'Attitude adjustment' recommended for APS, Peabody.

Kathy Helms, (Dine Bureau/Gallup Independent)

WINDOW ROCK – Representatives of Arizona Public Service Co. came before the Budget and Finance Committee Tuesday to discuss the fate of the Four Corners Power Plant and went away with a word of warning: The attitude of APS toward its Navajo workers has to change.

Committee Chairman LoRenzo Bates said he and Resources Committee Chairman George Arthur have been meeting with some of the employees of APS.

“In one of the meetings there was about an average of 25 to 28 years of service sitting in that room,” Bates said. However, only 74 percent of APS' workers are Native American.

“APS was built 47 years ago. I would say the Navajo Nation leaders at that time envisioned that some of those employees would be in management. And after 47 years, I don't see it. Forty-seven years ago, there were probably not that many educated Navajos in engineering and so on, but that has changed,” he said.

With APS' change in management, workers are being transferred or laid off or are taking early retirement, Bates said, “but the Navajos that are there are not filling those positions. Those vacant positions are being filled from outside, yet you have 28 years of experienced Navajos that could fill those positions. That's one of the issues that is being brought forth.”

The complaint was similar to one raised April 1 during a work session on a coal royalty “reopener” agreement with Peabody Western Coal Co.

Phil Russell, international representative for United Mine Workers of America, told the Navajo Nation Council that though they have a contractual agreement with Peabody, the company is bringing in outside contractors.

“We've got enough Navajo people on our panel to do those jobs. I've got hundreds of Navajos that are welders, carpenters, truck drivers; but for whatever reason, Peabody goes outside to bring in those contractors.”

He said some of the Navajo workers who actually live on Black Mesa are coming forth to talk to them.

“They're telling us that they have mom-and-pop operations up there that are laying them off and using their own family members to operate equipment. We don't represent them, but we wanted to bring that forth to you. Because they don't have protection, they don't say anything. But we, as United Mine Workers, we're willing to talk on their behalf,” Russell said.

When the lease with Peabody first came forth, it contained provisions stating that Navajos would be trained, he added. “But when our Navajo brothers and sisters were laid off from the Black Mesa complexes, in order for them to get a job when their seniority number comes up at Kayenta Mine, Peabody is saying they have to be tested.

“What we have here is we have individuals that did jobs for years at Black Mesa Mine, and for whatever reason, when they go to Kayenta Mine, they're not qualified. That doesn't make sense. So what we're saying is, 'If you're going to do this, you'd better train them, because that is in the original lease agreement.”

Bates told Mark Schiavoni, senior vice president of Fossil Generation at APS, that though Schiavoni mentioned “in the spirit of trying to work together,” that spirit appeared only to be coming from him. “That same attitude doesn't seem to be coming from upper management. That attitude has to change.”

He mentioned last week's meeting regarding the Peabody leases as an example. It would only take Northern Agency delegates to say, “We have a problem,” and probably everybody would take a step back from any lease agreements that APS might want to move forward, Bates said. “You don't want that. I'm saying, now, straighten it up. Fix it.”

Schiavoni, who has been at Four Corners Power Plant for only a year, said, “I'm not going to apologize and I'm not going to look backward. I'm not part of that legacy. I don't disagree with your comment, or Chairman Arthur also. We have not done a good job of developing people, and it goes beyond Native Americans.”

Schiavoni said he does not disagree that they need a change in attitude. “It's been a long process. I think we're starting to change that.”

For too long, workers were suppressed, figuratively speaking, and weren't allowed to speak their mind, he added. “It was not a part of our culture – not just there, but across all my facilities. So we're trying to encourage that type of communication.”

These days, he brings a group of employees together in a room and asks them what they think is going well, what they don't think is going well. “They all have opinions. They all think they have the right answer; they know what needs to be done – and they do.

“But we haven't trusted them to give them all of the information and give them the opportunity to be part of the system. So we're challenging them in ways they haven't been challenged before. It doesn't always come across positive, and for that I take the blame. I provide a sense of urgency to the problem,” he said.

APS has promoted three Native Americans in the last six months to senior management positions, he added.

Brad Brown of Peabody told Council last week that the company's workers are represented by the United Mine Workers. “They do have a formal process to process grievances and claims, and we do that on a regular basis. We feel that is very effective.”

Brown said that in 2000, the total Native American work force was 378 out of 413, or 92 percent The total number of Native managers, supervisors and officials at that time was 19 out of 45, or 42 percent.

“In 2010, the total Native American work force out of a total of 427 employees that we have are 401. We're at 94 percent. The total Native managers, supervisors and officials is 44 out of 62, for 71 percent,” Brown said.