The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has abandoned plans to outsource employees after President Donald Trump interceded on their behalf last week.
The authority earlier this year announced its intentions to outsource one out of every five of its information technology jobs, resulting in at least 200 in-house IT jobs being shipped out.
President Trump last Monday removed the TVA’s board chairman, Skip Thompson, and one other board member — citing the outsourcing plans. The president also warned the other board members that they would be next if the plans continued and called on them to replace the organization’s CEO, who Trump said was making far too much money.
On Thursday, Tupelo, MS-based Daily Journal reported that the TVA had scrapped its outsourcing plans in the wake of the the president’s opposition, as well as a related executive order he signed.
“This is certainly a win for American workers, for TVA ratepayers, and for everyone who relies on the U.S. electrical grid,” said Gay Henson, president of the Engineering Association/IFPTE Local 1937. “Our members will get their jobs back. TVA ratepayers will benefit from having skilled U.S. workers providing quality service. And the entire U.S. electrical grid will be more secure, with critical information remaining on U.S. soil.”
The TVA is the electricity provider for much of North Alabama. Self-described as “a corporate agency of the United States,” it is regulated at the federal level and not under the jurisdiction of the Alabama Public Service Commission.
In a statement to Yellowhammer News, Congressman Robert Aderholt (AL-04) reacted to the news.
“TVA is an agency of the United States government,” he stated. “The federal government, or any entity thereof, should always, whenever absolutely possible, hire American workers to do American government work. So, I’m happy that TVA reversed its decision.”
“It is unfortunate for TVA that the President had to get directly involved for them to understand that hiring Americans first should be the highest priority,” he added.
Congressman Mo Brooks (AL-05) also reacted to the TVA reversal in a Facebook post. He pointed to a letter he sent to the TVA in March about the issue.
“Thanks to an executive order from President Trump, TVA finally did the right thing yesterday and reversed their decision to replace American IT workers with foreign workers,” Brooks said on Friday. “I wrote to TVA on this issue in March demanding answers. TVA is tasked with spurring economic development. Outsourcing IT jobs is the complete opposite of what TVA should be doing. TVA should put ratepayers and Americans first.”
U.S. Senator Doug Jones (D-AL) and former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions in recent months also had been vocal opposing the TVA plans. Jones’ office did not respond to a request for comment on this story.
Sean Ross is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
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