Ray Hardin, general manager of Decatur Utilities, said a six-member crew left Wednesday for Seaside Heights, N.J. It got as far as a staging are in Roanoke, Va., where it waited for clarification of documents from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. He said the documents implied the non-union workers had to agree to union affiliation while working in New York and New Jersey.
"It was and remains our understanding that agreeing to those requirements was a condition of being allowed to work in those areas," he said Friday.
While waiting for clarification, Decatur Utilities learned Seaside Heights had received the assistance it needed. Decatur Utilities attempted to contact other areas that needed assistance, but decided Thursday to bring its crew home based on the uncertainty of union requirements, Hardin said.
IBEW spokesman Jim Spellane said he did not know what papers the crew was given, but "there appears to have been a misunderstanding."
. . .
Decatur Utilities later issued a statement on Friday that said: "To be clear, at no time were our crews 'turned away' from the utility in Seaside Heights."
In other words, it’s true. Sure, they didn’t “turn them away” (I love the Clintonian parsing of words). By the time the linemen figured out what the IBEW regs were that they would have to abide by, the town they were heading to was fixed, and they didn’t want to fight the powers that be for another site (with the same regs). Sure, it was a “misunderstanding”... just like Benghazi was over a YouTube video...
Note that no one is disputing that they were given the IBEW regs. Just that it was a “misunderstanding”...