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National Grid doesn't want to talk about the safety of Boston gas mains in public

NorthEndWaterfront.com reports National Grid was a no-show at a City Council hearing earlier this week on the state of gas mains in Boston.

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"The letter read the company did 'not believe it will be effective or useful to engage with our unions in public debate.' However, National Grid said they would engage with the councilors."

They don't want to, nor should they have to, answer to the City regarding a union lockout.

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was only one aspect of this hearing. The Council wanted to hear about the safety measures that National Grid has in place to prevent a gas leak disaster as recently happened. That is an issue that a public utility should answer.

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And NG said they would meet with the Councilors but not if they're going to pass the mic to the locked-out union, which SURPRISE, the union suddenly says the grid is unsafe now that they're on strike. Why have we never heard the union raise this issue to the City before the strike?

The real question is, can the City Council even subpoena person or company to appear? They sound like they have a congress complex.

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First they aren't on strike, second, the locked out union workers are going to active worksites and taking photos of all the unsafe work. If they had been watching Lawrence, they may have pointed out a few errors (and may have saved millions of dollars). Apparently they have done the same in Boston (actually pointed out to replacement workers unsafe work)

So the reason why you haven't heard the Union raise these issues, because they were doing the actual work.

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would point out to the replacement workers how to actually fix a leak. On Centre St. in West Roxbury, the replacement workers are digging up the street in the same place for the 4th time in about 2 months to try to fix a leak!

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1. It’s not a strike, it’s a lockout

2. We have been saying since 2011 that there are safety issues going on and that the company is pushing off leaks that then during the winter get worse and the workers have to scramble to fix them. The Other issue is more and more 3rd party excavators are hitting gas lines because the company refused to hire and train more foreign opening inspectors. The other side of that coin is needing more contractor inspectors to make sure the work packets are followed.

3. Look at the city ordinance that the Boston City Council passed about leaks in the city and reporting and fixing, AND NATIONAL GRID SUED THE CITY.

4. Google ‪MGL c.233 s.8‬

It not about wanting ponies and lollipops like a section of the public seem to think it is

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They may not have to answer to the city about the wages and benefits they want to pay, in terms of whether $X an hour is a reasonable pay offer.

It is reasonable to make them answer "is locking out your union workers delaying maintenance or otherwise affecting public safety?" including "How would you handle an emergency like the one in Andover without the locked-out workers?"

I cynically suspect that the answer is that they would declare the lockout over, expect the locked-out people to turn up immediately to work twelve-hour shifts every day during the crisis, and then try to spin that as the union having accepted their demands. If that's not their plan, the Boston City Council just offered them a chance to tell us so.

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If the company declares the lockout over, technically the union wins.

I would imagine were some kind of disaster occur, there would be an era of good labor relations for a while afterwards.

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You've had men and women locked out, benefits stripped, and its an election year for both parties.
This is proof positive that our politicians suck and who the real bosses are

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Go solar
Go wind

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Going wind.....hmmmmm, I don't know. Those windmills aren't a very attractive sight.

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You may have been seeing many different windmill types tucked here and there and not even noticed them. Boston City Hall has a couple on the roof. There are other buildings in the area that have some small installations, too.

They don't all look like the one at the Middle Schools in Medford, the IBEW training windmill, or the Huge Windmill is Near The Casino windmill. It is really a matter of scale.

Home Depot sells a whole line of tiny windmills that look like drones.

Some other designs are barrel-shaped and work kinda sorta like a reverse jet engine. Others use cupped blades on a vertical pole. Many ways to get wind to spin. A lot of DIY designs with bike wheels and pvc pipes.

The catch here: climate change has actually made our region less windy overall! Our inland wind power potential has dropped over the last 3 decades and that has made wind less attractive (off shore is a very different story).

I'll still take a wind farm over any of the coal fired power plants that used to dot our shorelines and belch yellow filth into the air.

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