Editor’s note: This oped is by George Clain, president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 300 in South Burlington.
At the opening of this legislative session Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin announced that this would be “The Jobs Session” — a means for getting Vermonters back on their feet and our economy out of this recession.
So here is what the Senate has done for hard working Vermonters to stimulate our economy; they fired 800 State employees (some 800 service jobs), then they tackled the difficult question of selecting a date for Vermont’s primary election so candidates will have more time to campaign prior to the general election. Great – they want job security for themselves. Score 770 fewer jobs; 30 Senators minus 800 state workers.
Next, the Senate decided to preempt the Public Service Board’s duties and present legislative findings resulting in the termination of one-third of Vermont’s base load power supply and the elimination of 1,300 workers. Industry leaders, organized labor, and the agricultural community all stood together urging the Vermont Senate to postpone the Vermont Yankee relicensing vote until the completion of ongoing investigations regarding the Vernon plant’s operation and future. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers membership at Vermont Yankee have prepared for the eventuality that their job might not continue to exist after March 2012 and will apply for employment elsewhere within the industry; paying income taxes and property taxes elsewhere. Yet the Senate apparently disregarded the economic consequences that will result from their decision.
The Vermont economy is not producing new jobs. Vermont has borrowed millions of federal dollars to pay unprecedented unemployment claims. In this environment it is unconscionable and — yes — reckless to knowingly eliminate many hundreds of high-paying, high-tech, private sector jobs.
Electricity rate increases create higher fixed expenses for industry, forcing tough decisions. The job losses will spread beyond those lost at Vermont Yankee. Employers on the brink of closing their Vermont operations cannot stay afloat when legislators make their futures more costly and uncertain.
John O’Kane of IBM said it well: “The cost of energy is a critical factor in IBM’s operating expense and changing the source of one-third of Vermont’s energy portfolio without a well thought out plan for alternatives seems reckless.”
A day before the Senate vote, Senator Shumlin rejected Entergy’s “Power for Jobs” offer, an additional 25 megawatts of 4-cent power for job creation, which would save Vermonters an estimated $20 million. Just disregarded without consideration.
When asked how much the new power to replace VY would cost ratepayers, Shumlin said he didn’t know. To reject in state, low-cost, low-carbon electricity for largely unknown alternatives simply amounts to spending other people’s money – taxpayers and working people of Vermont.
Some would argue that Vermont Yankee’s problems with trust and tritium justified the Senate’s no vote. These are indeed serious problems, but patience could lead to acceptable solutions. As for the breach of trust, Entergy’s new management team has taken serious steps. They have removed and/or disciplined 11 employees, met with opinion leaders and media, opened the plant for tours, commissioned an independent investigation, announced the findings, and issued daily reports on the tritium search. The company appears to be putting its best foot forward in a thoughtful and deliberative way in order to restore public confidence. The IBEW has and will continue to hold Entergy to the highest standards of accountability.
I urge the Senate to change course and address the economic disaster they created in a short two-month period of this so-called “Jobs Session.”
Remember the old fable about the grasshopper and the ant? The grasshopper played his way through the warm months, mocking the ants who did nothing but work — preparing themselves for the coming winter. Of course, come winter, the ants were snug in their well-provisioned “home,” while the grasshopper froze to death.
Everything the IBEW says is true. And yet…like the grasshopper, it’s been very clear for quite a while that the life of VY will, like the grasshopper’s summer, come to an end at some point. There are plenty of lessons to learn from the ants, who look ahead and plan for the future, rather than relying on things to continue forever as they are now.
I dissagree with most of this article.
The closing of VY is not the end of the world.
Most of the people who work at VY don’t live in VT. The last number I heard was 200 Vermonters would loose their jobs when VY closes. An impact yes, but not astronomic.
A lot more people in Springfield lost their jobs when the machine shops closed there many years ago.
A higher electric bill is a drop in the bucket compared to all the rest of the anti-business legislation the VT gov has come up with. There are many other factors that make VT unfriendly to business. Taxes and act 250 are the biggies.
Entergy does not have a best foot to put forward. They are beyond regaining trust. There is no good reason to keep the 40 year old atomic relic operating until it dies. Greed for money is what drives these people.
This article is a lame attempt by a union leader to protect the income of his fellow union brothers. Thats what union leaders do.
Sadly, there was, and still is, no good choice about Vermont yankee. The Vermont senate chose the best of these choices. As one that has also had my job sacrificed to lay-offs and to fickle corporate politics, I feel for the people losing their jobs — though it is going to take a while to shut it down and, presumably, they will be working until the VY door is shut for good.
Yet, this was a historic decision. I was there at the statehouse when they made it and it really felt like being on the cusp of history. For perhaps the first time in our nation’s modern history (I may be wrong but I do not have time to check now), a state senate actually stood up for the people of the state against the governor and his corporate sponsors that have been fleecing the state and its taxpayers all these years. For the first time, a state senate stood up to corporate arrogance and power, refusing to be taken in by their callous bribes.
Can they do it again on health care?
The Vermont Senate did not fire 800 State workers. That was the Douglas administration. The Legislature is to blame however for not standing up for us.