Each year since Hurricane Juan, a Labour Board order requires NSP to file a “Review of Power Line Technician (PLT) staffing levels and reliability of service.” This year’s report was filed this week (read the entire report here). Ominously, projected PLT numbers for 2014 and future are blacked out (or "redacted") because of “potential employee deployment matters that remain to be determined." The report includes evidence that customers have a positive perception of system reliability and that the various outage statistics (CAIDI, SAIDI and so on) are on an overall downward trend, with some minor abberations attributable to weather. The report says that the number of PLTs at NSP between 2011 and 2013 was 185. However, when Local 1928 reviewed the red seal PLTs at NSP today, we count 169 working red seal linemen (that includes the fifteen linemen without so-called "sweaters") deployed across the province. When you count the number of PLTs who will leave NSP in the next couple of months for other jobs (conservative estimate based on known commitments: ten) and the ten linemen who are eligible to retire with an unreduced pension over the next 12 months, that could bring the number of available certified PLTs at NSP down considerably. If NSP and/or the government and regulator is concerned by these diminished (even blacked out) numbers, it has not been demonstrated.

On Friday April 4, the Nova Scotia legislature passed essential services legislation (Bill 37) that put Capital Health nurses, members of NSGEU Local 97, back to work after a brief legal strike and after a one-day wildcat strike that resulted in a labour board order to cease and desist. The Liberal's bill affects some 35,000 unionized public employees in health care and effectively disarms them in collective bargaining by requiring pre-bargaining staffing that renders any legal job action ineffective. As Ray Larkin, legal counsel for the NSGEU (and IBEW Local 1928) says in his remarks before the legislative Law Amendments committee, "If an employer does not need to make concessions during bargaining, they will not make concessions." This bill—even if it does not directly affect your collective agreement—signals a legislated shift in the employer/employee balance during future collective bargaining in Nova Scotia. Watch Mr. Larkin's full remarks to the committee here. 

Check out the new IBEW Canada website—ibewcanada.ca—and the new TV commercial about the IBEW and our members that is being broadcast on national stations (click on the Video Page menu item to view). On days like this in the Maritimes (when the weather is bad and the power is out), people think of workers in the electrical industry and the crucial role we perform in getting the power back on. But this "We're There for You" campaign will remind Canadians that IBEW members are working everyday to generate and distribute electricity safely. And when we're not at work, we're also contributing to our local communities and economies. You can even contribute your own good-news story to the IBEW Canada website. Our members are doing good things—help spread the word. 

The Western Line hockey team (pictured) beat the Sackville Bucket Monkeys in a shootout in the IBEW Local 1928 hockey tournament final in Yarmouth on Sunday afternoon. The Bucket Monkeys had battled back to tie the game, after entering the third period with a three-goal deficit. But the Western Line team had come to win and proved mightier in the shoot-out test. Organizer Mike Mooney, along with friends and family, put on a great tournament, with great hospitality, great organization and great facilities. Thanks for making Yarmouth a go-to destination, Mike, despite of the weather. Thank you also to everyone who travelled West to participate, particularly the EUS Communications guys from New Brunswick. See you all next year, hopefully.

[Click here for tournament schedule]. The IBEW Local 1928 hockey tournament will be hosted in Yarmouth, from March 28th to March 30th. Six teams have entered and each is guaranteed at least three games for making the journey west. With the financial support of Local 1928, Nova Scotia Power, and contractors from the local area, organizer Mike Mooney is promising players a weekend of "good food, good refreshments, and good times" in Yarmouth. Good luck and safe travels to all participants.