A union is accusing a New York telecommunications company of intimidating union members and setting up a sham decertification vote.
The Communications Union of America (CWA) declared in a press release that they have “rejected as illegal and a sham a vote conducted by a contractor hired by Cablevision management in Brooklyn this week.”
The press release goes onto clarify, “Replete with voting irregularities and intimidation, this phony vote is just the latest step by CEO James Dolan to intimidate union members that has included illegal mass firings, bad-faith bargaining, and other actions intended to break workers’ support for their union.”
“Apparently, this sham vote is intended to pressure techs, members of CWA Local 1109, into dropping their fight for a fair contract, but the workers remain united” the CWA added.
CWA President Larry Cohen said in a statement, “In my decades of organizing I have never seen such arrogant actions as those taken by billionaire CEO Jim Dolan. Dolan’s Tuesday night captive audience meeting followed, within hours, by the ‘Honest Ballot Association’ vote is a new low in the behavior of American management. It is up to the rest of us to stop him and use this case as an example of what America has become.”
CWA District One Vice President Chris Shelton also addressed the issue in a statement: “The only election that matters happened almost three years ago when Cablevision workers voted 180-86 to join CWA in an election supervised by the Federal government.”
Shelton goes on to say, “Just two months ago, despite the fear campaign, 189 Cablevision workers sent Dolan individually-signed petitions stating ‘we’re sticking with the union’ and they continue to fight for parity in pay and treatment with workers outside of Brooklyn.”
When asked whether Dolan intimidated workers, a spokeswoman for Cablevision told The Daily Caller News Foundation, “The accusations are without merit.”
Cablevision accuses the CWA of repeatedly delaying contract negotiations and filing baseless claims in order to get the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to block a decertification vote that Cablevision employees in Brooklyn have petitioned for since January of 2013.
In a statement obtained by TheDCNF, Cablevision addressed the union election, “It is time for the CWA to respect our employees’ wishes and withdraw. In addition, Mayor de Blasio is repaying a political debt to the CWA and the Working Families Party, and is advocating the union’s agenda against the wishes of our employees.”
“Mayor de Blasio should tell the CWA and his political friends to stop blocking our employees’ rights. We call upon the Mayor, the Working Families Party and the CWA to act promptly and allow our Brooklyn employees’ voices to prevail,” the statement concludes.
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