City & LL&P stalling contract negotiations?

Negations mean working toward an agreement between two or more parties. That says that when both sides (LLP & Union) reach an agreement they have a contract, not just when LLP decides to agree with the union's demands as it seems many people recommend. Think about it, both sides are in a position to take what is on the table and call it done! LLP is a business and needs to serve its customers/rate payers first and foremost. The tail does not wag the dog. If the union is such a great way to get better working conditions why didn't more of the employees at LLP vote to have a union? Line workers are paid currently to be "on call". Take a look at other municipal utility union contracts within the state on their web sites. Not all contracts have an on call pay clause. They are paid well to get out of the swimming pool to restore someones power. Yes, the rate payers do pay for that excellent service they receive. If the employee's do not get on call pay they will not come in to work beyond their regular working hours. Dedication and a good work ethic have noting to do with it.

hey not so bright have you looked at other municipals most of them if not all maybe a hand full in the state are union and employees and management get along.thats funny there wasn't any problems in Lowell until these so called managers arrived. now resident are finding out where they came from and how they treated people where they left. they should move on Lowell doesn't need bad managers. Lowell needs management that cares about "the workers" that care about the community they served like they been doing for years without these managers treating them like crape and taking things away and making the employees take days off during the week to work weekends for straight time thats rigtht only to say we "the management" saved a dollar so reward us again with a huge bonus and a key to the city. its time the counsel wakes up to smell the management bull....there being told. and fix this or wait for another election and let the public decide great service like we have had for years or new faces of employees. because the good ones have left.

To: "theotherside"..so the employees are getting harassed by management and they are screaming about a coffee pot?? REALLY? My question would be when were these few good workers using the coffee pot? On company or personal time? Where I used to work if you wanted to make coffee you came in early so it was ready by the time to start work and the company didn't pay for it. You had to contribute money in a can and someone would buy it with that money. If they didn't pay for the coffee pot or the coffee consider themselves lucky. I would guess it being removed might have possibly been for more reasons than harassment, like maybe, just maybe abuse?? Only those directly involved would know but may not care to share the whole story. And management has not only the right but the responsibility to monitor its employees activities while they are "on the clock". That is not harassment. If good workers are doing their jobs someone checking them on their job site would not bother them. Its called accountability. And by the way, there are not 6 managers at LLP. I checked and there is 1 General Mgr who is directly responsible for 2 other managers. The office staff are paid hourly. I would hope those involved with settling this contract, which apparently includes you since you have seen it, would structure your issues toward important things like job security, pay scales and insurance and retirement benefits, not coffee pots and little extras that should be considered "treats"

there is a coffee pot at city hall and at LLP offices that get used by management , guest and employees working in the offices and they don't pay for it I believe as long as it offered to the public it can be written off as an expense. recently I was working at a job site in town and seen for my self an employee with a LLP truck stop at shell get coffee go back to the job site pull in and out five times and never stop to talk to the two employees working and never did any thing when he was there. this in my eyes is harressment. to bad management has nothing better to do with are ratepayers money beside to keep misleading the public with crap I seen this happen several times over the course of a week what goes on the rest of the time maybe other ratepayers have noticed activities of this nature. its wrong and it needs to stop. is this what we the ratepayers have to look forward to how are money we pay in is getting spent I hope not get a grip on this its bullcrap.

Employees should be paid based on "fair market value", which means equal pay for equal work. In researching some of the other municipal electric line workers pay rates it seems the LLP line workers are being paid at and in some cities above the contracted pay rates for their line workers. There are some that may be slightly higher, however, time in grade and size of the work group may be the reason. Do you think LLP line employees should be paid more than other workers in the same industry for the same job duties? In a contract employees are paid at an agreed rate with or without increases over the life of the contract. That completely takes away pay for performance. So, as long as the employee shows up and does even marginal work he gets the same pay as a hard working, dedicated employee. Is that your "hope for the better"?

First, let me respond to the pay increase issue. Any employer should be paying their employees within the pay scale of the work they perform. Especially with a union contract, workers are paid on a scale that is determined by a "fair market value" for the job. That doesn't mean they don't deserve a raise. But, if their pay scale is based on what other utilities pay their union line workers they are getting paid within that scale currently, not lower. If they were below then they should be brought up to their proper scale, whatever is decided when the contract is settled.
Second, LLP does not or intends to deny any employee from farming!!! LL&P policy Section 3.11 Outside Employment in the Personnel Handbook states: “No employee may work at other employment which would lead to a conflict of interest or impair performance as an employee of the Utility. Written permission from the General Manager must be obtained before any outside work or employment is undertaken. No employee may utilize Utility facilities to conduct supplemental outside employment. If the General Manager determines that the outside employment would violate this policy, or if after outside employment has been approved, the General Manager determines the outside employment violated this policy, the employee may resign either the outside employment or their position with the Utility. All approvals of supplemental outside employment will be reviewed on an annual basis by the General Manager. Employees whose outside employment lasts for more than one (1) year are required to resubmit their request for approval annually, at performance evaluation time. Additionally, if the requirements and/or conditions of the supplemental employment change, the employee must promptly advise his/her supervisor and re-apply for approval with the new requirements and/or conditions.”
Farming does not lead to a conflict of interest because LL&P is not in the farming business. If farming impairs the performance of the employee of the utility then this policy would apply. This policy does not state that employees are not able to work their home farms. If employees were engaged in performing electrical service upgrades for profit for customers of LL&P, this would lead to a conflict of interest because LL&P is responsible for providing the final hook-up to those customers that had service upgrades.
Third; Under PA 312, requires compulsory arbitration of labor disputes in municipal police and fire departments. That is because they are not allowed, by occupation, to strike. If the employee has been disciplined or terminated improperly there are plenty of attornys that would take on their case if it has merit. Arbitration can take months even years to be decided. Is that what they really want? For example, someone is terminated and they take it all the way to arbitration; they can stay unemployed until the case is settled by the arbitrator. The current process in place at LLP takes much less time.