Irene: One Year Later

. August 21, 2012 at 10:47 am

I think officials down played the damages and flooding. For some people it was very bad. JCP&L didn't do too well by a lot of their customers with power out for some people for a week. They haven't improved too much in that area since then.

JV8778 August 21, 2012 at 01:52 pm

Irene was an inconvenience to many but in our families case and 45,000 other families it brought the Verizon union members back to work and the strike ended because Verizon needed us and gave us a year to work off the same contract. Corporate greed kept people in the dark. You see Verizon owns many of the poles so JCP&L could not fix the power until the union linemen workers got back to work and off strike. JCP&L have in those cases where Verizon owned the poles and with workers on strike corporate had to bring them back to work with no contract ageed upon to this day. It is hurricane season with another strike in the works because Verizons corporate greed does not care about the linenen risking their livrs having one of the top 10 most danderous jobs. JCP&L will not touch those Verizon owned poles because they are union too. So when poles and lines are down blame corporate not the worker. When another hurricane hits you'll have to call and complaon to corporate they are to blame for leaving all of us in the dark. They do not care about you and I and know corporate executives power and phone service were fixed first. Pray we dont have another hurricane and that a strike does not happened we've worked a year with no contract and another strike is looking like a reality. It doesnt juat effect us it effects everone while we sit in the dark.

andrea August 21, 2012 at 02:13 pm

Just another reason why unions are so "great". Always on strike, never working and when I say working I mean 1 guy working and 5 guys standing there watching him

So Much to Say August 21, 2012 at 02:22 pm

Irene was a nothing more then an inconvenience. Try living through a Cat 5 hurricane then speak to me. This wasn't even a blip in my radar.

So Much to Say August 21, 2012 at 02:24 pm

WOW, do you have a vivid imagination.
PS....I hate unions but lets place blame where blame belongs.

JV8778 August 21, 2012 at 05:00 pm

Nothing imaginary about one statement I made do your research. Union is fighting to save our pension and medical which is the reason you take a dangerous job. As for 5 guys doing nothing its not true you need one in the bucket one operating the truck one making sure they dont get hurt from the ground and flaggers also paid cops to make the traffic flow. The blame is not the workers it the greed of the executives.

Random Poster August 21, 2012 at 08:24 pm

i am a fellow "union worker" who operated the water system in the town of toms river during the "hurricane" event. it was my regular scheduled day working a midnight to 8 AM shift. i was not on over time and did not get and special pay for that day either. no one thanked me either.
i did what i can to protect my valuables at home the best i could and "manned up" and went into work knowing that my personal belongings could have been washed away at a moments notice. but being a "union employe" my main concern was making sure residents of TR had water that met state and federal guidelines available to them for what ever they need it for. also known as many military people would say " just doing my job". for what its worth, not all union workers suck! i was there when the power went out, and had the liberty of swapping everything over to generator power and putting plants back online, while my supervisor was home doing what ever it he does at 1AM. and never complained about not receiving any "thanks" after everything was said and done either. just went home, slept, woke up and went back to work for midnight the next day.. JV8778: many people who live in this county/state/country do not quite know how infrastructure works or understand the back story behind it at all. they complain about "union workers" and "rate increases" but have no clue what it takes to bring that water, electric, phone, cable and internet to them. do not let them get to you....

Captain August 21, 2012 at 08:31 pm

May not have been a blip in your radar, but it flooded my house.

Hector Logan August 22, 2012 at 03:50 am

Internet comes in on cables... same as phone... Sometimes over the same cables... sometimes over different ones... water comes in through pipes from pumping stations.. electric from the nuclear power plant... We all know how we get services we depend on, we don't need to be told we're stupid by overpaid, whiney, self-entitled union workers on the interwebz.
It took a natural disaster and having the community by the nuts to get you to put your workboots back on. That's not something to be proud of. Unions are the death of America.

Hector Logan August 22, 2012 at 03:53 am

We don't care about your pension and medical and your job is no dangerous than anyone else's. I'd rather save 5 cents on my bill each month than pay for some crybaby's health insurance. BTW, NOBODY noticed any service performance issues during the entire verizon strike... that is except in areas where union workers cut phone lines intentionally and illegally.

Hector Logan August 22, 2012 at 03:56 am

So you are saying the unions will leave unsafe conditions for residents if they don't get their way and JCP&L unions will let people suffer too because they are part of some fraternal brotherhood of greedy crybabies? I was a 2512. Don't cry that your telephone lineman job is so hard. It's not. I did it with gaffs in the desert in semi-hostile environments. I did it for a lot less than a union lackey.

