Earlier today the Huffington Post decided to take the progressive position to defend the NJ and New York power companies from well deserved ridicule.   The Power Companies in both states have refused to allow non-union disaster recovery teams to rebuild power service to affected citizens in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

The Huffington Post presented, once again, a series of falsehoods intended to deflect the truth:  (Huffington Post)  Out-of-state workers have been pouring into New Jersey to help with the recovery efforts from Hurricane Sandy, but one Alabama-based utility crew claims that it returned home because of a requirement that all workers be union-affiliated. Labor officials, a New Jersey utility company and Gov. Chris Christie deny, however, that any such condition exists.

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers presented Alabama-based Decatur Utilities with documents stating that any utility crew coming to help out had to be unionized, according to Decatur’s general manager, Ray Hardin.

A six-member crew headed north for Seaside Heights, N.J., to help restore electricity, but ended up heading back home after they got to Virginia — not because they were “turned away,” Hardin told The Star-Ledger of Newark, but simply because they couldn’t clarify whether they’d be allowed to work at all.  

[…]  But union officials completely deny that there was any such condition. “It is the policy of this union and the companies we represent to welcome assistance during major natural disasters — regardless of union status,” Jim Spellane, spokesman for the national office of the IBEW said in a statement. Gov. Christie said the Alabama crew got “bad information” and that non-union crews are welcomed in the recovery effort, according to The Associated Press.  (more)

However, the Truth Has No Agenda, and the out-of-state power companies providing the disaster response have the letters from Union Officials outlining their refusal to accept non-union work.   Clear and convincing proof the Huffington Post propaganda is just LIES.  The Daily Caller has outined much of the issue:  DEMAND LETTER HERE

“We had crews ready to go on Monday when the storm hit,” he told TheDC.   ”We had dozens of line workers ready to go. There have been hundreds of  line workers who have been told, ‘We don’t want you unless you’re part of the  union.’ And as a result, people in New York and New Jersey are having the power  turned on slower than everywhere else.”

“The word we were getting all week was that New York was short by hundreds of  [electric] linemen,” he told TheDC. “Well, okay. We’ve got them. Florida is two  days away, so you need a head start.”

Of those workers who were ready to drive north, he said, “probably about 25  stayed put” because of the Long Island IBEW local’s demands. “Another 35 were  delayed by five days.”

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Friday that he wouldn’t permit  discrimination against nonunion crews eager to help reconnect consumers who have  gone without power for days. He threatened to invoke his office’s emergency  powers if necessary.

But in New York, no government official has stepped in to ensure that utility  crews from other states won’t have to show their union membership cards before  going to work — even though their own employers are paying for them to repair  power lines in the Empire State.

Eventually, Moline said, his state’s crews “went everywhere else” affected by  Sandy, “but it was only in New York where the union had to give their  blessing.”

“It just made me sick that you’ve got people who have no power,” he said, “and you hear about a lot of people dying.”  (article)