GAS WORKERS LOCAL 340 RATIFY 4 YEAR CONTRACT
The membership of Gas Workers Local 340 voted to ratify a four year contract with the company. The contract will run from April 30, 2011through April 30, 2115. The contract includes a three per cent pay rate increase for all members each year of the four year contract (12% total) and one and one half per cent variable pay bonus each year of the contract based on certain performance requirements .
Local 340 Votes to Accept Pension Changes
Local 340 members voted at a special general membership meeting on September 3 to accept the changes to our pension proposed by the company. CenterPoint executives from Houston and Minneapolis attended this meeting at the union hall and offered a presentation relating to the why, what, and how of the pension modifications. A vote was taken after the presentation.
Local 340/Company Reach Safety Incentive Agreement
The union and the company have agreed upon a safety award program for 2008. For a Local 340 member to qualify for the safety awards they must NOT have: 1) a Recordable Injury (resulting from NOT following established safety practices); 2) a Lost Time Injury (resulting from NOT following established safety practices); and 3) a Preventable Vehicular Collision.
Each Local 340 member will receive a $20 Target gift card for each quarter that he/she is incident free. In addition if the individual is incident free throughout 2008 they will receive an additional $50 gift card (which would total, if incident free all year, $130 in gift cards for the year). Note that per I.R.S. regulations these safety award gift cards will be subject to tax.
Keep in mind if an individual has one chargeable incident in 2008 they will lose 6.5% of their 2008 variable pay (1/16th of their variable pay). If they have two chargeable incidents in 2008 they will lose ALL of their variable pay for 2008. As already explained any chargeable incident will cause no $20 gift card award for that quarter and the individual will also not receive the additional year end $50 gift card.
Local 340 President Ian Brown urges all GasWorkers to continue to follow safe work practices and to always use personal protective equipment when needed or required.