Nearly a year to the day after a Turlock Irrigation District power outage left 49 customers without electricity for 45 hours, the district will resume negotiations with the union blamed for the outage.
TID and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers have been engaged in a labor dispute since December 2011, when the IBEW's last contract with the district expired. IBEW members have been working without a contract since that time.
The labor dispute resulted the aforementioned power outage, from Sep. 28 to 30, 2012. During that weekend outage TID staff attempted many times to contact line crews, represented by IBEW, to no avail. All 40 qualified TID electric workers did not answer their phones when called for help.
TID then requested assistance from multiple nearby utilities, but their IBEW-represented crews declined to help. Private electric contractors were called to help, but were convinced to leave by IBEW members.
“But a TID employee, a member of the Lineworker’s union, interfered with the job, thus causing the contract crew to leave the site due to concerns by the contract crew of a potential hostile work environment,” TID General Manager Casey Hashimoto said at the time.
A Pacific Gas & Electric crew ultimately repaired the lines.
Since the incident, the two parties have met numerous times as they work to hammer out a contract.
On Tuesday, the Turlock Irrigation District Board of Directors is expected to:
• Hear regular weekly updates on power generation, irrigation water availability, and the status of irrigation season.
• Approve requests to abandon nine parcels from twelve improvement districts.
• In closed session, discuss three cases of anticipated litigation.
The TID Board of Directors is scheduled to meet at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the board room of the TID Main Office Building, 333 E. Canal Dr.
Free access to community forum.
TID Management is sounding like a “feel sorry for me broken record”. Does the TID management really live and revel in the past? This can not be healthy! Should these “managers” seek counseling?
I thought TID WAS a proactive forward thinking?
TID managers/board of directors sound like there stuck in a rut!
Signed, moving on
Blah Blah Blah are we still talking about this. You keep referring to 1 incident in more than 100 years of service. Must have been a slow news day. Why aren’t you reporting on how the board and GM need to be replaced. Maybe because one of the bored members is your buddy. It’s hard to keep a company running when you have 5 board members that know nothing about it and a GM that doesn’t care about anybody but himself. The company is spiraling into the toilet.
Same BS story. The board and the general manager need to go. They are in bed with each other.
You know what’s sad, The Board, General Manager, and Management have no problem working together to give themselves raises! But our Line crews haven’t had a contract in 2 years? I’m not saying Lineman don’t make good money, but there the one’s out there in 100 degree weather 35 ft. in the air, working hours on end in storms, and getting the power back on after car accidents. It’s a super dangerous job that not just “anyone” can do? I would like to see Casey climb a pole? Actually with being a Electrical Engineer he should of grabbed a line truck and got those 49 customers back powered up? I’ve even caught wind that TID can’t even keep Journeyman Lineman because there finding “Greener Pasture”? When I was with the district that was almost unheard of! Then instead of getting your Line Dept. back strong with a good contract, get your Apprentice Program back going, so some of our “Local Youth” can learn the trade? The G.M., Board, and Management source “Out of State” Electrical worker’s to come in to get the job done, but one Contractor burned up all the wires in a residents house, TID rate payers then flipping a Tens of thousands dollar bill to fix what the out of state contractor did? One contractor got TID for $300,000 for materials that were never installed? While all this is going on the “Out of State” crews are robbing our own crews of over-time, and the money the “Out of State” crews make does just that “Goes rite Out of State”? All because our BOARD of DIRECTORS & GENERAL MANAGER are still harping over this same story! If you can’t handle the job then get out! And our current Board/General Manager are showing they can’t handle it! I don’t think the knowledge is there!!!
We have a Board that is incompetent, and a G.M. who don’t have a clue! We need change!
I think we need to get people who actually worked in the field, on the board? sounds like we need people with more knowledge of how the system works. And a General Manager who wasn’t “A fill in” because the original G.M. resigned. There’s no reason these Lineman should be without a contract!
Our Lineman are very important to us, why aren’t they as important to the GM & Board? As a community they keep our MOST important commodity going! Our “POWER”! We’re dead in the water without it!
Alex, you are as stupid as the TID board. I am tired of reading about this. Cant you find something else to write about.
😮 please don’t call Alex stupid
The Electric is the bread and butter of the District, but the brotherhood that keeps it operational is getting jacked around by the General Manager Hashomoto, and the board of Directors! The working man that works in the field is what makes the district money, but there the ones always getting the short end of the stick? If the higher archery of the district don’t know what there doing get out!
The General Manager is incompetent! And Frantz thinks he knows it all, maybe he should go back to raising flowers, because every time he opens his mouth it cry’s out ” I don’t have a clue”! and he is the president of the board “go figure”! I think for the sake of the district big change needs to happen? The G.M. Hashomoto is incompetent, so the board should be over riding his decision to procrastinate on the Lineman’s contract, “And get it done”! If not, the Board needs to be replaced with a Board that “Can make the decision” when the G.M. “Don’t get the job Done” try this link: “PASAC Casey Hashomoto”
Hashomoto states in this article that IBEW members were causing a “Hostile work environment” I think that is exactly what he himself is causing from behind a desk? Dangling this contract in front of IBEW, hiring out of state electrical contractors, etc……. The General Manager, Board of Directors, and Management have made it were there own “in house” crews can’t get the job done! At one time TID was known as the leaders in the industry? Looks like it’s gotten way to top heavy with leadership? I think change is in order!
Perhaps Hashomoto is doing exactly the right thing in looking our for did customers. Too bad as an employee you don’t like how negotiations are going but that’s business.
If I made decisions that slow I would be out of business! But Hashomoto uses the tax payers dollar to dangle a contract in front of our hard working lineman! All because he’s mad about a situation 2 years ago! That’s why we have a board of directors, for situations like this! When there’s employee’s of the district ( Management, General Manager) using there position to try and retaliate on the working man, the board should of stepped in a long time ago! I hope all your Lineman find jobs elsewhere, so your STUCK with those ” Out of State” contractors! because I’m sure there not cheap!