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March Against the "Game"

May 2001 IBEW Journal

Nobody knows better the high costs of California's failed experiment with utility deregulation than the front line - the state's IBEW workers.

IBEW locals 11, 18, 45, 465 and 441 joined in solidarity with members of Local 47, Diamond Bar, California, to march outside the AES generating plant in Huntington Beach to protest the role of wholesale electricity providers in California's continuing power crisis. These locals represent workers in the utility, construction and broadcasting branches of the Brotherhood.

Demonstrators, marching with T-shirts and signs saying "Stop the Game," object to the system that has caused rolling power blackouts and threatened the continuing operation of utilities across the state (see "IBEW Seeks Remedy to Deregulation's 'Colossal Failure,'"). The power crisis has made reliable electricity in the state a thing of the past and gravely threatened employment security for thousands of IBEW members.

Wholesale power suppliers have largely been blamed for "gaming" the state's open electricity market by withholding power during normal bidding in order to force the power providers to pay exorbitantly high prices during peak need. Suppliers like AES, one of the largest electricity generators in the world, have made extra profits under this system. Investor-owned utilities, like Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison, are caught in a vise as they are prohibited by California's deregulation laws from passing higher prices on to the consumer, yet are at the mercy of profiteering suppliers.

"The prices they charge should be related to the cost of generation plus a reasonable profit," said Pat Lavin, Local 47 business manager. "Their current profits are gouging the utility companies, the state and the consumer."

Federal regulators continue to investigate whether the power suppliers in California's market have unjustifiably increased rates throughout the crisis. The Federal Energy and Regulatory Committee recently ordered power suppliers to refund $55 million to state utilities for the month of February and $69 million for the month of January.

Brother Lavin and the other protesters were joined by California Federation of Labor Executive Secretary Art Pulaski for the February 24 march that ended after they posted a "Stop the Gouging" sign on the AES plant's front gates.