is not honoring the spirit of the cleanup.”
Beth Young reports in EAST END BEACON that bamboo and phragmites spread rapidly through underground rhizomes, creating a network of roots and sending up shoots that are very difficult to control.
Southold Town Solid Waste Coordinator Nick Krupski said Southold is “trying to create a nice, salable product (compost) to bring in revenue. We’re trying to build a good reputation for what we put there.”
Mr. Krupski added that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation recommends against municipalities allowing bamboo in their compost and mulch products, and when people bring loads containing large quantities of invasive species to the town transfer station, they are trucked out with construction and demolition debris.
The Town Board agreed to add language to the resolution authorizing the cleanup adopted Tuesday evening that “bamboo, phragmites and other invasives will not be picked up.”
***
Tomorrow at 2 p.m., the North Fork Chamber of Commerce and the Cutchogue Fire Department will hold their 18th Annual Cutchogue St. Patrick’s Day Parade down the Main Road in Cutchogue, the first St. Pat’s parade of this season on the East End as reported by Beth Young in EAST END BEACON.
Then next Saturday, March 15 there are St. Patrick’s Day parades in Westhampton Beach from 12 noon to 2pm and in Jamesport from 1pm to 3pm.
And in Hampton Bays two weeks from tomorrow on Saturday Mar22 there is the Hampton Bays Hibernians St. Patrick’s Day Parade from 11:00 am - 1:00 pm.
***
Commuters at Union Station in Washington, D.C. have been confronted in recent days by an image of Lady Liberty with her finger pointed at them. “New York Wants You!” she says.
Were she not sporting her standard robe and crown, she could be mistaken for Uncle Sam.
Shayla Colon reports in THE NY TIMES that the ad, appearing on a station kiosk, is part of a campaign by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to recruit federal employees who have been fired by the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency. “DOGE said you’re fired?” the ad asks. “We say: You’re hired!”
The governor’s ads have appeared in major transit hubs in Washington and New York, including at Moynihan Train Hall in Manhattan, and the state has been promoting the hiring effort online.
There are more than 7,000 job openings available across the state, according to Governor Hochul’s office, who said it was looking for lawyers, health care workers, teachers, public policy experts and more.
Roughly 100 people have signed up to attend information sessions hosted by New York’s Department of Labor since the campaign rolled out about four days ago, according to the governor’s office. The webinars are meant to help former federal workers develop their resumes, find jobs and, if they live in New York, apply for unemployment.
The governor’s campaign comes as DOGE, Elon Musk’s cost-cutting effort, has pushed mass firings and layoffs across a host of government agencies.
“Come work in the greatest state in the nation,” Governor Hochul said in a statement on Monday. “We won’t denigrate you, we will treat you with dignity and respect that you deserve because in New York, we know it’s not the demagogues and the technocrats who make America great, it’s public servants.”
Many of President Trump’s orders have been challenged in court, with judges temporarily stopping them, but the administration has actively defied some of the legal limits placed on it.
View all episodes
By WLIW-FMNearly four in 10 school board members are current or former teachers, according to a survey by the NYS School Boards Association, reflecting the rising influence of the state’s largest teachers’ union in electing its members to public office. Michael Gormley reports in NEWSDAY that the Pipeline Project of the New York State United Teachers union has helped elect more than 400 of its members to the more than 700 school boards since 2015, according to the union, which has nearly 700,000 members.
Supporters say union members can provide school boards with direct insight from classrooms on curriculum, education policy, student needs and funding priorities. The project is also helping members win seats in the State Legislature and in Congress, according to the union.
But the Pipeline Project has also drawn criticism that the already politically powerful teachers’ union now has a conflicting interest in school boards, which determine spending, including teacher compensation, and set instruction policy in a state with some of the highest property taxes in the nation. State law doesn’t allow teachers and other employees of a school district to serve on that district’s school board as a guard against conflicts of interest, but teachers can serve on their local school boards if they work in other school districts.
In addition, Ken Girardin, director of research at the Empire Center for Public Policy think tank, concluded in his 2023 study that current teachers who work in other districts still pose a conflict by potentially promoting policies to benefit teachers as a group over fiscal prudence. He also said retired teachers and family members of teachers also pose potential conflicts on school boards.
The teachers union, however, said Pipeline and the expertise and funding it provides works for the whole community, and will continue to put more members in elected roles.
***
Members of National Grid’s unionized workforce overwhelmingly rejected the company’s "best and final" contract offer in a vote tallied yesterday afternoon, giving both sides about three weeks to reach a new pact before a potential strike. Mark Harrington reports in NEWSDAY that members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1049 voted 617 to 252 to reject the London-based company’s contract offer in a mail-in ballot. The union represents nearly 1,200 workers who operate the National Grid’s natural gas network and LIPA-contracted power plants.
Their contract expired last month but both sides agreed to a contract extension to March 28. The existing four-year contract, which includes no strike and no lockout language, remains in place.
National Grid, in a statement last night said they are “disappointed the tentative agreement we signed with Local 1049 leadership was not ratified by the members, and will continue to negotiate in good faith for a deal that is fair for our hard working employees and affordable for customers.”
"The membership is unhappy and angry at the offer that was given to us after two months of negotiating," said Pat Guidice, business manager for the local, after the vote. "We intend to go back to the table as soon as possible to get an agreement that meets the needs of both sides so we can go on doing our jobs for our Long Island neighbors."
***
PSEG Long Island expected to begin work today to remove another section of giant steel high-voltage poles in Eastport, this time on a stretch of roadway that has seen at least two pole-related fatalities. Mark Harrington reports in NEWSDAY that the utility plans to remove five steel poles around a section of County Road 51 that intersects with County Road 111, and replace them with underground lines, according to the company. Two other steel poles will be replaced with shorter "riser" poles that transition the line from overhead to underground. The work includes placement of four new wooden distribution poles on the shoulder of the highway.
