update on Long Beach, New York

[jordanjacob]

please read this through Jeremy

http://www.newsday.com/long-island/fla-utility-union-delayed-crews-for-lipa-1.4205898?qr=1


Fla. utility: Union delayed crews for LIPA
Originally published: November 9, 2012 2:08 PM
Updated: November 9, 2012 10:39 PM
By MARK HARRINGTON  mark.harrington@newsday.com

As superstorm Sandy pounded Long Island last week, representatives for the Long Island Power Authority began making mayday calls to repair crews across the nation. But their requests for help came with a footnote, according to one utility group that received a call: Contact the local electrical union first so that imported workers could be signed up as members before they arrived.

With repair work still going on 12 days later and more than 160,000 Long Islanders still without power after Sandy and this week's nor'easter, the contention that LIPA's union leaders required so-called "assent letters" sent to would-be workers early in the restoration has become an issue as ratepayers look for answers about why it's taking so long to get power back.

Barry Moline, executive director of the Florida Municipal Electric Association, said Long Island could have received 125 additional workers from utilities across Florida as soon as two days after the storm if a dispute about the letters had been resolved sooner. He said most of the crews from Florida who were available were nonunion and refused to join Local 1049 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, even if only temporarily. IBEW Local 1049 represents some 2,000 National Grid workers contracted by LIPA.

"To have this contract thrust upon these organizations on short notice is an affront . . ." Moline said. "We said [to IBEW local], 'Why are you doing this?' They said, 'We want them [imported workers] to get a taste of the union so that when they go back home, they want the union.' "

Crews that could have come to Long Island went instead to Pennsylvania, Moline said. "We could have been there on Wednesday, and instead we arrived on Sunday," he said, after the union rescinded the requirement.

LIPA referred questions about the issue to National Grid, the company contracted by LIPA to oversee operations. "Assent letters were not required and that is not National Grid policy," spokeswoman Wendy Ladd said.

The dispute was settled the weekend after the storm hit following intervention by the American Public Power Association, which represents 2,000 municipal utilities across the nation. Nicholas Braden, a spokesman for the association, said although it took several days to resolve, he did not believe it delayed workers from arriving to the region.

Braden said the issue in dispute was that nonunion crews would "have had to pay union dues and stuff . . . It kind of stopped things in their tracks until they could work out the issue."

Braden said it was resolved by elimination of the requirement that they join the union. Crews from several Southern states had issues with the contract, Braden said, including workers from Georgia, Florida and Alabama.

Don Daley, business manager for Local 1049 of the IBEW, said no worker was turned away for refusing to sign the assent letters. "We're all about getting the lights on . . . 1049 has not obstructed anyone from coming."

He said that the money paid into pension and health funds would benefit the workers, not the fund. "That's their money," Daley said. "I think they just make a request to take their money out, and whatever tax laws there are, they get their money."

The assent letter -- if signed -- made out-of-state workers temporary members of the union, who receive Long Island's prevailing wage, regardless of what they received at their home utility. Included in the contract that temporary union members sign, according to a copy of it provided to Newsday: contribution of 22.5 percent of each employee's gross salary to the IBEW annuity fund; payments of $9.75 an hour to the union's health and welfare fund; 3 percent of their gross salary to the union's "craft division skill improvement fund"; 3 percent of each worker's gross salary to the union's National Electrical Benefit Fund; and lesser amounts to other funds.

[Jeremy]

Don't worry JJ,  I trust but verify.  Nothing surprises me about the greed some people have while others are suffering.

The main story that kept popping up in the search results was about a group from Alabama that was only 7 people. 

[jordanjacob]

Don't worry JJ,  I trust but verify.  Nothing surprises me about the greed some people have while others are suffering.

The main story that kept popping up in the search results was about a group from Alabama that was only 7 people.

Jeremy,

I wouldn't wish living in this town since this storm on my worst enemy.

It was a truly great place to live and now we have lots of issues. I only hope we can get past them sooner rather than later.

[Dolfan]

They're draggin' their asses because they just don't care.  What's gonna happen?  Idiots keep re-electing these scammers, the states, counties & cities have nothing to pay off lawsuits.

Newsday: contribution of 22.5 percent of each employee's gross salary to the IBEW annuity fund; payments of $9.75 an hour to the union's health and welfare fund; 3 percent of their gross salary to the union's "craft division skill improvement fund"; 3 percent of each worker's gross salary to the union's National Electrical Benefit Fund; and lesser amounts to other funds.

That article represents the final insult: screw the people as long as we can get what we want!

I am sitting here just so pissed for people like you JJ, knowing full well that it could certainly be me & probably will be some time soon.  It will be in the heat of the South Florida summer, everything around here will smell from rot & those sumptuous meals that they're dropping will be picked up by racoons & lessor looking creatures, carrying diseases worse than rabies.  And there are plenty in the Everglades just a mile or two away.

I grew up in Rockaway Beach & have many old friends there & can guarantee you that they are all suffering big time from this storm.  I remember, when I was a kid, being told how the "beach met the bay" during Hurricane whatever, probably in the 1950's or 1940's.

This is the third event in just the last 11 years that we never thought we'd see in the U.S.: 9/11, Katrina & now this.  We are no better than a third world country.  And it seems we are not learning a thing.

[jordanjacob]

Dolfan,

I just drove through the Rockaway's to drop my son off at hockey in Brooklyn and the conditions there are worse than deplorable. Still no electric but finally a police presence on every block after serious looting.

I will always give credit where it's due and I thank the Long Island Power Authority for all they have done in the past to help make this disaster what it is. Weeks later and still no power for many poorer citizens of our country.

Gino's Pizza in Long Beach tonight, free pizza. Lots of businesses stepped up.

If anyone wants a fox hole meal, I'll gladly mail you one. Now you too can enjoy what we have had to. I can't explain it but my son loves them.

[AmyHollar]

This should not be happening in the United States. 

[Just Saying]

My brother inlaw spent alot of time in Louisiana after Katrina, trying to get some help to those folks. He's a union electrician on the communications side, and he felt so sorry for what they were going through. He had to leave his wife & kid for weeks on end, but volunteered anyway. I'm very proud of him.

Some of the pics he posted of the damage were unbelievable. There was stacks of fishing boats and pleasure boats many miles from the gulf. They had to have GPS co-ordinates to even know where to set the poles because everything was gone... couldn't even tell where streets used to be.

[Dolfan]

I just drove through the Rockaway's to drop my son off at hockey in Brooklyn and the conditions there are worse than deplorable. Still no electric but finally a police presence on every block after serious looting.

Gino's Pizza in Long Beach tonight, free pizza. Lots of businesses stepped up.

I knew the Rockaways had to be a mess.  Like Long Beach there's just no place to hide when the tide comes across Shore Front Pwy.

Just for the hell of it, is Ginos & Zomicks on 20th St in Far Rockaway still there?  What about Wavecrest Bakery?  I still have bad dreams about that area.

[jordanjacob]

I knew the Rockaways had to be a mess.  Like Long Beach there's just no place to hide when the tide comes across Shore Front Pwy.

Just for the hell of it, is Ginos & Zomicks on 20th St in Far Rockaway still there?  What about Wavecrest Bakery?  I still have bad dreams about that area.

sorry bud, I can't tell you, I can't go off my route and go through there, in my opinion the area is unsafe without electricity and there was lots of looting

[Dolfan]

The area was unsafe WITH electricity!   

[Just Saying]

I remember in the aftermath of 9/11 they had a memorial ceremony for fallen firefighters, and several were on the dais in dress uniforms. They were warned not to say anything inflammatory that might spark more attacks. One of the firemen with an ethnic Italian name stepped to the microphone and said, "Hey al Qaeda, my name is ***, I live in Rockaway, and you can kiss my ass!" I LOVED IT!
 

Hope things get better for you asap, JJ.

[Dolfan]

One of the firemen with an ethnic Italian name stepped to the microphone and said, "Hey al Qaeda, my name is ***, I live in Rockaway, and you can kiss my ass!" I LOVED IT!

Yeah, I loved it too.  And I believe he even went as far to say "come get me".

Then 2 months later that commercial jet crashed into that same area in Belle Harbor, killing 5 on the ground & all 260 passengers.  Al Qaeda claimed responsibility but that was ruled out by NTSB.
 

[jordanjacob]

it's a mess here and I'm confident we're not getting anywhere soon

I don't see any trash pickup and blocks are inundated, mine especially

can't fix homes until inspected by insurance companies (I'm still awaiting multiple inspections) and even then don't know if we can repair as contractors are hard to find and may need further inspection from FEMA to see if qualify for further financial assistance if (when) insurance doesn't come close to paying for work to repair

received a bill for $20,000 for landscaping as lawn had once in a lifetime striped bass and blues fishing right off the porch and salt water ruins anything green

looks like I will save lots of money on watering and gardening next year

I re-sodded this spring and will not do it 2 years in a row

if anyone needs a place for their kids to play football, my former lawn is excellent for it

 

[Just Saying]

You're gonna be just fine JJ. I just saw on the news that (17 days after Sandy hit) Obambi showed up to say he was gonna stay until everything was fixed. He hugged a few people and left.

[jordanjacob]

You're gonna be just fine JJ. I just saw on the news that (17 days after Sandy hit) Obambi showed up to say he was gonna stay until everything was fixed. He hugged a few people and left.

you are much more optimistic than I am