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We had respectful discussions in our bargaining session today.  Proposals covered included: Wages, Home Agent and Inclement weather.  We had dialogue on Call Center issues and vacation carryover.  The Company made a counter proposal to inclement weather which we TA’d.  The current contract does not address inclement weather and we felt getting it into the contract was a step in the right direction even though it includes some restrictions.

Our Wage proposal included statistics on the Company's earnings, employee productivity, the Cmpany's reliability ranking, meter installations (new customers are up),  increase in customer calls and walk-ins.  The Union feels we are working harder with less people and greater responsibilities and the Company should compensate accordingly.   
 
The Company agreed to add progressive discipline to our contract.  The Company made it clear that it would be up to the Union to explain that even though we have added progressive discipline language to the contract, the Company is still within their rights to apply discipline appropriate to the offense.  
 
The Company is willing to entertain vacation carryover with some restrictions which we will try to address at the bargaining session scheduled for Thursday, April 16th. 
 
The Company emphasized they would like to get all the non-economic issues off the table.  The Union is working diligently to accomplish this and we hope to TA several proposals next week.
 
Our joint meetings are scheduled for April 13th and 15th where we will present our counter proposal on Health and the Company is expected to respond to our Pension proposal.
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