Not without a union contract

A Central Florida utility lineman shared the disappointing news last week that his 12-person crew, responding to help restore power in the Northeast after Superstorm Sandy, was blocked by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. A volunteer crew from Alabama told a similar story.

"It was like, 'What's the hold up?'" he said. "It turns out there was a 300-page contract that the union controlling LIPA (Long Island Power Authority) wanted everybody to sign first. We don't have time for that. We've got guys ready to go. You need lawyers for this."

The union's problem, the worker said, was that union members make $47 an hour, but the Florida linemen would have been working for $35 an hour.

"I don't care if you pay me $5 an hour right now," the nonunion worker said. "Would you let us go up there and help?"

If this were a case where untrained workers - people who might be a danger to themselves and others - were being asked to handle high-voltage equipment, the union might have had a point. But labor organizations don't exactly help themselves in the public relations department when they show such intransigence in the face of real crises.