STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE Federal lawmakers who gathered in Lawrence Monday called for top executives at Columbia Gas and its parent company to leave their jobs in the wake of the Sept. 13 gas fires and explosions in the Merrimack Valley, and Lawrence Mayor Dan Rivera went a step further, asking that the utility be […]
business
Posted inEconomy
Steelworkers call counter-proposal fair, reasonable
THE UNION LOCALS representing 1,250 locked-out steelworkers made a counter-proposal to National Grid on Wednesday but declined to provide any details about the terms of their offer. The two sides are not expected to meet again until late next week. John Buonopane and Joe Kirylo, the presidents of the two union locals, issued a statement […]
Posted inOpinion
Winter costs make region cold for business
TO SAY THAT this has been a tough winter is an understatement. Already, we’ve seen record cold snaps, soaring energy bills and story after story about how Massachusetts has burned 2 million barrels of oil to generate electricity because we didn’t have an adequate supply of energy. And it’s only February. Already, Massachusetts is one […]
Posted inOpinion
Businesses want stronger clean energy mandates
FOR CENTURIES, MASSACHUSETTS has been a national hub for innovation. With cutting edge academic institutions, a superb health care sector, and a thriving real estate market, the commonwealth is an excellent place to do business. Massachusetts is also home to a rapidly growing clean energy sector, which has allowed commercial real estate service providers like […]
Posted inEconomy
More tools needed to combat wage theft
MASSACHUSETTS HAS AN epidemic of wage theft. An estimated $700 million in wage theft occurs annually in our state, robbing workers and their families of essential income and the ability to stay afloat financially. That’s also bad news for good employers. It creates an uneven playing field for companies that follow the law and that […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Second thoughts on Globe property
Something must be amiss at the Boston Globe’s property on Morrissey Boulevard in Dorchester. First, Winstanley Enterprises of Concord struck a deal to buy the 16.5-acre property and then pulled out in early 2015. And now a second buyer, reportedly Center Court Partners, which has offices in New York and Boston, beat a last-minute retreat […]
Posted inEconomy
Holyoke’s mayor isn’t afraid of pot
Photographs by Mark Morelli OUTSIDE HOLYOKE CITY HALL is a stone fountain that once gurgled with water, offering a more wholesome substitute for alcohol to “a thirsty humanity,” as the inscription reads. Erected in 1901, the monument was one of several put up by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union around the country as part of […]
Posted inEconomy, Opinion, Politics
Ira Stepanian will always be ‘Big Ira’
WHEN IRA STEPANIAN, then president of BankBoston, asked me to join him as executive vice president for external affairs, I told him that I didn’t know much about banking. “That’s OK,” he said. “I don’t know much about external affairs or community relations or how to communicate with employees and regulators and the press. We’ll […]
Posted inEconomy, Opinion
Earned sick time is good for workers — and businesses
MASSACHUSETTS VOTERS PASSED the earned sick time ballot question by an overwhelming margin last November and the Commonwealth’s new earned sick time law is scheduled to begin on July 1. Attorney General Maura Healey has released preliminary regulations and scheduled a series of hearings across the state to solicit public input. Regrettably, last ditch efforts […]