Nashville Electric Co. Accused of Refusing Union Help As 1000s Are Still Without Power
Thousands of people in Nashville, Tennessee, are still without power after the devastation left by Winter Storm Fern — and now the city is launching an investigation into why.
On Wednesday, February 4, Nashville Mayor Freddie O'Connell announced plans to look into how the Nashville Electric Service handled last week's winter storm. O'Connell issued an executive order for a commission to investigate exactly what went wrong.
"In addition to the requests I made of NES leadership yesterday, I am issuing Executive Order 58, establishing a Commission to Review Preparation and Response to the January 2026 Winter Storm," O'Connell said. "The commission will have the ability to hold hearings and request the assistance of the Metropolitan Auditor. I have asked the commission to return its initial findings within six months."
More than 200,000 people lost power
Power outages peaked at 230,000 during the winter storm, News Channel 5 reported. Nashvillians have raised several concerns about NES, including that the city refused help from out-of-town and out-of-state electric companies because they required union rates.
The city's response to the storm also raised concerns that a similar weather event would result in the same catastrophic conditions. O'Connell explained, "Nashvillians can’t get the last week back—nights huddled under blankets, unplanned shelter or hotel stays, the uncertainty and fear of not knowing what’s happening and how long it will take to simply return home. And that’s why it’s so troubling that details NES leadership shared about their internal outlook—that they hadn’t previously shared with us—would’ve had a huge impact on the public guidance we gave from the beginning of the crisis. That is unacceptable."
Last week two members of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers told WZTV Nashville NES turned their offers of help down. The men, who chose to remain anonymous, explained, "I’ve had a lot of people reach out trying to come to Nashville to help restore power. They keep getting the same answer- that NES is full and doesn’t need help... I just don’t think they want to pay the union rates."
NES began work with fewer than 300 linemen
WZTV also reported that NES began power recovery work with fewer than 300 linemen on the job. The news channel also reported speaking with another member of IBEW member, who said "housands of union linemen were potentially available after getting released from North Carolina, where they were originally staged, which didn't suffer as intense a storm."
The anonymous lineman also insisted around 18,000 linemen were either sent home or to assist neighboring areas. He ended up working with Middle Tennessee Electric, which had approximately 200,000 fewer outages.
“Why are we 10 minutes down the road with 2,000 outages when we could be 15 minutes to Nashville and help out with more than 200 broken poles?” he said. “Union or non-union, they could bring in way more people... You think they would put all hands on deck, and flood that city with linemen and just get everything turned on as fast as they can."
As of February 4, approximately 7,000 homes in the city are still without power. WKRN reported Wednesday that people living in Wedgewood Park are on their 11th day without electricity in their homes.