Months-long lockout of gas workers could be nearing end

BOSTON (AP) - The six-month-old lockout of hundreds of natural gas workers for National Grid could soon be over.

Unions representing the workers expect ratification votes on a tentative agreement with the utility to be completed by Monday.

The agreement was announced by both sides last week though details have not been publicly released.

The lockout which has dragged on since the summer has prompted safety concerns. A number of state officials have pressed National Grid to allow the approximately 1,200 workers to return to their jobs, which including maintaining national gas infrastructure in the company’s eastern Massachusetts service area.

The Department of Public Utilities ordered a halt on nonemergency natural gas work performed by National Grid in October after a pressurization mishap that interrupted service to hundreds of homes in Woburn.