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Mystic power plant workers strike, raise safety concerns

The Mystic power plant, viewed from Charlestown.Sarah Brezinsky

Dozens of workers at Mystic Generating Station, the state’s largest power plant, went on strike early Saturday morning at the Charlestown facility, according officials from the utility workers union.

In a news release, union representatives said Exelon, the plant’s Chicago-based owner, has sought "to lower standards for workers in ways that they believe would jeopardize the retention of highly-skilled frontline employees who are vital to the safe operation of the 2,001 megawatt fossil power plant,”

The strike officially began around 4 a.m. on Saturday.

The specific terms that the striking workers were seeking were not immediately clear. Exelon officials did not respond to requests for comment Saturday evening.

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“Running this vital plant is dangerous work which requires technical know-how,” president of the Utility Workers Union of America, Local 369, Craig Pinkham said in the statement. “You need someone sitting at the control panel who knows what they’re doing . . . It is reckless for Exelon not to recognize this, or it would seem, not to care.”

Representative Joe Kennedy III will join the workers and union leaders at a press conference, scheduled at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday in front of the plant’s entrance on Alfred Street, officials said.

The strike comes during an uncertain time for the plant, which may face closure in the next few years. Several of the region’s utility companies have submitted plans to replace Exelon as Greater Boston’s main electricity supplier since December.