Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Sandy: Long Island union sent written demand to Florida utilities: Pay dues or stay home
The Daily Caller ^ | November 3, 2012 | David Martosko

Posted on 11/04/2012 2:44:25 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife

In a two-page Oct. 29 contract, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) local 1049 demanded union dues, pay hikes and benefit contributions from Florida electric utilities before its workers would be permitted to help reconnect power to Long Island communities. The demand came as Hurricane Sandy was bearing down on the Northeastern United States, stranding tens of millions without electricity.

The “Letter of Assent,” which The Daily Caller obtained from the Florida Municipal Electric Association, demanded 11 separate financial commitments from municipal power companies and electrical cooperatives in the Sunshine State. The agreement, for any utility that decided to sign it, would have been in force from Oct. 29 to Nov. 29.

Barry Moline, the association’s executive director, told TheDC that by Nov. 1 the union, based in the central Long Island town of Hauppauge, had relented and stopped insisting that nonunion crews pay dues and other union fees.

“The union director” himself placed a phone call to withdraw the letter, Moline said during a telephone interview Saturday. But that came only after Moline had notified a national trade group, the American Public Power Association, which turned outrage into action.

Letter mid-page -- use "view in full screen" function

The Florida Municipal Electric Association is a statewide trade group that represents 34 separate utility companies. The letter, Moline said, was sent to Florida’s nonunion power companies.

“We had crews ready to go on Monday when the storm hit,” he told TheDC. ”We had dozens of line workers ready to go. There have been hundreds of line workers who have been told, ‘We don’t want you unless you’re part of the union.’ And as a result, people in New York and New Jersey are having the power turned on slower than everywhere else.”

“The word we were getting all week was that New York was short by hundreds of [electric] linemen,” he told TheDC. “Well, okay. We’ve got them. Florida is two days away, so you need a head start.”

Of those workers who were ready to drive north, he said, “probably about 25 stayed put” because of the Long Island IBEW local’s demands. “Another 35 were delayed by five days.”

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Friday that he wouldn’t permit discrimination against nonunion crews eager to help reconnect consumers who have gone without power for days. He threatened to invoke his office’s emergency powers if necessary.

But in New York, no government official has stepped in to ensure that utility crews from other states won’t have to show their union membership cards before going to work — even though their own employers are paying for them to repair power lines in the Empire State.

Eventually, Moline said, his state’s crews “went everywhere else” affected by Sandy, “but it was only in New York where the union had to give their blessing.”

“It just made me sick that you’ve got people who have no power,” he said, “and you hear about a lot of people dying.”

On Saturday TheDC requested comments from New York State Public Service Commissioner James Larocca and spokespersons for Gov. Andrew Cuomo, State Labor Commissioner Peter Rivera and New York City May0r Michael Bloomberg.

Only one of those persons responded and asked for a copy of the letter. He would not answer questions on the record about whether government agencies could have exercised — or did exercise — emergency powers to clear the way for nonunion power crews who wanted to assist.

N.Y. Energy Law 5-117 addresses the governor’s special powers “during [an] energy or fuel emergency,” but those powers are limited to fuel and energy allocation, stopping wasteful energy uses, and temporarily waiving environmental laws.

TheDC also emailed Don Daley Jr., IBEW local 1049′s business manager and financial secretary, for comment. Daley’s name appeared on the “Letter of Assent” emailed to the Florida utilities, as the person who would sign on the union’s behalf.

He did not respond to questions about whether his union is using a natural disaster to grow its membership and collect revenue.

Claims similar to Florida’s have come in from Alabama and Georgia since the superstorm hit, but this report marks the first time documentary evidence has been presented to the public.

The letter received by Florida utilities demanded that they pay IBEW member dues, provide workers with union-scale wages plus overtime, and allow crews to observe the “normal working hours” dictated by the IBEW’s contract.

It also required the companies to pay fixed percentages of every worker’s hourly wage into seven separate union-controlled funds, including a $9.75 per work-hour payment to the IBEW’s health care plan and 22.5 cents for every dollar of salary into its pension fund.

TheDC calculated that for a nonunion crew foreman normally earning $40 per hour in Florida, the mandated higher wages plus union contributions and dues would force a utility to pay $67.74 per hour for each worker completing power restoration tasks in New York.

For work performed on weekends or after 4:00 p.m. on weekdays, that overall rate would jump to $70.38.

