On 11/4/2012 8:30 AM, Vic Smith wrote:
....

BFD. The IBEW wanted the southern guys paid union scale and wanted to
pad their own pension and health funds as usual with the hourly cut.
Who do you think is paying for this?
You don't think these guys are unpaid "volunteers" do you?
Or that the Florida/Ala utilities aren't getting paid?
The Feds will pay for all this work. Taxpayers.
The Florida/Ala utility companies will charge the NY/NJ utilities all
costs- and then some for salaried bonuses.
The NY/NJ utilities will then squeeze the Feds like an orange.
....

Well, mostly no...

IBEW didn't really care about whether the other guys got paid union
scale or not other than it undermines their scale--all they really
wanted was their cut irrespective of whether it helped accomplish the
needed work or not. Definitely not a "team player" attitude at a time
of need.

And, FEMA does _NOT_ reimburse private, for-profit utilities for
reconstruction--that's limited to nonprofit public and/or co-ops.

Also, it is certainly well within the normal operations that utilities
_do_ provide gratis services to other utilities in such times w/o direct
payback for salaries, etc., on the basis that they'll get return support
when they need it.

Our local co-op in SW KS has sent crews as far as LA and MS and has in
return had them here after some of our massive ice storms. Our
rebuilding costs have been something approaching 80% of total
capitalized value over some 7+ years it has taken to rebuild all of the
damaged areas to original capabilities from a massive ice event in
'03/'04 followed by the massive tornado outbreak in '05. Even as a
nonprofit member-owned co-op, our FEMA repair aid was limited to 75% of
actual costs so it has been a sizable out-of-pocket outlay for a
relatively small utility (not to mention it took years to receive after
the events). No utility gets well financially out of these events...

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