If you have ever wondered how some of the outrageous stuff you hear from the right and on Fox News/Limbaugh etc. gets started -- well, this is how.
This morning there were reports that power crews from Alabama that had driven up north to help out with restoring power to areas affected by Hurricane Sandy were turned away because they aren't unionized.
This story started with a report by TV station WAFF in Huntsville, Ala.
Crews from Decatur Utilities headed up there this week, but Derrick Moore, one of the Decatur workers, said they were told by crews in New Jersey that they can't do any work there since they're not union employees.
The general manager of Decatur Utilities, Ray Hardin told Fox Business they were presented documents from the International Brotherhood of Electric Workers at a staging area in Virginia. The documents stated they had to affiliate with a union to work, which the crews could not agree to.
It took off from there -- including
this story -- and is spreading like wildfire. WAFF has since updated its original story, but it's already spreading.
If it was in fact true, it would be pretty dumb.
During times of great crisis, who cares about such things? Just get the damn power back on as quickly as possible.
Problem is that the story is not entirely accurate.
Representatives with Huntsville Utilities and Joe Wheeler Cooperative, two area utilities mentioned in media reports claiming their crews were not allowed to help with storm aid in New Jersey because they were non-union, said this morning the story is untrue.
Not true? How can that be?
Bill Yell, spokesman for Huntsville Utilities, said nine of his employees are currently helping with recovery from Hurricane Sandy and had no union-related issues.
"That's a rumor," he said. "We are starting work this morning with Long Island Power Authority. We were headed to a New Jersey utility but they had all the crews they could handle."
A spokeswoman for Joe Wheeler Electrical Membership Cooperative said the crews from Trinity also are assisting with storm recovery and, in fact, are unionized.
"It is not true for us," she said. "I don't know how we got lumped in there (in that report). We sent eight guys to Maryland, not New Jersey. They have been there since before the storm but they've finished work and are headed home this morning."
The folks from Decatur Utilies, who are still cited in the original WAFF report, have been unavailable for comment this morning.
When they do become available, you can bet that the real story is not one of power crews being turned away by unions who would rather see people freeze in unheated homes than have non-union crews work in New jersey.
But that won't stop Rush and the "journalists" at Fox.
