Hurricane Sandy Relief volunteers from Alabama told to join Union

[AnchorAlum]

Utility workers from Florida today produced paperwork from the IBEW locals showing that they DID have to join to work in the area. Effective dates would have been from October 29th through November 29th.

[thetalady]

Originally Posted by AnchorAlum

Utility workers from Florida today produced paperwork from the IBEW locals showing that they DID have to join to work in the area. Effective dates would have been from October 29th through November 29th.

GOOD. Glad to show how volunteer help is being treated in a time when they need help so desperately. This is the kind of crap that makes people distrust unions, and with good reason. For all the good they can do, they lose sight of what is right.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by AnchorAlum

Utility workers from Florida today produced paperwork from the IBEW locals showing that they DID have to join to work in the area. Effective dates would have been from October 29th through November 29th.

I see you can pick and choose quotes, but the article also says

"Late Friday at a press conference, Hardin said the documents actually came from Electric Cities of Alabama, a coalition of the state's municipally owned utilities.

Bottom line, it appears now that Decatur Utilities wrongly assumed they would have to agree to the union contract before traveling to New Jersey to help with recovery efforts. The IBEW said in times of crisis, help is welcomed from union and non-union utility workers."

The whole thing sounds like a lot of confusion on both sides. When I parse the whole thing, I think this is what happened: the municipal utility company told the volunteer crew that they needed union clearance, and the union said that they actually don't.

I don't think it's that hard to imagine that, in a time of unprecedented disaster like this, there is a lot of confusion, and you shouldn't attribute to malice what can be attributed to stupidity. It's not easy to manage huge numbers of work crews...just like Red Cross doesn't want donations of supplies.