Syracuse, NY - National Grid officials today will dedicate a new Syracuse operation that is expected to grow by more than 200 employees in coming years thanks to a special union contract that lets the company hire workers at less than half of traditional utility wages. New union employees at the “transactions delivery center,” an office within National Grid’s...
Evelyn Kaye, vice president of National Grid's new Transactions Delivery Center in Syracuse, expects the utility to hire more than 200 more employees to work there. The center is being dedicated today. Syracuse, NY - National Grid officials today will dedicate a new Syracuse operation that is expected to grow by more than 200 employees in coming years thanks to a special union contract that lets the company hire workers at less than half of traditional utility wages.
New union employees at the “transactions delivery center,” an office within National Grid’s complex in downtown Syracuse, typically start at about $10 an hour and can progress to about $17.
They work side-by-side with longer-term employees who earn more than twice as much.
The transactions delivery center, or TDC, is a new Syracuse operation that handles payroll, purchasing, accounts payable and other back-office services for all of National Grid’s utility operations in the United States.
The TDC currently houses 235 employees, about 100 of whom were hired during the past year. The rest transferred from other departments. The center is expected to expand to as many as 500 workers within three years, said Evelyn Kaye, vice president.
National Grid officials originally planned to outsource much of the work, but they reversed course because of a special contract that union leaders negotiated to cover new clerical staff in Syracuse.
“That agreement is different than anything the union has ever done,” said David Falletta, president of Local 97 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which represents National Grid employees in Upstate New York.
In November 2007, Local 97 negotiated a contract known informally as the “gold book.” At the time, it sought to prevent National Grid from outsourcing customer service jobs, said Ted Skerpon, treasurer of Local 97.
The gold book contract, which covers only newly hired clerical workers in Syracuse, allows National Grid to set wages at “market rates” based on what similar jobs pay at other companies.
Because of its success using the gold book to fill positions at its customer service center, National Grid officials decided to locate the TDC in Syracuse. Company and union leaders are negotiating a five-year extension of the contract, which would otherwise expire in 2012.
As older employees who are covered by the standard “blue book” contract leave or retire, they will be replaced with gold book employees.
Kaye said Falletta can take credit for helping to bring jobs to Syracuse that might otherwise have been outsourced.
“He is really visionary,” Kaye said. “He foresaw things and was really proactive in trying to work with the company, and succeeded in creating something that we all could work together and create a future around.”
National Grid estimates that the TDC will save the company nearly $50 million in labor costs by 2014, according to documents filed with the state Public Service Commission.
The British company is undertaking several major projects designed to streamline its operations, which have expanded rapidly through a series of acquisitions over the past decade. The transactions delivery center, or TDC, is one element of that transformation.
Another project is National Grid’s plan to outsource many of its information technology jobs, most of which are non-union. The company is evaluating proposals from outside vendors to take over information services work such as software programming, computer networking and similar functions.
No decisions have been made about that outsourcing, said Alberto Bianchetti, speaking for the company.
Juli McCann, who took a non-union job as a senior analyst at the TDC, said she is glad National Grid opened the center in Syracuse. She was laid off from her last job at AXA Equitable Life Insurance Co.
Before AXA, she worked at Penn Traffic and Agway, both of which went bankrupt, and Carrier Corp., which closed its local manufacturing operation.
“Especially in the Syracuse market, its great to be at a company that is looking to add positions and maintain those that they have,” McCann said.
Contact Tim Knauss at tknauss@syracuse.com or 470-3023.