Connecticut Light & Power Co.’s union linemen on Thursday filed a federal labor complaint, accusing the Berlin utility of preventing workers from protesting the utility’s staffing levels.
On July 30, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 420 and Local 457 held an information picket against CL&P and Hartford/Boston parent Northeast Utilities over its staffing levels, overtime, and use of out-of-state contractors.
In the National Labor Relations Board complaint, the union alleges CL&P disrupted the picket by denying employees’ requests for leave time.
The IBEW members have been without a contract since June 1.
“The union leadership’s characterization is untrue. Employees who are union members are allowed to participate in union activities before or after their shift or take vacation time to so do as long as we can maintain sufficient staffing to respond to our customers’ needs,” NU spokesman Al Lara said. “With short notice we received numerous simultaneous requests for vacation time on July 30. The union is well aware that approving all these requests would have the effect of reducing our available staffing to effectively run our electric system and respond to customers. Therefore, some vacation requests were approved and some necessarily, were denied.
“Despite the union’s claims, our staffing levels are in line with those of leading utilities,” Lara added. “When major storms hit, we call on other utilities and experienced crews to help us restore power, as is standard utility practice.”
One of the main protest issues deals with CL&P’s use of the mutual-aid system.
Due to cost, many utilities nationally don’t staff enough emergency crews to deal with the worst-case disruption scenarios. Last summer’s Tropical Storm Irene and the Oct. 29 nor’easter combined left hundreds of thousands of Northeast residents without power for as long as two weeks.
Instead, utilities rely on their peers to send crews to help with restoration efforts. Because the storms were widespread, mutual-aid was slow to respond to both storms, as crews had to be called from farther away and had to help several utilities in the area.
