Received from Richard Healey
Friday, 2 December 2016 11:36 p.m.
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Lies, damned lies and Delta
Today a media statement, produced by Delta senior management, representative staff and the E tū union representative, was released. It is important to stress at this point that I’ve been told that the vote to release was supported by a minority of the Delta workers present. I’m told that 15 hands went up in favour out of the hundred people present.
The decision to release was made by the E tū union organiser present. Are your alarm bells ringing yet? Mine are.
Here’s the bit most people will miss:
Delta senior management, representative staff and the E tū union representative have agreed a joint statement that reflects the belief of all concerned,
You will notice that it does not say that the meeting authorised the release – yet it claims that it reflects the belief of “all concerned”. I’ve had plenty of phone calls from “all concerned” and they have stated categorically that it does not reflect their beliefs, read on…..
Here’s the release:
2 December 2016
Media Release
Joint statement following meeting of Delta management, staff and E tū union
Yesterday, meetings were held with representatives of staff, senior management of Delta, and E tū, the union. Similar discussions are planned involving Central Otago-based staff.
Discussions were held concerning the condition of the Aurora Energy electricity network and how risks are being managed for staff, contractors and the public. All parties are in agreement that it is in everyone’s interests that we work together productively as Delta carries out a significant uplift in capital and maintenance work across the Aurora Energy networks in Dunedin and Central Otago.
Delta senior management, representative staff and the E tū union representative have agreed a joint statement that reflects the belief of all concerned, they commented:
“Firstly, that the Aurora Energy network needs significant asset renewal work and that the age and condition of existing assets presents a higher level of risk than would be preferred.
RJH: That statement sounds suspiciously like an admission that there is a REAL PROBLEM – not merely a problem of perception, as Grady Cameron has consistently maintained. Let us hear that admission from Grady himself, not from a union organiser masquerading as a PR consultant doing the softened story routine. Come on Grady…we are all waiting….
None of us can now change past decisions made over decades about maintenance and investment in the network.
RJH: Man up Grady. My view is simple, it is not credible for you to say that “None of us can now change past decisions made over decades” when you are the person who, for almost all of the last decade, has been key in making those frankly appalling decisions. I’m sure that it would be great for you to be able to brush your past actions under the carpet. Wake up mate, it’s not happening.
We can change the way we manage assets and have already started doing that, however it will take time to address all the issues. Staff and management are committed to working closely together to complete the upgrades with a high level of safety caution and with public safety foremost in our minds.
RJH: Really? You’ve started doing that? Let’s review how that program is going. Your program director just quit, your General Manager asset management just quit, I see an ad today for a new manager of strategic planning, hmmm…. Poles replaced by the “accelerated” program to date? Zero, zip, nada – and counting.
“Secondly, that the health and safety of Delta staff and the public who live around the Aurora network is the primary responsibility of the company, DCHL and the DCC who ultimately own the network.”
RJH: Ah ha, the people who received a detailed report on this problem in 2010, a report that listed harm to staff and the public as potential outcomes of doing nothing, yeah, I feel [there] is a credibility problem here, how about you??
“Thirdly, we would like the public to know that Delta workers are doing their best to continue security of electricity supply and public safety. There may be more periods of planned power outages as we undertake the network upgrades and ask the public to work patiently with us.
RJH: finally, something we can agree on.
“Fourthly, that members of Delta’s technical staff who have hands-on knowledge of reported faults and risks will be engaged in how the company describes events publicly to the extent that is reasonably possible given media constraints and in the knowledge that detailed investigations often take time.”
RJH: Wow, that’s a hard hitter, we will talk to staff, but you know how it is with media deadlines. And those reports can take sooooo looooong to write. I wouldn’t be surprised if everyone has forgotten about the problem by the time we get around to reporting on it… in an email… to ourselves.
“Finally, Aurora Energy, and Delta staff, have agreed to work closely together on an enhanced public safety advertising campaign which will start in the near future. This will be about further informing the community about safety around electrical installations, particular hazards that we are working to resolve and general education about safety around the network.”
RJH: What? You’re going to tell people that high voltage lines on the ground really are a danger? Three cheers!!
For media enquiries, please contact:
● Mike Kirwood, Organiser, E tū, 027 591 0038
● Matt Ballard, General Manager Capability and Risk, Delta, 027 703 7044.
Here’s my view.
The majority who did NOT vote to release this statement have not been heard. Their voices are apparently worth nothing. Their voices are, in real terms, valued by Delta as much as their lives. And I think that is not a whole lot.
I believe that the management whom the minority of their colleagues are prepared to ‘work with’ have, for years, knowingly sent these guys to work on an unsafe network with no intent to make it safe…in fact their inaction made it less safe, day by day, year by year.
They have instructed these workers to not apply do not climb tags.
They have manipulated data, the Xivic debacle, on unsafe structures with the effect that the true number of unsafe structures was hidden.
They have failed to investigate asset failures appropriately and often not at all.
They have consistently denied their own workforce access to the information it needs to make decisions which truly are the difference between life and death, for workers and the unwitting public alike.
These same managers were simultaneously accepting awards for exceptional management performance!
Roger Steel must be spinning in his grave.
Shame on you all.
Finally, a word from Delta’s glorious leader at, believe it or not, zeroharm.org.nz on October 19th this year!!
ZeroHarm [click to enlarge]
Source: FB post
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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr
This post is offered in the public interest.
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