Superstorm Sandy

[ezdays]

And then there's things like this, people sent there to help, and get turned away because they won't sign a document saying that they are all union workers. I remember the earthquake in Los Angeles, where a construction company jumped in to work on a highway bridge the next day and without a contract, just to bypass the red tape and get things back to normal. I guess NJ is not a "right-to-work" state and put that ahead of getting the work that is needed done.

Despite devastation and millions of power outages in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, a utility crew from Alabama said it has been unable to help a ravaged New Jersey shore town due to a union dispute.

Officials from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers presented Alabama-based Decatur Utilities with documents that “required our folks to affiliate with the union,” Ray Hardin, general manager of Decatur, told FOX Business on Friday. “That was something that we could not agree to. It was our understanding and still is that it was a requirement for us to work in that area.”

Hardin said most of his six-man, four-vehicle crew was stuck in Virginia on Thursday instead of helping the N.J. shore town of Seaside Heights recover due to the bureaucratic tie-up. Eventually his crew ended up heading back home to Alabama because of the disagreement.

Read more: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.foxbusiness.com/government/2012/11/02/union-red-tape-in-nj-causes-alabama-recovery-crew-to-head-home/#ixzz2BG1lmLoL">http://www.foxbusiness.com/government/2 ... z2BG1lmLoL</a><!-- m -->