NPU makes Juneteenth a paid holiday
Norwich ― One week after the City Council adopted Juneteenth as a paid city holiday, Norwich Public Utilities followed suit.
The Board of Public Utilities Commissioners held a brief special meeting Monday and voted to authorize NPU General Manager Chris LaRose to negotiate with the utilities’ three labor unions to make June 19 a paid holiday for 2024 and 2025 under the current contracts.
The current union contracts expire June 30, 2025.
Overtime for control room operators will cost about $2,900, and NPU will have a skeleton crew on standby for possible electrical or natural gas issues, costing about $1,900, NPU spokesman Chris Riley said.
Juneteenth, which commemorates the date in 1865, when formerly enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, learned that President Abraham Lincoln had freed them two years earlier, was made a federal holiday in 2021 and a state holiday in 2022.
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