Contract Talks To Resume Tuesday At Indian Point Nuclear Plant

CORTLANDT, NY — Entergy and the utility workers at the Indian Point nuclear facility will meet again on Tuesday to negotiate a new contract. The union members had voted to strike when the contract expired, which it did at midnight Wednesday, but have held off.

Entergy continues to bargain in good faith with the union leadership, said spokesman Jerry Nappi.

It's not a point of view shared by James T. Slevin, president of Local 1-2, NY, Utility Workers of America, who said on Saturday, “Their mindset is to exit New York and bring in just any old random bodies to shut out the lights, Entergy could care less about how to safely close down the Indian Point facility and what it leaves behind."

Nappi said that the company has offered a guarantee of no layoffs until both units are shut down and defueled, and a generous retention package for all union employees. "This effort is to help ensure our skilled workforce remains on the job for the remainder of the plant’s forecasted operational life," he said.

Showing how seriously Entergy takes the negotiations, he said, the company has already changed its position about a key medical benefit, agreeing to let unit employees elect the $150 PPO Coverage Option for the full term of the contract.

It will be the last contract.

Indian Point, which provides up to a quarter of the electricity for New York City and Westchester County, will cease operations in 2021 under an agreement reached a year ago between Entergy and the principal forces seeking its closure, New York State and environmental watchdog Riverkeeper.

The union represents operations, radiation protection, chemistry and maintenance workers at the plant. It is seeking a new Collective Bargaining Agreement through 2022, which would keep the experienced nuclear plant workers on hand when the shutdown process begins.

Nappi described some of the other offers the company has made to the union:

-Wage increases of more than 12 percent compounded over the four-year term of the contract. This demonstrates that we have put real money on the table in appreciation of what our workers do.
-A generous retention package for all union employees, with total amounts dependent on each person’s title and salary. This is in addition to the wage increases noted above. This effort is to help ensure our skilled workforce remains on the job for the remainder of the plant’s forecasted operational life. This retention payment is on top of normal severance pay (up to 18 weeks of pay, depending on years of service).
-A guarantee that no layoffs will occur until after both units are permanently shut down and defueled, even though Unit 2 is planned to shut down a year before Unit 3.
-Important medical benefits, including allowing unit employees to elect the $150 PPO Coverage Option for the full term of the contract. (The Company had wanted to end this coverage option sooner but made this concession during negotiations.)
-Continuation of benefits under not only the Savings Plan 401k plan, but also the Retirement Plans (pension plans) that current employees are in. Most companies offer one or the other, but not both.
-Retiree medical, retiree dental and retiree vision benefits for the entire term of the new labor contract for eligible employees.
-The stability of a four-year contract (CBA) that extends beyond the currently projected dates for shutdown and defueling.

Here are the dollar amounts associated with the retention package for certain positions.

Source: Entergy

The perment loss of those jobs, coming within five years, is a key to the union's hostility, expressed by Slevin Saturday: "Entergy’s overlords in Louisiana are toying with the fate of the working men and women who safely operate and maintain a nuclear power plant and on the communities they serve in New York State. Entergy’ management is more concerned with getting out of town with satchels bulging with cash than resolving the very real problems it faces and the havoc it will cause to the local community and all New Yorkers when it leaves.”