JV8778 August 22, 2012 at 05:10 pm

Thank you random poster for your comment. Many people do not know the ones going out in the middle of the night to keep them safe are under appreciated, I for one go out on emergency callouts in snow and rain away from my family and take pride in my work I do it properly and safe. It may look to some as an easy job thats not dangerous but tell that to your co workers wife in the middle of the night that he's not coming home while the management just does a callout from their bed at home. A linemen just died in Wall a few weeks ago. As a woman with a job some would call "man's job" I risk my arm getting ripped off by one quick move of a cable snapping and being electrocuted to death all I'm stating is we deserve the benifits we were promised when we were hired so when we retire we can still make ends meet. I'm really shocked how many people say they don't care about us that is what happened to this country not many care. I care about the 45,000 workers and thwir families and their well being hell I even care about those posting angry rants. I respect opinions but I do care more about the many working good people over the greedy rich CEO's making millions hoarding money instead of caring about others. As for hurricane's if we had a cat 5 our infrastructure would easily come undone most of it hasn't been replaced in decades because your money is spent on executives bonuses not proper tools and materials your hard earned money is paying for.

Chu-Man-Fu August 22, 2012 at 07:26 pm

Agreed - People have no concept of what first responders, emergency response crews, utility crews go through during a crisis situation. I for one am thankful for the work that you do. As I have said in previous posts on various articles it is the I, me, me, mine attitude that makes me sick. The continued bashing of the people that support out Critical Infrastructre, Emergency Responders, and Military just reminds me daily of the need for people to wake up and realize that everything has to start somewhere and usually the starting point is the first call with subsequent calls falling in line - If you can't live without your TV, Computer, A/C, etc. for awhile then buy a generator and have it properly installed lest you kill yourself of someone else. What are you going to do WHEN (not if) we have a real catastrophe where outages last weeks & months not hours or a few days. Wake the Hell Up people and stop being the spoiled brats that most of you are! There are countless resources available to you telling you what you need to prepare for an emergency - Take the time to read and adhere to them rather than spending your every waking moment on Face Book or the internet .......

Chu-Man-Fu August 22, 2012 at 07:48 pm

And BTW - I served on both sides of the fence - Union and Management - I don't blame the death of America on Unions. I blame it on the politicians that sold us down the river with their policies, free trade agreemnents, etc. They caused this! Do I agree with ALL union entitlements : No By the same token I don't believe that some poor schlep in China, Mexico, India or elsewhere should be paid a fraction of what an American Worker would be paid and therefore entitle the parent company to make exhorbatent profits - Nike is coming out with a $350.00 LeBron James sneaker - How much do you think they are paying their "employees" to manufacture them? What do you think their profit margin will be? And where do you think the biggest market will be? Look around you - OK Toyota and the like have manufacturing plants in the U.S. They employ thousands of people but where do the profits and employees' purchase $'s go? - Right back to the to the other side of the oceans. While we have massive unemployment, starvation, and homelessness right here on our very own terra firma. BOYCOTT IMPORTS !

JV8778 August 22, 2012 at 09:03 pm

Thank you Chu man fu! I agree with you and also want to inform people so they understand management at lower levels are in danger too they have no job security many have been laid off and when the strike happened these managers were sent out to do work they've never done some didn't have CDL licenses and their were many injury incidents that of course the media didn't report they only reported the few union members that lost their cool at rallies. Now the company has sent some managers to line school because of these incidents. They know they were putting these managers at risk and these managers didn't have job security and had to do dangerous work or risk getting fired for insubordination. Its the high up positions that are risking everyones safety. They pay insurance companies to drop lawyers business insurance if they take cases against them for getting hurt! Politicians dont care because most of them are crooked too. I hope we don't have a disaster but if we do and you see a utility worker outside dont harrass them about how long it will take how about offer them a drink of water or better yet wave say thank you and let us work safely. We care about our jobs and yours but they higher ups in government and corporations are blinded by special interest my special interest is the well being of our country support us as we do you. Keep america's jobs safe and our jobs here.

Chu-Man-Fu August 23, 2012 at 12:57 am

Well stated JV - I'd feed and put you up for a rest if I needed to! - Don't let the "self-entitled" drag you down ! And thanks again...... Just one correction to your comment: Most politicians aren't corrupt - They all are ! The right person for the job doesn't get elected because he can't drum up the benjamins to get him elected --- It's the old adage - Show me an honest politician and I'll show you someone who doesn't hold office! - I'm done ranting ,,,,,But in this country at least I am able to do so without fear of retribution from the Gov't. (for now)