Utility rhetoric, policy are putting union workers in the crosshairs
A job as a frontline utility worker has always meant something in this state. It has meant a real career, a family sustaining wage, solid benefits, and the dignity that comes with doing work that matters. Our members have earned that respect the hard way — by showing up every day, in every kind of weather, to keep New York running.
What we’re seeing now is a dangerous shift. Utility workers and the energy industry as a whole are being turned into political punching bags. Instead of being thanked for keeping the lights on and the heat running, our members are being threatened and harassed — simply for doing their jobs.
Let me be clear: that is unacceptable.
We are proud to be the face of reliable energy in our communities. Our members meet customers in their homes, at their businesses, and on the street. They should not be harassed or made to feel uncomfortable working for the utility. Their families and the communities and customers they serve depend on them.
There are few workers more essential than the men and women who keep this system running 24 hours a day, seven days a week, often in the harshest conditions imaginable. This winter alone, with record natural gas usage, our members were there — nights, weekends, storms — making sure New Yorkers had heat and power when they needed it most. Instead of recognition for ensuring communities are safe during storms, they’re being unfairly targeted in many cases.
We are just as concerned about affordability as any family in this state — because we live here too. Our members feel the same cost pressures everyone else does. But when elected leaders choose to score political points by attacking utilities and the people who work for them, they create a climate where frontline workers pay the price. Heated rhetoric easily turns into real world consequences, and it is working people who get hurt.
This extends beyond the broader discussion. Politically motivated energy policy will make New York poorer — economically and socially.
Our members are building New York’s future. That means maintaining and upgrading pipes and wires, and it means constructing the transmission infrastructure needed to move clean energy across the state. That work requires stable investment. And many of the proposals being floated in these budget talks would do the opposite. They would grind investment to a halt and undermine the very systems that keep New York running.
When you hamstring utilities’ ability to raise the funds needed to do the work, you break promises of job commitments to union energy workers. And no one wants to see fewer jobs in our state.
If you truly care about affordability, stop treating it like a buzzword. The most effective affordability policy is stable, good paying union jobs. Our members have been the backbone of this state’s middle class for generations. They support their families, contribute to their communities, and help create opportunity for others.
The policies being proposed today threaten to put them out of work — and the rhetoric surrounding those policies place our members at risk. This is not leadership and not acceptable by any stretch of the imagination.
Pat Guidice is Chair of Utility Labor Council of New York State.
