UFA blames GEBE’s
supervisor for outage
PHILIPSBURG--United Federation of the Windward Antilles (UFA) has called for an investigation into the daily operations of GEBE’s power plant after an incident which it claims resulted in prolonged power outage in some area(s) early last week. The area(s) affected could not be ascertained.
In a letter to managing director Williams Brooks, UFA Advisor Willy Haize said one of GEBE’s supervisors refused to act on the advice from one of the union’s shop stewards, resulting in the power outage.
Haize said the shop steward who was changing the fuel in one of the company’s engines on Sunday, September 9, had advised the power plant supervisor that the fuel injector pump should also be changed simultaneously. Haize said the worker advised his superior to change the injector pump because he foresaw that it would have needed changing. Haize said the worker proceeded to change the pump, but was informed by his supervisor that he was “trying to kill two birds with one stone.”
While carrying out the exercise, Haize said the worker encountered another problem which prevented him from completing the task. “The sleeve of the injector was leaking water, so as a mechanic, (the worker) couldn’t put it back together,” Haize said in the letter, dated September 11. The shop steward informed his supervisor about the problem and a decision was taken to leave the engine the way it was until the following day Monday, September 10, the letter said.
Haize claimed the supervisor had subsequently called in another team to work on the engine, much to the dismay of the shop steward, who claimed he wasn’t given credit for identifying the problem. “I wasn’t even given the credit for finding the underlying problem which could not have been discovered by other mechanics,” the shop steward said in the letter, which he co-signed.
The union claims that because of the “supervisor’s pride, the community had to pay the price of not having current.”
The union said electricity was still out on Tuesday, September 11, two days after the problem was pinpointed.
Brooks was asked to investigate whether the workers at the plant were serious about their jobs. “Because they seem to enjoy the fact that we (GEBE) are still load shedding… All the supervisors know GEBE can’t take any chances because of load shedding,” reads the letter. “It is incredible that supervisors could let their personality traits, personal preferences and shortcomings hinder their judgement.”