On Saturday TheDC reported that a Florida utility crewman said his employer idled workers while a much longer union contract document went through legal review earlier in the week.

An IBEW spokesman told TheDC on Friday that ”the IBEW did not send the documents, nor did any of our locals.”

But he didn’t reply when asked if he had communicated with all 273 locals in the union districts where Sandy’s impact was felt. Those include 20 IBEW locals in New Jersey, 48 in New York, 10 in Connecticut and 52 in Pennsylvania.

It’s now clear that at least one of those 48 New York locals — no. 1049 on long Island — did make membership demands as a condition of Florida utilities coming north to help restore electricity.

The name of the letter’s electronic file was “letter of assent E No Car GENERIC,” suggesting that it may have been drafted first for North Carolina utilities. So far, no utilities from that state have come forward to say they were approached by IBEW local 1049.

Moline said some power utilities in Florida are unionized and others are not. That decision should be approached thoughtfully and deliberately, he explained. “We’re not going to be held hostage.”

“I’m not anti-union,” he insisted. “I think unions are fine. I was just surprised to find that in the middle of an emergency that the union would stand in the way.”

“I didn’t know how the Long Island Power Authority was putting up with it,” he said. “The union was saying, ‘No, you have to join us first.’”

“I thought, ‘Is this really happening?’”


TOPICS: Government; Politics; Society
KEYWORDS: bloomberg; dncrico; nyc; obama4unions; obamaspeople; rico; sandy; union; unioncorruption; unionsvsamerica; unionsvsamericans; unionterrorists
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-79 next last
To: Cincinatus' Wife

Unions are terrorist organizations at laws need to be passed making it a felony to be a member of one.


21 posted on 11/04/2012 3:30:24 AM PST by Above My Pay Grade
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: shibumi

wow


22 posted on 11/04/2012 3:30:48 AM PST by GeronL (http://asspos.blogspot.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Cincinatus' Wife; All
it's this profiteering (evil capitalism :) corporations @ work?
no..just Unionists (thuggery) @ work; as a remedy for this...
blackball the locals' union leadership for life..public disassociation(restricted no/any gov't. Contracts)
hand them a menial labor/national minimum wage/$7.25 hr. waiting @ Lowes/Home Depot.

23 posted on 11/04/2012 3:31:12 AM PST by skinkinthegrass (Anger a Conservative by telling a lie; Anger a Liberal by telling the truth. - RWR 8-)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Donnafrflorida

No ones going to hear about it until the powers restored. By then it’ll be out of sight out of mind. They’ll be a little crying but it will be quickly squandered .


24 posted on 11/04/2012 3:33:07 AM PST by Morris70
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: Donnafrflorida

I think it will for a lot of those who hear about it


25 posted on 11/04/2012 3:33:43 AM PST by GeronL (http://asspos.blogspot.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: Cincinatus' Wife

Bookmark


26 posted on 11/04/2012 3:35:08 AM PST by DocRock (All they that TAKE the sword shall perish with the sword. Matthew 26:52 Gun grabbers beware.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cincinatus' Wife

The Northeast may be in for another shocker, homeowner insurance increases and in some areas none could be available. I went through hurricanes Francis,Jean(2004) and Wilma(2005) here in SE FL. My homeowners jumped from about $850 per year to $4450 per year. Then you’ll have the power companies asking for increases for all the repairs needed. When the lights go back on, it’s not over.


27 posted on 11/04/2012 3:39:55 AM PST by midway1 (Inside every liberal is an American trying to get out)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cincinatus' Wife

Long Island power’s outage map is no longer functioning it seems. Late last week it showed 510,000 people without power.

http://www.lipower.org/stormcenter/outagemap.html


28 posted on 11/04/2012 3:41:08 AM PST by listenhillary (Courts, law enforcement, roads and national defense should be the extent of government)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Popman

They find it “Better to reign in Hell than to serve in Heaven”. However, This makes it worse for those who have to live there.


29 posted on 11/04/2012 3:44:17 AM PST by jmcenanly ("The more corrupt the state, the more laws." Tacitus, Publius Cornelius)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Safrguns

I doubt any right to work states complied.


30 posted on 11/04/2012 3:44:52 AM PST by EmilyGeiger
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Above My Pay Grade

laws need to be passed making it a felony to be a member of one.

