Major utility companies in New Jersey said that they are welcoming any and all out-of-state crews helping to restore power, and have not refused any non-union contractors.

At least one media report out of Alabama claims that personnel from that state were turned away in Seaside Heights because they were not affiliated with a union.

“We take crews as they become available,” said Ron Morano, a spokesman for Jersey Central Power & Light. “Everyone understands this is an all-hands-on-deck event.”

He said crews from throughout the nation were now working in JCP&L’s service area, including from California, Idaho, Kentucky, Florida, Michigan and North Carolina.

He did suggest that municipal companies might have issues working side-by-side with non-unionized contractors.

“We did not turn any crews away,” he said.

A Public Service Electric & Gas spokeswoman also said the extent of damage from Monday’s superstorm called for as much manpower as could get here.

“We have not turned any mutual-aid crews away,” Deann Muzikar said. “We’re taking any help we can possibly get.”

As of Wednesday, about 1,050 out-of-state contractors were working in PSE&G’s service area, she said, including from utility companies in Canada, Texas, Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, Pennsylvania and other states.

“Every day we’re getting more and more,” Muzicar said.

The president and business manager of Hightstown-based Local 94 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Chip Gerrity, also said it would be foolish to favor one set of workers over another after the devastation to the electric infrastructure.

“I want union guys first, obviously,” Gerrity said. “But with an event like this you want everybody you can get.”

Three Alabama utilities were initially mentioned by a Huntsville (Ala.) television station in a story this morning that said non-union crews were turned aside.

One of those, Trinity, Ala.-based Joe Wheeler, was never in New Jersey and is unionized, its CEO, George Kitchens, said this morning.

Eight Wheeler workers were instead dispatched to Maryland before the storm hit, a company spokeswoman, Mandi Phillips, said.

“We are headed back home,” she said. “We were never turned away.”

Bill Yell, communications manager for Huntsville Utilities, said he was not aware that a union issue had prevented three of that company’s crews from working in New Jersey.

Huntsville originally sent two 3-man bucket crews and one 3-man pole-setting crew to Seaside Heights, but that all nine had since been dispatched to Long Island, Yell said.

“The reason we’re not working with the New Jersey system is that they had all the crews they could handle,” he said.

The fact that those crews are not unionized did not have any effect, he said.

“They didn’t have any problems with us,” he said.

Decatur (Ala.) Utilities, the third utility mentioned in the television story, has not responded to several calls for comment this morning.

Seaside Heights' municipal electric utility could not be reached.