The head of PG&E’s largest union has strong words for Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders: “You’re wrong.”
In a YouTube video released Monday, Tom Dalzell — the business manager for International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1245 — responded to Sanders’ critique of PG&E, part of the Vermont senator’s pitch to California voters ahead of the March 3 state primary.
“You assume that public ownership somehow guarantees that a utility would always have perfect judgement. You’re wrong,” Dalzell says in the video. “You assume that public ownership would significantly and quickly change the risks of fire from the grid. You’re wrong.”
The union’s attack comes nearly a week after the Sanders campaign released a three-minute ad berating PG&E for the number of fires it has been responsible for starting in recent years.
“If we’re going to be paying for everything that PG&E does, the people of California should have a say in how it is run,” an activist said in Sanders’ ad.
The ad stops short of specifically calling for a public takeover of the utility, but concludes with a nod to the Green New Deal, which Sanders has vowed to enact if elected.
In an interview with KQED, Dalzell said he was disappointed that Sanders did not consult IBEW 1245 before issuing the ad.
“He generally pays attention to unions and workers,” Dalzell said. “No such effort here.”
A key element of Dalzell’s critique stems from concerns over how a public takeover of the utility would impact workers’ pensions.
The Sanders campaign did not specifically respond to an inquiry about its push for a public takeover of the utility and the potential impact on workers’ pensions. But, in a statement, Josh Orton — the campaign’s policy director — said that Sanders’s plan calls for a large-scale transition to renewable energy generation that will create millions of well-paid union jobs in California and across the country.
“And let’s be clear: Bernie Sanders will prioritize the fossil fuel workers who have powered our economy for more than a century and who have too often been neglected by corporations and politicians,” he said.
PG&E entered into bankruptcy protection last year, citing liabilities stemming from wildfires. CalFire investigators have found that PG&E caused several recent massive fires in the state, including the 2018 Camp Fire, which killed 85 people and leveled the town of Paradise.
PG&E is getting closer to emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy by the state-mandated deadline of June 30. Doing so would allow it to tap a wildfire fund set up by California lawmakers to help protect the state’s utilities from future fire losses.