Is Union Busting to Blame for Power Outages in D.C.?

[Teamster Jeff]

As D.C. residents face record heat waves, many are upset and attribute the lack of power to incompetence on Pepco's end. However, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 1900 members claim the failure to restore power outages is due to chronic understaffing and Pepco’s shift from hiring union utility workers to non-union temporary contractors.

Pepco stopped hiring workers to replace retiring electrical workers and offered incentive-laden buyout deals to get electricians to retire. In order to address understaffing problems, Pepco has at times hired non-union temporary contractors, instead of hiring new workers. Pepco currently employs 1,150 union workers and approximately 400 non-union contractors. The understaffing has led to problems that the IBEW warned about years ago.


http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/07/07-2

[riverbendviewgal]

1. The states are way behind other countries

By Not having underground lines they are always losing power in storms.

[Gregorian]

4. Transmission lines are overhead for an important reason. Losses.

Even being hung far above the ground there are significant capacitive losses to ground.

Unless I'm wrong, there are no underground transmission lines.

But you may be right when it comes to some countries allowing higher voltage lines to be below ground.

[Progressive dog]

5. under ground transmission is not cheap

[link:http://renewcanada.net/2010/underground-power/|

[jerseyjack]

6. Two points. I live in a condo development with underground wiring.

We lose power a minimum of 1 x per month. It lasts anywhere from a couple of minutes to several hours.

Secondly, check google, carriage horse electrocuted in N.Y.C. While this is rare, or even a one off, there are episodes of people and animals being shocked from underground wiring gone bad.

[trof]

9. Our neighborhood has underground utilities. Outages are rare.

We've had hellacious thunderstorms all spring and summer.
Barely a blink here, when other parts of the town have been without power for hours, mainly due to downed trees on power lines and transformers.

After Hurricane Ivan we were the first area to get power back.
The rest of the town was still replacing downed power poles and stringing wire.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

2. The greed of those operating these companies is amazing.

Notwithinstanding profits of nearly $822 million in recent years, Pepco wants to make even more. They've destroyed normal working relationships, cut back on personnel, and rely upon non-union outside contractors (i.e., scabs, including scabs from low-wage states) for repairs which exceed the work that can be performed by their remaining union personnel.

For Pepco, no amount of profits can ever be enough. Their philosophy is to lower wages by killing the union. Because the non-union workers can be hired and fired at will and sent back to the states where they came from, and because of Pepco's anti-worker attitude, low-paid non-union workers who are hired on a temporary basis have no-long term committment to the company. When the schlock mercenaries do schlocky work, it is Pepco's own fault.

[patrice]

3. Authentic merit/expertise has no value in the U.S. It's all about who you know. Is it any wonder our

quality of life is declining when compared to other countries?

[LiberalEsto]

7. Absolutely

I didn't know about the union-busting, but I'm not surprised that it's been going on.

Ever since deregulation, utilities have cut staff and reduced services in order to maximize profits. Customer service is a thing of the past.

A large part of the delay in restoring power, both this past week and in other major outages, has been the need to wait for repair workers from other utilities to drive here, rest, and get to work. It can take several days, especially when emergency workers come from as far away as Canada, as happened last week. I read that the Canadians were stopped at the border by the Transportation Security Administration, causing a four-hour delay there.

The utilities rely on "reciprocal agreements" with other utilities to cover up the shortage of skilled workers on their own payrolls.

[RC]

10. I can imagine the TSA were all wild eyed and suspicious at all the strange special purpose tools

they had with them.

[Fuddnik]

8. D-E-R-E-G-U-L-A-T-I-O-N!!!!

They used to be required by law to keep enough crews to handle severe weather and emergencies. Now they bring in crews from around the country, where there are no emergencies.

[LiberalEsto]

11. BTW thanks for posting! I forwarded this link

and excerpts from the article to two members of the Montgomery County Council and a Maryland state delegate.

[SCVDem]

12. I am IBEW!

To even think we would endanger lives by messing with the power system is just over the top!

Fuck you to anyone who would think my brothers and sisters would do this.




Solidarity!

[obxhead]

13. Utilities and energy sources should not be controled by for profit businesses. Period.

It's time to nationalize our utilities before it's too late to repair our dilapidated grid.

On another note I heard on the radio that PEPCO will be called before congress over the power outages after this storm. I guess the pubs want to pat them on their backs for a job poorly done.

[glowing]

14. In my neighborhood, the lines are underground.

I believe when they made the housing development FL fresh, the lines were placed in the ground... However, we do get electricity from above ground transmission lines into the neighborhood grid.... So if one of the source towers is damaged, then the power obviously will go out.. Out cable lines are also in ground... If all of the lines were in ground, we would have less problems with outage during hurricanes and strong storms.

But, with electricty being provided by private companies, they don't invest back into, only suck money out. It's made for a mess and has us now pre-paying for nuclear power plants that will probably never be built. If utilities were in the public domain, our power grid could be updated, we could cone up with better technology applied to the system, like, putting solar "shingles" on top of the rooves in southern states to power the grid.

Private companies controlling and buying legislation while providing crappy service at high rates is a racket... There is no competition. I can't "hire" a new electric company... There is only 1 service I can buy or go without. Also, if these services were public, the govt could make rate plans based upon means to pay for services... If one lost their job or were of poor means, the govt could provide the service at a deep discount. And if the govt were providing these services, the overhead costs would be for employees and maintenance, not CEO perks and stock market profits.