Under pressure from its members and union gas workers, the Massachusetts Senate is poised Thursday to take up a bill extending unemployment benefits for locked out National Grid workers for 26 more weeks, or until the end of a lockout that began in June.
Over in the House, it appears lawmakers are ready to take action Thursday on an emergency public safety proposal requiring that professional engineers approve plans developed for natural gas companies to ensure the safe construction, operation and maintenance of gas infrastructure. The House Ways and Means Committee has asked its members to vote on a gas safety bill (H 4979) by 10 a.m., with the House scheduled to gavel in its session at 11 a.m.
The House approved its lockout benefit bill earlier this month, and a majority of senators on Nov. 1 urged the Senate to advance a similar bill.
Locked out gas workers are due to exhaust 30 weeks of jobless benefits in January. Senate President Karen Spilka indicated to the News Service Wednesday that the Senate was committed to ensuring the continuation of benefits "with no lapses."
Spilka's office on Thursday morning released what her office described as a "Senate Statement on Lockout Legislation."
"In the absence of an agreement between the two parties, the Senate will be taking up a bill on Thursday, December 20 that will extend unemployment insurance (UI) benefits for locked out National Grid workers for 26 weeks, or until the end of the lockout," the statement from Spilka said. "We have considered a range of policy options, and believe the bill we put forward is practical, feasible, and able to be implemented quickly, so that these families incur no break in unemployment benefits. It is our hope that this action will provide some relief and peace of mind for those workers who want nothing more than to get back to work. We strongly encourage both parties to continue their negotiations and resolve this issue."
If the bill differs from the House version, branch leaders will need to come together behind a consensus bill.
Gov. Charlie Baker said Wednesday that his administration has spent a lot of time this week talking with lawmakers about "what we all might be able to do collectively to ensure that if the lockout continues that the workers associated with that will continue to have access to unemployment benefits."
Baker said issues with federal and state law and administrative policies make it "very complicated in terms of trying to do something outside the bounds of what the traditional system is set up to do."
Baker added, "We're not telling people what to do but if they don't fix this and resolve this, then we're going to make sure we come up with some means or mechanism that makes it possible for those folks to continue to be able to pay their bills."
National Grid and unions representing gas workers have been meeting more frequently to discuss a potential contract agreement, but have not struck a deal.
"The company has been claiming publicly that they want an agreement by Christmas. The problem is I'm not sure that their actions are showing that they want an agreement. They may want to make an offer, but that's completely different than an agreement," John Buonopane, president of United Steelworkers Local 12012, told the News Service Wednesday. "An agreement is two sides agree to something."
Buonopane said Wednesday he was mystified that a lockout bill had bogged down in the Senate in the two weeks since a bill passed the House.
"I don't understand why the Senate is sitting on this bill," said Buonopane. "The House moved it out. I've been told there is some technical concerns. I don't know why those concerns can't be worked through rather expediently. We've got a lot of people out here that - they're not sure they're going to have unemployment benefits in a few weeks. We're talking the week before Christmas. They're planning on their holidays with their families and they're basing decisions that they're making about that on whether or not they are going to have unemployment insurance."
Like the House, the Senate plans to start its session Thursday at 11 a.m.