Before thhat there needs to be more widespread “right to work” laws in order to break the union strangleholds. Otherwise in certain crafts workers have no choice but to join the union.

Note that in right to work states, there are companies that are non union shops that pay much pay much better than their union shop counterparts.


31 posted on 11/04/2012 3:45:34 AM PST by Fred Hayek (The Democratic Party is the operational wing of CPUSA.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: cicero2k
I heard that Christie has intervened on home owners insurance contracts, between home owners and insurance companies.

Just wait and hear the moaning and bitching when the insurance companies start dropping people coverage or their premiums triple in cost..

Welcome to the Florida nightmare every time we get hit...

32 posted on 11/04/2012 3:47:23 AM PST by Popman (November 7th...will be a good day for America..)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Cincinatus' Wife

Bump


33 posted on 11/04/2012 3:54:25 AM PST by lowbridge (Joe Biden: "Look, the Taliban per se is not our enemy.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cincinatus' Wife

Although ‘born’ in 1939 and - I guess STOOPID - compared to todays youngsters because in 1948 I was wondering about Bob Feller and the Cleveland Indians and all the Brooklyn Dodgers who just came back from being ‘away’ - we as 9 year olds would never have thought of going to a rally held by Mrs Truman and telling her that good thing Dewey wasn’t elected because (fill in the blanks) even though the parents sitting around may have been parroting such sentiments etc etc etc....

Now I do remember ‘they’ taught us HISTORY in school and between ‘fact’ and ‘fiction’ do recall an incident regarding HST and the Railway Unions.

Seems like they had a dispute and were going to either stop the railroads or go on strike when ‘Give ‘em Hell, Harry’ offered them a ‘deal’ a union goon couldn’t have thought up any better.

It basically went.

Go back to work, enjoying the ‘important’ status of keeping the trains on schedule (Mussolini??) as Union Workers who may be disgruntled OR (DOOR #2) I will draft you into the Army and you can run trains as Privates.

That seemed to have worked and FF to a certain ‘movie actor’ in 1980 that gave the Air Traffic controllers the same ultimatum WITHOUT the option of being a Private in the Army.

Think.....Shall I check under the hood sir? OR
Do you want fries with that.

Of course they were leaders and didn’t spend every waking moment OPENLY campaigning for the next office....


34 posted on 11/04/2012 4:02:11 AM PST by xrmusn (6/98 BO/ 'Hope', "Hope in one hand and $hiite in the other and see which fills up first".)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cincinatus' Wife

This ought to go over like a lead balloon among the many thousands that are still without power.

Union = Mafia!


35 posted on 11/04/2012 4:07:01 AM PST by meyer (Proud member of the 53%.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: midway1

“The Northeast may be in for another shocker, homeowner insurance increases and in some areas none could be available. I went through hurricanes Francis,Jean(2004) and Wilma(2005) here in SE FL. My homeowners jumped from about $850 per year to $4450 per year.”

Actually, they did increase the homeowners insurance in New England 3 years ago with the justification that the area was overdue for a hurricane. I am quite sure the insurance companies will bank on everyone forgetting that increase, plus last years increase, most likely due to Irene, and just increase it again.


36 posted on 11/04/2012 4:23:15 AM PST by castlegreyskull
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: Cincinatus' Wife

Let them freeze, maybe they will learn


37 posted on 11/04/2012 4:27:21 AM PST by ARGLOCKGUY
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Morris70

Why are you wishing more misery on Staten Island? They vote republican and have been completely ignored because of that. The story involves LONG ISLAND where most are lefties. Sheeeesh.


38 posted on 11/04/2012 4:27:29 AM PST by VP82254
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Cincinatus' Wife

I remember hearing a PA school official lament about a gym room, in a school, that was full of mold and making kids sick. I offered to get some parents together to pain the room, and he said- no thanks. The Union would have a fit. The rule is that IF the union CAN do it, that no one can volunteer to do it. It takes money out of their pocket- and they pitch a fit.

And I thought that was horrible.

NJ Unions are insane with greed, it appears.


39 posted on 11/04/2012 4:31:57 AM PST by Truth2012
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cincinatus' Wife

I’m sure the obama administration will put a stop to this.


40 posted on 11/04/2012 4:33:33 AM PST by gotribe (He's a mack-daddy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AV415yit7Zg)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-79 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson