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View Full Version : Nonunion Ala. crews turned away from Sandy recovery



Trinnity
11-02-2012, 09:42 AM
The hurricane-ravaged east coast has been receiving north Alabama help, but crews learned they'll be doing work in Long Island, New York instead of in New Jersey.


http://waff.images.worldnow.com/images/1856833_G.jpg (http://www.waff.com/slideshow?widgetid=66429)
Utility crews volunteered with Sandy recovery. See photos (http://www.waff.com/slideshow?widgetid=66429).



Crews from Decatur Utilities headed up there this week, but Derrick Moore, one of the Decatur workers, said they were told by crews in New Jersey that they can't do any work there since they're not union employees.

http://www.waff.com/story/19981857/some-nonunion-ala-crews-turned-away-from-sandy-recovery


WOW, just wow. Chris Christie needs to step up on this problem.

Cigar
11-02-2012, 09:44 AM
Did you Donate ... yet?

Larry Dickman
11-02-2012, 09:45 AM
It appears Christie has his head too far up OhBam's shit tunnel to see this particular problem. Prove me wrong, Governor!

Calypso Jones
11-02-2012, 09:45 AM
NJ didn't get the memo where the president said 'we ah gonnah eliminate the extrah papuh werk to get these things done'. uh. huh.

Watch what he does, not what he sez.

Calypso Jones
11-02-2012, 09:48 AM
Staten island denied generators so they can be put to use for ........THEE MARATHON.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/this_is_no_way_to_get_us_up_running_egrMk4ukpzFCGh SF8oM5kN

NY and Bloomy have their priorities straight. I didn't say their priorities are RIGHT, I just said they have their priorities.

Calypso Jones
11-02-2012, 10:10 AM
All those tables with water on them for the runners. Maybe the people hardest hit in NYC can put on running clothes and go on down to the 'footrace' and quench their thirst.

Larry Dickman
11-02-2012, 10:21 AM
All those tables with water on them for the runners. Maybe the people hardest hit in NYC can put on running clothes and go on down to the 'footrace' and quench their thirst.

This is VILE!!!! What the fuck have we come to? This is plainly obscene and if people continue to back the kind of politicians who would choose to go through with a FUCKING MARATHON while people do not even have food or water where the race will ensue, then I have lost all hope that common decency can even reside in the hearts of men.

In better times, the citizens of NY would swarm the mayor's office and hang him by his ankles and allow the children to use him as a progressive pinata.

This is what the "fundamental transformation" of America looks like at its very core.

Calypso Jones
11-02-2012, 10:22 AM
I wonder if the cheering crowds are gonna show up for the 'footrace'? I guess they can postpone going thru the rubble that WAS THEIR HOMES, shovel a little dirt on the dead. They'll keep for a few hours.

Bring a couple teddy bears to throw near the runners' water tables for the two dead toddlers torn from the arms of their mother. let's be classy.

Calypso Jones
11-02-2012, 10:27 AM
Hey. new Yorkers have been conditioned to mind the state. THey allow bloomy to make their food choices. They allowed bloomy to line them up on the bridge to go into New York but only by threes. Here's a good idea. Get in busses or in the cars of strangers to make up the magic number 3. Let's put state workers on the bridge checking cars to make sure there ARE three passengers. They won't be missed from other work such as cleanup, searching for bodies, passing out water, food, supplies, etc.

bunch of stupid 3rd world bunnies.

who would have thought new yorkers would have been so acquiescent. If you can break it there you can break it....anywhere.

patrickt
11-02-2012, 11:02 AM
Did you Donate ... yet?

That's the best response Mr. We're-Counting-on-the-Unions can come up with. How pitiful, Cigar? Now, put on your manly face and jump in. Unions screw residents for union priorities. It's an easy concept. Union first, liberals second, and there is no third.

It is harder to deliver services when the residents are out looting and no one is home.

Calypso Jones
11-02-2012, 11:03 AM
http://gothamist.com/2012/11/02/marathon_runner_starts_protest_grou.php

look at this. Apparently there ARE some people in NY that recognize the vile idiocy of the Bloomberg/Obama administrations. They are protesting the continuation of the race. They've pulled out and have decided to help those in Staten Island devastated by this storm.

well. what can i say.

waltky
11-02-2012, 08:06 PM
Non-union rumors not true...
:cool2:
Alabama utilities deny anti-union 'rumor'
Nov. 2 (UPI) -- Three Alabama utility companies Friday denied reports their crews weren't permitted to help restore power in New Jersey because the workers were non-union.


Several conservative media organizations -- including Fox News and the Drudge Report -- picked up a story from an Alabama TV station that crews from Huntsville Utilities and Joe Wheeler Electrical Membership Corp. weren't allowed to help with electrical service restoration in New Jersey because they don't belong to a union. A third Alabama utility, Decatur Utilities, said its employees were asked to affiliate with a union before starting to work on the power restoration in the aftermath of superstorm Sandy, AL.com reported.

Huntsville Utilities spokes Bill Yell said nine of his company's employees were working in New Jersey. "That's a rumor," he said of the report that workers who traveled to New Jersey to help out were being turned away. Joe Wheeler EMC said on its website reports that its workers were turned away from Hurricane Sandy relief efforts "are not true." "Joe Wheeler EMC was never commissioned to go to New Jersey or New York," the company said. "Instead, JWEMC sent eight linemen to Denton, Maryland, to help out Choptank Electric Cooperative."

The statement said JWEMC crews were returning to Alabama from Maryland. "Joe Wheeler EMC employees are members of The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers - Local 558 union," the company said. "Any reports that claim JWEMC is not unionized are false." Yell and JWEMC spokeswoman Mandi Phillips told AL.com they have been swamped with media inquiries following reports of the matter on cable channels, including Fox News and CNN, as well as in several New Jersey newspapers.

Yell noted that in cases where crews are sent to other states to help in emergencies, "it's not a situation where everybody jumps in truck and heads up there. You have to work through trade associations. You have mutual-aid agreements and you've got to find a system that needs you and is able to take you." He said not all electric systems use the same voltage and technical configurations.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2012/11/02/Alabama-utilities-deny-anti-union-rumor/UPI-87531351887473/#ixzz2B7KlAvo5

See also:

New Jersey struggles with gas supply
Nov. 2 (UPI) -- New Jersey residents are grappling with gasoline shortages in the aftermath of hurricane Sandy.


U.S. Sens. Frank R. Lautenberg , D-N.J., and Robert Menendez, D-N.J., on Thursday called for U.S. President Barack Obama to release emergency fuel supplies to the state. "We are dealing with a crisis on the ground with rescue and recovery where millions are without power and without basic necessities. Furthermore, our constituents are sitting in lines up to a mile long waiting to fuel their vehicles, tying up local resources that are managing traffic conditions in these areas," the senators wrote in a letter to Obama. "Additional resources" are needed to transport fuel to gasoline stations that have electrical power, the senators said.

As of Thursday, more than 1.7 million customers in New Jersey remained without power, down from more than 2.7 million at the peak of outages, The Star-Ledger newspaper in Newark, N.J., reports. Without electricity, the gasoline can't be pumped. "This is not a supply problem. This is a delivery problem," Sal Risalvato, executive director of the New Jersey Gasoline, Convenience Store and Automotive Association was quoted as saying by the newspaper. "There is plenty of supply. We just can't get it from those big tanks you see along the (New Jersey) Turnpike through the channels that put it in customers' cars."

About 75 percent of the stations of the approximately 1,000 gas retailers the association represents were closed Thursday either because they had no gasoline or no power or neither of the two. "The quick and dirty is that in the Northeast, about 24 percent of the refining capacity that was in the line of the storm is out," Addison Armstrong of Tradition Energy told CNBC. "That's really just two refineries, the Bayway refinery in New Jersey and another smaller refinery there." Charlie Drevna, head of the American Fuel and Petrochemicals Manufacturers Association, said the service stations are the microcosm of the problems that refiners have of delivering the fuel. "You have service stations that have full tanks and no power, and you have service stations that had fuel and they are running out rapidly," he told Platts news service. "It's just going to take time to get all this sorted out. The problem is power and flooding, whether it's at the refinery or at the terminal or anywhere along the route."

Andrew Lipow, president of the consulting firm Lipow Oil Associates in Houston said that energy operations in the Linden and Bayway area are responsible for about three-quarters of the fuel consumed in the New York metropolitan area. "There's really no amount of catch up that the system can do with all of the Jersey terminals shut down," he told CNBC. "My estimate is it will be seven to 10 days," before the situation normalizes. "It's going to be tough. Stay home. Conserve your gas," Lipow advised.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy-Resources/2012/11/02/New-Jersey-struggles-with-gas-supply/UPI-69231351881987/#ixzz2B7N0MTvW

Calypso Jones
11-02-2012, 08:11 PM
"Yell noted that in cases where crews are sent to other states to help in emergencies, "it's not a situation where everybody jumps in truck and heads up there. You have to work through trade associations. You have mutual-aid agreements and you've got to find a system that needs you and is able to take you." He said not all electric systems use the same voltage and technical configurations"


seems to me to be some double speak in that article.

Calypso Jones
11-02-2012, 08:11 PM
UPI. I believe i'll just double check that.

waltky
11-02-2012, 08:24 PM
Marathon called off...
:cool2:
NYC Marathon canceled, N.J. gas rationed
Nov. 2 (UPI) -- Mayor Michael Bloomberg Friday canceled the New York City Marathon, while Gov. Chris Christie ordered gas to be rationed in 12 New Jersey counties.


Bloomberg said the marathon must be canceled to avoid "a cloud over the race or its participants." He had said the marathon would go on as scheduled Sunday, but critics said it would be a mistake to devote resources to running the marathon that could otherwise be used to help recover from the devastation caused by Superstorm Sandy. "The Marathon has been an integral part of New York City's life for 40 years and is an event tens of thousands of New Yorkers participate in and millions more watch," Bloomberg said in a statement Friday. "While holding the race would not require diverting resources from the recovery effort, it is clear that it has become the source of controversy and division. "We would not want a cloud to hang over the race or its participants, and so we have decided to cancel it," Bloomberg said. "We cannot allow a controversy over an athletic event -- even one as meaningful as this -- to distract attention away from all the critically important work that is being done to recover from the storm and get our city back on track."

The marathon controversy grew at the same time as frustration -- and, at times, anger -- mounted among people recovering from the storm. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Friday the fuel shortage in the affected area could endanger public health, safety and welfare in announcing rationing for fuel purchases in Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Hunterdon, Middlesex, Morris, Monmouth, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, Union and Warren counties, the (Newark) Star-Ledger reported. Beginning at noon Saturday, vehicles with license plates ending in odd numbers can only be filled on odd-numbered days of the month, and even numbers on even days. Plates not ending in a number are to be considered odd and should fill up on odd-number days.

The U.S. Energy Department is releasing its heating oil reserves for the first time in history, beginning with a release of 2 million gallons, CNBC reported. The Defense Department is trucking in 24 million gallons to the area, and federal authorities have lifted restrictions on deliveries by foreign-flagged ships, The New York Times reported. However, those deliveries won't make it to the consumer in big numbers until the floodwaters have receded and power has been restored, NPR said.

Authorities said the U.S. death toll attributed to Hurricane Sandy climbed to at least 97, including 40 in the New York metropolitan area and 13 in New Jersey, 13 in Pennsylvania, 10 in Maryland, four in Connecticut, five in West Virginia, two in Virginia, one in North Carolina and one on the HMS Bounty, CNN reported.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2012/11/02/NYC-Marathon-canceled-NJ-gas-rationed/UPI-10181351836790/#ixzz2B7OTGQML