To the editor:
FortisBC locked out its workers but it’s the managers who should be locked out.
The financial difference between the union and the company in the failed negotiations is $300,000. That may sound like a lot but that’s for a small increase in wages for over 225 employees. Compare that to just one FortisBC CEO who makes $1.4 million, far more than the $531,000 BC Hydro’s CEO makes.
FortisBC’s boss makes almost three times as much as BC Hydro’s, yet FortisBC is a fraction of BC Hydro’s size. FortisBC (gas & electric) only has 2,200 employees, 1.1 million customers, and a net revenue of $187 million, whereas BC Hydro has more than 6,100 employees, 1.9 million customers, and $558 million in net income.
On top of being a much smaller company, FortisBC charges its customers 20 per cent more than BC Hydro.
FortisBC, as a monopoly, is guaranteed a profit by the BC Utilities Commission and in 2012 this was 9.9 per cent drastically higher than the 7.75 per cent Stats Canada reports as the industry average for utilities.
And for all of this, facing no competition, FortisBC pays its CEO almost 300 per cent more than the CEO of the largest utility in B.C. and decides to lock out 225 workers and their families.
FortisBC workers don’t deserve to be locked out and it’s the extreme wages of FortisBC executives that need to be locked down.
Scott Ross,
Kelowna
