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 associations 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 Floridas 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 dont want you unless youre 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. Weve 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 locals demands. Another 35 were delayed by five days.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Friday that he wouldnt permit discrimination against nonunion crews eager to help reconnect consumers who have gone without power for days. He threatened to invoke his offices emergency powers if necessary.
But in New York, no government official has stepped in to ensure that utility crews from other states wont 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 states 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 youve 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 governors 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. Daleys name appeared on the Letter of Assent emailed to the Florida utilities, as the person who would sign on the unions 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 Floridas 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 IBEWs contract.
It also required the companies to pay fixed percentages of every workers hourly wage into seven separate union-controlled funds, including a $9.75 per work-hour payment to the IBEWs 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 didnt reply when asked if he had communicated with all 273 locals in the union districts where Sandys impact was felt. Those include 20 IBEW locals in New Jersey, 48 in New York, 10 in Connecticut and 52 in Pennsylvania.
Its 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 letters 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. Were not going to be held hostage.
Im 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 didnt 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?
Unions are terrorist organizations at laws need to be passed making it a felony to be a member of one.
wow
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 .
I think it will for a lot of those who hear about it
Bookmark
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.
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
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.
I doubt any right to work states complied.
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.
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...
Bump
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....
This ought to go over like a lead balloon among the many thousands that are still without power.
Union = Mafia!
“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.
Let them freeze, maybe they will learn
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.
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.
I’m sure the obama administration will put a stop to this.
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