The cost to put the poles underground is $7.1 million.
The entire steel pole project originally cost $31.7 million,
The Long Island Power Authority, which owns the system and hired PSEG to manage it, in November changed its policy and now mandates that all new high-voltage lines like the Eastport project, with 69,000-volt capacity or above, be considered for placing underground first.
Despite investigating the Eastport steel pole placement in 2021 following the two fatalities, PSEG has indicated no plan to remove any more of the nearly 200 poles that remain on a five-mile stretch of County Road 51, from Eastport to Riverhead. Many are only a few feet from the high-speed highway with no guardrails to protect them.
***
In an ongoing effort to mitigate the negative impacts of cut-through traffic on residential streets during rush hour...the morning and afternoon trade parades...the Southampton Village Board listened to several different options offered by engineering firm VHB at its board meeting last week.
Cailin Riley reports on 27east.com that the presentation, made by Ryan Winter of VHB, included several potential changes for different problem areas in the village, and options that would perhaps represent a compromise for residents on those streets who have expressed differing views and strong feelings over the last few months about what can and should be done. Winter shared several options that the firm has been proposing, the result of six months of review and analysis, in coordination with the Southampton Village police force and department of public works, of the traffic flows and speeding issues on Somerset Avenue and Pleasant Lane and other streets between County Road 39 and Hill Street. Winter stressed that none of the proposed plans have been finalized, and that the presentation was meant to inform residents and the board of several options in an effort to solicit some feedback. For Somerset Avenue, and several other streets, adding speed tables and roadway striping — with double yellow lines and a shoulder edge line — were two popular ideas. Speed tables located both before and after the 90-degree curve — at an appropriate distance away — would help alleviate speeding on that road in that sensitive area, he said. The firm is also proposing green space bump-outs near the curve that would reduce the width of the road and force motorists to take a slower and more exacting approach on that curve.
***
It’s not unusual across the East End to see chest-high piles of bamboo along the roadsides as local towns begin their free seasonal leaf and brush pickup.
But the Town of Southold, which has been working for years to improve the quality of the compost it makes from the yard debris at its municipal waste site in Cutchogue, wants residents to stop piling invasive species at the roadside, because they can’t be used to make compost without contaminating it with weeds.
“It actually costs us money to dispose of it. It’s not free. The landfill cannot turn it into a mulch product,” Southold Town Highway Superintendent Daniel J. Goodwin told the Southold Town Board at its work session this week. “These are invasives that should not be spread around, and placing these materials, typically bamboo, in large piles, is not honoring the spirit of the cleanup.”
Beth Young reports in EAST END BEACON that bamboo and phragmites spread rapidly through underground rhizomes, creating a network of roots and sending up shoots that are very difficult to control.
Southold Town Solid Waste Coordinator Nick Krupski said Southold is “trying to create a nice, salable product (compost) to bring in revenue. We’re trying to build a good reputation for what we put there.”
Mr. Krupski added that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation recommends against municipalities allowing bamboo in their compost and mulch products, and when people bring loads containing large quantities of invasive species to the town transfer station, they are trucked out with construction and demolition debris.
The Town Board agreed to add language to the resolution authorizing the cleanup adopted Tuesday evening that “bamboo, phragmites and other invasives will not be picked up.”
***
Tomorrow at 2 p.m., the North Fork Chamber of Commerce and the Cutchogue Fire Department will hold their 18th Annual Cutchogue St. Patrick’s Day Parade down the Main Road in Cutchogue, the first St. Pat’s parade of this season on the East End as reported by Beth Young in EAST END BEACON.
Then next Saturday, March 15 there are St. Patrick’s Day parades in Westhampton Beach from 12 noon to 2pm and in Jamesport from 1pm to 3pm.
And in Hampton Bays two weeks from tomorrow on Saturday Mar22 there is the Hampton Bays Hibernians St. Patrick’s Day Parade from 11:00 am - 1:00 pm.
***
Commuters at Union Station in Washington, D.C. have been confronted in recent days by an image of Lady Liberty with her finger pointed at them. “New York Wants You!” she says.
Were she not sporting her standard robe and crown, she could be mistaken for Uncle Sam.
Shayla Colon reports in THE NY TIMES that the ad, appearing on a station kiosk, is part of a campaign by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to recruit federal employees who have been fired by the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency. “DOGE said you’re fired?” the ad asks. “We say: You’re hired!”
The governor’s ads have appeared in major transit hubs in Washington and New York, including at Moynihan Train Hall in Manhattan, and the state has been promoting the hiring effort online.
There are more than 7,000 job openings available across the state, according to Governor Hochul’s office, who said it was looking for lawyers, health care workers, teachers, public policy experts and more.
Roughly 100 people have signed up to attend information sessions hosted by New York’s Department of Labor since the campaign rolled out about four days ago, according to the governor’s office. The webinars are meant to help former federal workers develop their resumes, find jobs and, if they live in New York, apply for unemployment.
The governor’s campaign comes as DOGE, Elon Musk’s cost-cutting effort, has pushed mass firings and layoffs across a host of government agencies.
“Come work in the greatest state in the nation,” Governor Hochul said in a statement on Monday. “We won’t denigrate you, we will treat you with dignity and respect that you deserve because in New York, we know it’s not the demagogues and the technocrats who make America great, it’s public servants.”
Many of President Trump’s orders have been challenged in court, with judges temporarily stopping them, but the administration has actively defied some of the legal limits placed on it.