Friday, October 15, 2010

TWU's National Grid Protest Jams Jay Street, Downtown Brooklyn - UPDATED

(See UPDATE at bottom of post.)
The rain didn't dampen a noisy, high-spirited TWU (Transit Workers Union) Local 101 protest at rush hour Thursday evening on Jay Street in Downtown Brooklyn. The rally was staged right in the street outside of the Brooklyn MetroTech headquarters of National Grid (which used to be called KeySpan, once known as  Brooklyn Union Gas).

Traffic slowed to a crawl as music blared, union workers chanted and blew whistles and sympathetic bus drivers leaned on their horns.

 The signs called National Grid "National Greed." TWU represents roughly 1,600 workers at National Grid, which, according to union workers, is threatening layoffs.

UPDATE: The Brooklyn Eagle has published a statement by National Grid.

Previous posts on National Grid / KeySpan / Brooklyn Union Gas:
National Grid's Catell Says Buh-Bye to His Million-a-Month Brooklyn Office
- It's Official: KeySpan Is Now National Grid 
- KeySpan Cleanup, and More Brooklyn Thursday News
- KeySpan Workers on Tinderhooks as Merger with National Grid Looms
- KeySpan/ National Grid Merger: Another Snag
- What Does KeySpan/ National Grid Merger Mean for Brooklyn?
- KeySpan, National Grid Merger One Step Closer
- British Co. to Take Over Brooklyn-Based Electric Business
- National Grid Offers Concessions in Pursuit Of Keyspan


 Photos by MK Metz

Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

Do we need another British Company cutting corners! Remember BP

Anonymous said...

No We Don't........

bj said...

Just as the gas infrastructure is getting old and leaky. Good time to lay off some crews.

Anonymous said...

Yeah i think that the british can go fuck themselves. WEll my bad they do anyway!!!!!. MR.G.....

Anonymous said...

I remember when they used to hatch ducklings in their window every spring. That was when they were Brooklyn Union Gas.

mcbrooklyn said...

We used to love those ducklings. Here's a link to more about them:
http://mcbrooklyn.blogspot.com/p/ducklings-on-display-at-brooklyn-union.html

Unknown said...

Kudos to the Union for fighting a fair battle and getting a fair deal for it members. Good luck and yes I do miss the old BUG but alas all things do come to past...not always for the better. Corporate America, ugh.

Anonymous said...

I miss the ducks, as well as the farm animals brought by Wilkow Orchards (the apple and produce folks) at the Borough Hall greenmarket. I thought both would be fun for my kids when I had them (at some distant point in the future). Now, the kids are here but not the fun little kid things.

MK--How long have you been in the neighborhood? Between this, and remembering the porn theater and Oriol Deli, it must be a while.

mcbrooklyn said...

We moved here around 1980 I believe. I remember when you didn't want to walk on Smith Street by yourself after dark; when junkies threw crack bottles out of the Hotel Saint George windows. Hot Bird! Longshoremen down on the docks. Howie Golden. Woolworths on Fulton Street and the fried chicken they sold at the front counter. The Phoenix newspaper. That big Hispanic produce market on Smith. Tripoli Restaurant before it "accidentally" burned down. The Hotel Saint George fire (but we missed the Hotel Margaret fire). That big hobo camp on Columbia Street on the way to Red Hook, before the fire. A&S and the nice restaurant on the 4th floor (tablecloths!). Gage & Tolner. The ByGeorge restaurant (before one of the owners shot his partner). Big Jim. Ah, memory lane!