The president of the major U.S. utility workers union accused the Ohio-based, investor-owned utility FirstEnergy of endangering workers and the public during the coronavirus outbreak by requiring nonemergency work to continue.
While a vast majority of companies are taking the necessary precautions to stop the virus’ spread, FirstEnergy is “treating it almost like a normal day,” James Slevin, national president of the Utility Workers Union of America, said in an interview.
For example, Slevin said, the utility, which serves 6 million customers across six states, is still conducting normal meter reading and other work that isn’t an immediate priority. Many other utilities are putting off nonemergency work, he added.
“It kind of angers me,” Slevin said, adding such decisions are “reckless.”
Slevin also said the union received a call that FirstEnergy is running out of sanitizer and is looking into getting a distillery to supply it. And while workers in the field may have personal protective equipment (PPE) and are using masks, “doing this nonessential work puts people in the Cleveland area unnecessarily at risk,” he added. “It’s also a risk to the healthcare industry, where the need for PPE is critical.”
FirstEnergy, in a statement to the Washington Examiner, said safeguarding the health and safety of employees, contractors, and customers is a “top priority,” and the company is following the precautions recommended by medical consultants, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, and the World Health Organization.
That includes requiring those who can work from home to do so, providing masks for employees “when social distancing cannot be maintained,” increasing cleaning at facilities and providing sanitizing products for equipment, and reducing the size of work shifts to support distance among employees, according to the statement. The company is also offering medical personnel for workers who have concerns and has a screening process for employees who are showing symptoms or recently traveled to countries with high risk of infection.
The utility is also keeping the lights on, it said, noting crews restored power to more than 200,000 customers this week after storms ran through its service territories.
As of April 10, six FirstEnergy employees have tested positive for COVID-19, all but one in the New Jersey area, a known hot spot, according to the company. One New Jersey employee passed away, the company said.
In a recent video message to employees, FirstEnergy CEO Charles Jones acknowledged that the utility’s field workers have “been coming to work every day pretty much doing the same jobs that they’ve been doing throughout their career with not a lot of difference in terms of work.”
Jones assured workers in the April 3 message that the company is taking the steps necessary to keep workers out on site safe.
But responding to employee questions, he said he wouldn’t be suspending normal meter reading and the company wouldn’t slow down its physical work.
“We’re not spending $1 at this company on any work that isn’t essential, and to slow it down or stop it would set us back in a way that I don’t think we can afford to do,” Jones said.
He recalled his own experience performing meter reading, noting that it’s a “pretty solitary job.”
“You could very easily do the things that we’re asking from a social distancing perspective,” Jones said, noting he isn’t asking employees to go inside customer’s homes or premises to read meters. “We’re just asking them to do the best that they can do to get as many meters read as possible.”
In the statement, FirstEnergy said reading meters outside of homes “helps ensure monthly bills are accurate, preventing a prolonged period of estimated bills since residential electric use is expected to spike for the foreseeable future.”
To Slevin, though, nonemergency work creates risks for workers and the public.
Slevin described a changing landscape of utility work, as unions and companies strive to keep workers and the public safe.
The majority of companies have shifted workers to remote as much as possible if they’re able to work from home. Workers who must be at critical facilities are further spaced out and in staggered shifts.
Workspaces are frequently disinfected, and utility workers out in the field for essential work are wearing PPE, including masks, coveralls, and gloves. If workers are no longer needed for field work that isn’t essential, companies are utilizing those workers for other roles, such as traffic control to make sure the public maintains a safe distance from work sites.
Slevin also said the union has identified workers who need to be home for family members who get sick and is making sure they have the ability to do so. Some utilities have also taken steps to make sure older workers are comfortable and working in areas where they won’t be at risk.
There are more challenges on the horizon, though. Slevin said he’s been in conversations about making sure testing, if and when it becomes widespread, will be available to his membership, especially essential workers who have to be on-site. He also wants to ensure utilities have plans for if a natural disaster, such as a wildfire or hurricane, hits when the country is still dealing with the virus.
“This is probably the biggest challenge we’ve ever faced,” Slevin said, noting utility workers have weathered the aftermath of other challenges including the Sept. 11th attacks and natural disasters, such as Superstorm Sandy and Hurricane Maria. The coronavirus pandemic, though, is especially challenging because it isn’t clear yet how long it will last, he said.
To date, out of the union’s membership, 10 workers have passed away from the coronavirus. “It’s caused me sleepless nights,” Slevin said.
