The Boston Globe, May 24, 2005, Tuesday

Copyright 2005 Globe Newspaper Company
The Boston Globe

May 24, 2005, Tuesday THIRD EDITION

SECTION: BUSINESS; Pg. D1

HEADLINE: A NEW BREED OF UNION CHIEF IN RISKY MOVE

BYLINE: By Diane E. Lewis Globe Staff

BODY:
The strike against NStar is the biggest test of Gary Sullivan's three-year tenure as president of Local 369 of the Utility Workers Union of America.
A big man with a penchant for black suspenders and Hershey's chocolates, the 44-year-old Hyde Park native says he decided to become a union leader during the Boston Edison strike of 1986. He was prompted by the company's decision to withhold healthcare benefits from the strikers.
"Up until that strike, I didn't know the union was one of the reasons we had benefits," Sullivan said. "I took all that for granted."

Sullivan said he weighed the risks when he and other union officials asked members to take a strike-authorization vote. Now he's in the midst of the utility union's first strike in nearly 20 years, and he's standing by their decision.
Labor experts say, however, that at a time when unions are getting little support from the National Labor Relations Board and the courts, the NStar strike is a gutsy move.
"Given the economic climate and how the courts are interpreting labor law, it is a risky time to go on strike," Thomas Juravich, director of the Labor Relations and Research Center at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, said. "But what Gary Sullivan has working for him is a highly seasoned workforce that is not easily replaced. Vocational schools have not done a great job in the Commonwealth training people to move into these positions. And unlike garment work, these jobs can't be moved abroad."
Sullivan, who represents the nearly 2,000 members who went on strike May 16, contends that overtime, not money, is the issue driving the walkout as employers like NStar have expanded hours and reduced labor costs.
He said the bargaining team was willing to compromise until the company revealed at a shareholder's meeting that it had "its best year ever."
"That's when we asked, 'Why the takebacks?' " said Sullivan.
Yet Sullivan said he's willing to make concessions. For example, NStar bases contributions to the 401(k) plan on workers' total earnings, including overtime. Sullivan said he would tear that up and allow the firm to calculate contributions without overtime pay. He also said the company uses vacation averaging to determine how much time off workers should get. That, too, he said, includes overtime, but "I would have given that up in a heartbeat."
The company, which serves 1.4 million customers in Eastern and Central Massachusetts, declined to discuss Sullivan's comments or negotiating tactics. "Over the years, we have had a good working relationship with Gary Sullivan and with the union under his guidance," said Michael Durand, an NStar spokesman. "We are still hopeful that we can get beyond this impasse and get a contract that brings our employees back to work to service our customers."
Myles Calvey, business manager at Local 2222 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in Quincy, is a longtime friend who said Sullivan injected "new energy into the labor movement." He also said that no union leader is eager to strike in the current economic climate because the risks of losing jobs and any past gains are so great.
"There is no winner in a strike if you and management are not able to hammer out a relationship later," said Calvey. "But Gary has his workers and the Massachusetts union leadership behind him."
Labor specialists said Sullivan might look like an old-style union boss, but he is not.
"Gary is an example of a growing number of people in industrial unions who are taking advantage of labor education degree programs as a way to improve their skills," said Steve Early, spokesman for the Communication Workers of America in New England.
Among other union leaders with degrees are John Wilhelm, a Yale University graduate and president of UNITE Here; Andrew Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union in Washington, D.C., and a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania; and Jeff Crosby, president of Local 201 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in Lynn and a UMass graduate.
"The economy has become more and more complex and employers are far more sophisticated," said Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of labor education research at Cornell University. "Gary Sullivan and union leaders like him know that to help workers at the bargaining table they have to understand the changing nature of the economy and the changing nature of labor laws."
Sullivan entered UMass-Boston in 1990 after losing a bid for vice president of Local 369. After graduating in 1995, with a bachelor's degree in labor relations and law, he rose to secretary treasurer of the union, then became interim president in 2002 when the president took a job at another company and left the union. Three months later, he won a three-way race for the presidency.
An avuncular figure who worked in the trenches before becoming a union leader, Sullivan started out as an underground splicer, then became an underground troubleshooter and an underground construction inspector. Sullivan has been walking the picket line with workers since the strike began. Last week, he visited a picket line on Massachusetts Avenue and talked to strikers.
"We all have kids, and we all have mortgages," said NStar striker Byron Blandin, 43, of Hyde Park. "But I know I will be out for as long as Gary says we need to be out. He knows us."

Diane E. Lewis can be reached at dlewis@globe.com.