Possible Strike Where I Work....great News..........

[pooch ●]

Hey guys I just need to vent about something........I apologize if there's a lot run on sentences.....and misspelled words....I work for a electrical utility that supplies electric, gas and steam to new york city as well as4 other borough's....It's a union job with approx....9,000 union members not including 3,000mgmt. employees.....Now our contract is up this saturday 12am....The field that we work in is extremely dangerous,we work with live electricity on a daily basis...Also the manholes that we work in are loaded with cable that hold 27kv....as well as 110-220over 800 amps.....not to mention we need to have a full FR suit on with a full body harnessand hard hat......Some of these holes are 100 degrees some cases even hotter......We work outside in all types of weather from the blistering heat to fridgit cold.....I love my job, the pay is good with benefits......The job has a lot of great trainingfor instance through my job I have a cdl license, Asbestos handler license...CPR andfirst aid certification........I definitely earn my money.......Heres just a couple issues that are on the table1st....we now pay $66 a week for family benefits and a $20 co pay for a DR visitcompany wants to change it to.....$120 a week and a $25 co pay for DR visit2nd .... we now have a pension for employeescompany wants to........new employees not to have a pension but to have a buy out in place.....$20,0003rd.....we now get overtime after 8 hours of work....company wants to........over time after 40 hours of work.......4th ....we now can retire with 3/4 pay at 55 yrs old....company wants to .........change retirement to 62 1/2 for 3/4 pay5th......where looking to get at least a 5%-6% raise for 4 years......each year 5-6 %......less than cost of living......company wants to........3% raise for 4 years.....a hell of a lot less than cost of living.....now there's a lot more other issues as well.......this is just a little nugget of info ofwhat's going on.......Dam I just gave my self a headache....Well thanks for letting me vent......check your local news channel for this on monday morning.....-matt