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Conference Draws Hundreds; May 6, 2002
Familiar themes dominated the 2002 IBEW Utility Conference April 22-26 in Toronto, Ontario. On the 10th anniversary of the law that deregulated the energy industry in the United States, the main subject of the conference was restructuringan ongoing story which continues to unfold on both sides of the border. International President Ed Hill addresses the conference (below).
More than 500 IBEW members attended the conference, which had a truly international flavor with guests from as far away as Australia to share their experience with electric industry restructuring. The negative universal qualities of deregulationhigher consumer prices and profit-driven competition at the expense of customershave rippled worldwide, IBEW International President Edwin Hill said. "The changes wrought in the utility industry may have had their origins in the United States but the trend toward privatization, deregulation and restructuring quickly spread across the border, and indeed across the globe," President Hill said. "We in the utility industry have better reason than most to stand united across borders." IBEW Utility Department Director Jim Dushaw reflected on the remarkable year since the last conferenceEnrons bankruptcy and the resulting fallout, the national debate over the direction of energy policy and the expected summer of electricity chaos in California that never materialized. "California did not fall flat on its face as expected but it did reveal deep problems in the markets," Dushaw said. Ontario was an appropriate place for the conference, because May 1 marked the date the most populous province in Canada opened its retail markets to deregulation. Conference speaker David Freeman, chairman of Californias Power Authority, said Ontarians are not necessarily in for a smooth transition if Californias experience is any indication. "[Californians] were mesmerized with the idea that almost by magic we were going to restructure the electricity industry and reduce prices at the same time," said Freeman, who also spoke at the IBEW convention last September in San Francisco. "We were all so naive, hoodwinked by the idea that competition was so much more attractive than monopoly. How wrong we were." John Ingram, of the Communications, Electrical and Plumbers Union in Australia, told the group that consumers there did not benefit from deregulation. "We were certainly promised price decreases," he said, adding that consumer prices have risen by more than 25 percent. Other speakers provided participants a perspective on utility legislation in the United States as well as differing views of the deregulation picture in Canada. The impact of the aging utility work force on benefits was also discussed. Five-hour workshops geared toward workers in electrical, transmission and distribution, clerical, gas and generation provided industry-specific information and guidance to participants. General workshop topics touched on numerous policy and work place issues, including:
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