Public Employee Press

Locked-out Con Ed workers get DC 37 support

As the clock neared midnight on June 30, the Consolidated Edison company locked out its employees, blaming the union's refusal to sign a no-strike agreement. Throughout the three-week lockout, Local 1-2 of the Utility Workers of America maintained picket lines at Con Ed facilities as negotiations continued.

Hundreds of unionists from DC 37 and many New York City unions walked the picket lines with the Con Ed workers in their fight for fairness and justice. In a rally on July 17, union activists and Local 1-2 members marched from the company's Irving Place headquarters to Union Square.

DC 37 Associate Director Oliver Gray addressed the crowd: "Con Ed chief executive Kevin Burke makes more than $11 million. He has a guaranteed pension of $18 million. Yet he wants to deny his employees a pension. This company is acting in a mean-spirited way, trying to take advantage of the anti-union environment," Gray said.

On July 25, Gov. Andrew Cuomo entered the talks and an agreement was reached ending the lockout. Local 1-2 members returned to work and began voting on the agreement in August. Terms were not being released during the vote, but were said to include a 10 percent wage increase over the life of the contract, a 401(k) system for new employees, and an increase in contributions toward the medical insurance.

"I think this is just greed. Con Ed has plenty of money - it's the big guy trying to squish the little guy," said 35-year clerical worker Isabella Buirkle. "The 401(k) depends on stocks and bonds. Why should we work all our lives and then they lose our money on Wall Street?"

"Employers are trying to take things back to the days when they had no unions," said Inspector Omar Bell.

Dennis Mott, a Senior Office Assistant, began working nights for the company on the maintenance crew when he was 19. One year later, he was walking a picket line. It was 1982 and the union workforce numbered 16,000. That was before the company outsourced so much of its work and cut the number of union employees to 8,500.