nuclear-news

Nuclear company Entergy suddenly cutting out health benefits for Pilgrim nuclear workers

The Louisiana-based Entergy is slashing benefits as part of a hard-line lockout, while inexperienced and lesser trained replacements try to manage the 40-year-old plant’s complex operations.

“Our members have literally risked their lives time and again to keep this community safe and to help Entergy make $1 million a day in profits,”

Entergy’s Countdown to Cruelty: 48 hours until Pilgrim Nuclear workers and families lose healthcare Just days after Supreme Court Upholds Healthcare for all, Louisiana-based Entergy Corp. set to end medical coverage for workers and families facing surgery, cancer treatment, childbirth and other healthcare issues

The Sacramento Bee, By Utility Workers Union of America Local 369 , Jun. 28, 2012 PLYMOUTH, Mass., June 29, 2012 —  Locked-out Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant
workers and their families are bracing for a devastating blow as Entergy Corp. prepares to end their healthcare coverage at midnight on Saturday, June 30.

Less than a day after the U.S Supreme Court upheld the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, more than 240 highly skilled workers and their families face the prospect of no healthcare in less than 48 hours – including dozens facing major health issues and in
some cases life threatening circumstances. The Louisiana-based Entergy is slashing benefits as part of a hard-line lockout, while inexperienced and lesser trained replacements try to manage the 40-year-old plant’s complex operations.

“Our members have literally risked their lives time and again to keep this community safe and to help Entergy make $1 million a day in profits,” said UWUA Local 369 President Dan Hurley. “This is a
supremely cruel gesture from a company that is tone deaf to mounting
safety concerns, unbending on basic contract fairness, and now
unconcerned that families who rely on them for vital healthcare will
be left with nowhere to turn.”

UWUA Local 369 spent nearly two months negotiating with Entergy over
key healthcare, safety and staffing issues before they were locked out
by the company on June 6. An offer with severe cuts to employee health
coverage and other provisions that would hurt worker families was
rejected by Local 369 members on June 20….. Entergy operates or
manages 11 nuclear power plants around the nation, including those in
Michigan, Vermont, Arkansas and Mississippi.
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/06/28/4598199/entergys-countdown-to-cruelty.html#storylink=cpy.

June 30, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | employment, USA