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Remaining power plant workers ‘just have to take on more responsibilities’
With their request for a temporary restraining order that would allow their foreign workers whose permits expired to immediately return to work being denied by the U.S. District Court, the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. will just have to make do with less manpower for their power plant operations.
Over 20 “highly-skilled” CUC power plant workers are still not allowed to go to work today.
“At this point the only thing we can do is get [the permits] as soon as possible and try to get some of the people on the job,” acting executive director Gary Camacho said.
“We have a very good of people that’s currently [at the power plant]. They just have to take on more responsibilities. We appreciate everything they do and we have a lot of confidence in them,” he added.
However, Camacho admitted that there might be some work that won’t get done because of the significant number of employees that are still not able to resume work.
“Some work is obviously not going to get done,” Camacho said,
“We hope that we’re not going to have any real issues,” he added.
Asked if he can assure the public that there will be no interruptions or effect with regards to the power supply for the commonwealth, Camacho said, “It’s hard to say.”
“You have to understand that if there are any emergency situations involved then obviously we’re not going to have the same number of qualified skilled labor force that we normally do until the 16th,” Camacho said.
Camacho said they are looking forward to having their permits processed no later than Jan. 16— an assurance made by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to the utilities company.
“We respect the decision by the court and we’ll move forward with the best of our abilities,” Camacho said.
