NJ Turns Away Non-Union Utility Workers from Alabama
By Gary DeMar
New York and New Jersey have been hardest hit by Hurricane Sandy. Some people might not get electricity for another week or more. There aren’t enough utility workers to make the repairs. Utility workers from other states are donating their services to help.
Alabama Power Co. and electric cooperatives in Alabama have sent more than 1,000 workers to help in states damaged by Sandy.
Alabama Power reports that it already has 441 personnel in Atlantic City, and it has 80 others headed to New Jersey, West Virginia and Maryland. In addition, it has released 372 contract workers to help other utilities in the Mid-Atlantic states.
The Alabama Rural Electric Association says 16 cooperatives have sent 141 crew members to help restore power in Virginia and Maryland.
Now there are several stories that say the utility workers from Alabama were turned away from New Jersey because they did not belong to a union.
This is not an isolated story. Reports are coming in from other places where utility workers from non-union right-to-work states are being told to “stand down†because they don’t have union credentials.
“The crews that are in Roanoke, Virginia say they are just watching and waiting even though they originally received a call asking for help from Seaside Heights, New Jersey.â€
Some crews have “already headed back home.â€
Electric repair work for public utilities in New Jersey is dominated by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, a unit of the politically powerful AFL-CIO.
I wonder if the people in New Jersey are aware of this story. I bet they don’t care anything about a utility worker being unionized. All they want is their electricity back on.
The legacy of unions reaches far and long. Historically they have been a great help to change our working environment. But their usefulness and purpose has gone from protecting works and workers’ rights to nothing more than a Political Action Committee and an obstacle of progress. They NEVER donate to anyone but the Democrats making them by default an extension of the Democratic Party.
Not Surprised! Even when handicapped people who live at home and depend on power, the unions are too self-righteous to allow those who they hate to help. Is it any wonder why people always have a bitter taste in their mouth over unions these days?
Go Onions!
True, However it’s not like their purpose and usefulness is gone, but they have made themselves irrelevant to their purpose.
Unbelievable! This will bite the unions, and hard.
I hope it does. This is really infuriating. I live in NJ, and would gladly welcome anyone’s help who is willing. For them to turn people away because of union membership is really insane.
The unions, sounds like Murdoch” my way or the highway.” another reason to get rid of them.
This story is untrue.
http://blog.al.com/breaking/2012/11/huntsville_utilities_denies_cl.html#incart_river_default
That’s funny. That same website has conflicting information:
http://blog.al.com/live/2012/11/because_alabama_utility_crews.html
Also found:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505245_162-57544608/ala-utility-crew-returns-home/
http://www.wsfa.com/story/19981857/decatur-utilities-crews-home-after-issues-with-union
And
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/11/non-union_utility_crew_from_al.html
According to this last article…it was not the utility company in NJ that turned them away, but the union brothers.
Onions, nice post.
I will second that compliment.
Perhaps you should have actually read the stories you posted. Not one supports the claim that workers were turned away for not being union. The story I posted is a update on the first story you list. The other stories are reports about conflicting information where representatives from the NJ utilities and the government deny the allegations. One of the stories you cite lists the reason for the turn away as confusion. But I guess you probably can’t be deterred by the facts. And Joe Biden and haveagoodun look quite stupid. They obviously didn’t bother to read them either.
Really?
http://lonelyconservative.com/2012/11/non-union-utility-workers-turned-away-in-new-jersey/
Try this site and get the truth. Why does everyone want to create more problems for these people?
http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/sandyunion.asp
Thank you.
Once again, read the article, review the press release and watch the video. The unions turned away no one.
Hoosiers are more anti-union than I can believe.
I was expecting them to say next that this was an Obama/democratic plot to ruin the east coast and raise prices on broadway theater tickets: another tax on the upper class tourists.
I don’t believe this story. And even if it’s true – it was the big dogs at the Utility level that “turned down” the non-unions workers..
This is a prudent safeguard of the public safety. If they are not union certified, how would you know whether or not they are competent? One of the many advantages of union labor, is the rigid certification process for such technical workers.
By the fact they have been doing the job for 20 years at a non-union utility. Unions are not the only training and certification groups in the country. They are probably not even the best.
“This is a prudent safeguard of the public safety. If they are not union certified, how would you know whether or not they are competent? One of the many advantages of union labor, is the rigid certification process for such technical workers.”
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BS…being “union” has nothing to do with passing a NEC/NFPA/ANSI certification test and becoming licensed, in fact many apprentices and journeyman/master electricians do not belong to a union nor is it a requirement of any state that a licensed electrician be a member of the IBEW. It is required if you want to work on those local/state/federal projects but we all know that has nothing to do with being accredited or working safe, it’s all about trading work for votes.
JMHO
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