Legislative Alert
 
On Friday March 13 the NH State Senate Energy Environment and Economic Development Committee will be hearing testimony on SB 152 a bill that if passed could be the demise of the Scrubber project. We must do everything possible to stop this legislation. The most effective way to stop this legislation is to have our members show up in force on the day of the hearing and show our representatives how important this project is to us and our families. I can’t emphasize enough how important this is. If you are able to attend please contact Joe Howard prior to Friday 3/13 so we can have an accurate number as to how many we can expect. The difference could be in the amount of people that we have show up on hearing day!

In response to the article published in the Union Leader on Feb. 19 2009 “Anti Scrubber Group Grows, Adds Kamen”. Gary Hirshberg and the Commercial Ratepayers Group seem to be compiling quite a list of who’s who  to battle PSNH’s effort to build a state of the art scrubbing system to finally scrub its emissions and rid our air of the toxic carbons that have been hovering over our state for over 30 years from the Bow Power Plant.
  Missing from this prestigious list however are the ratepayers who’s jobs will be lost, do to the ultimate closure of the power house if their agenda is met. Hundreds of jobs from people that live paycheck to paycheck whose probability of finding a new job comparable to the one that they currently have in today’s economy are slim to none. People that don’t own a Yogurt Plant, Investment group, Restaurant or invented the “segway”. People who are one paycheck away from unemployment checks food stamps Healthy kids Medicare or even welfare. People whom would gladly contribute through their utility bill to ensure their kids are breathing clean air and still have the most affordable energy in New England piped to their homes.

Urgent
The Bow scrubber project is in great danger of being killed by our state legislature. We must act now to make sure this project proceeds on schedule. There is formidable opposition to stop this very important project. We must ask every member, including the retirees to help stop this legislation so we can move forward.We need every member to come to the hall on 48 Airport Rd. Concord NH from 3:00pm to7:00pm on Thursday February 26th as we lobby our legislators to stop the huge effort that has been put forth to completely stop the scrubber project. It is up to us, we are still the creators of our own destiny. You must make every effort to attend. Please bring your families and friends. Let’s show our legislature that enough is enough… We need work!!! 

Scheduled Training dates for 2009

First Aid/CPR:            
                                    
      Feb 7
     Mar 28
    April 11

From the Los Angeles TimesOpinionThe union way upAmerica, and its faltering economy, need unions to restore prosperity to the middle class.By Robert B. ReichJanuary 26, 2009Why is this recession so deep, and what can be done to reverse it?Hint: Go back about 50 years, when America's middle class was expanding and the economy was soaring. Paychecks were big enough to allow us to buy all the goods and services we produced. It was a virtuous circle. Good pay meant more purchases, and more purchases meant more jobs.At the center of this virtuous circle were unions. In 1955, more than a third of working Americans belonged to one. Unions gave them the bargaining leverage they needed to get the paychecks that kept the economy going. So many Americans were unionized that wage agreements spilled over to nonunionized workplaces as well. Employers knew they had to match union wages to compete for workers and to recruit the best ones.