As it nears its 10th month, Local 3 IBEW’s strike against cable giant Spectrum has become a test of worker endurance — and union loyalty.
Roughly 1,800 union cable techs hit the picket lines on March 28, when prolonged contract talks fell apart, forcing a walkout.
The strike has now outlasted the state unemployment benefits of many members.
Those who can’t get by on the $350 a week paid out by the Local 3 strike fund have been faced with a gut-wrenching choice: They can return to work, but that will mean leaving their union.
The Spectrum cable company — a subsidiary of Charter Communications — says it does not force any returning workers to quit Local 3 before it will consider them for re-employment.
But many know that they can be hit with a fine from Local 3 for crossing a picket line — so they voluntarily opt out of the union before re-signing with Spectrum.
Local 3 business manager Chris Erikson said there have been some union members who did bail on the strike because of their own private economic pressures — but it’s a small minority.
“These workers know what’s going on here. They know that the value of what they are being told they have to give up by Spectrum is far greater than what the company is offering in return,” Erikson said. “And they’re not going to help the company starve Local 3 into submission.”
Far from demoralizing Local 3, the Spectrum’s hardline approach to negotiating has helped keep more strikers on the picket line, according to Erikson.
“Being part of a union means you as a worker have a voice in the workplace — our members know that, and it’s not something they’re willing to give up,” he told the Daily News on Friday.
That’s not to say that Local 3 hasn’t made some significant moves in an effort to end the painful strike — which has drained the union of $5 million and counting, and brought economic chaos to members’ lives.
Five days before Christmas, Erikson said, he and a federal mediator sat down with Spectrum representatives.
He was prepared to give the cable company a major concession — not all that it wanted to extract from the workforce, but a significant portion, Erikson said.
“The company, from the beginning, said it wants us to give up our union defined benefit pension fund and our union health care plan,” he said. “They want us to pay out of pocket for the corporate health plan and into a 401(k) with a 6% match. That’s what drove us out into the streets.”
At the Dec. 20 meeting, Erikson put an option on the table that is the nightmare of every trade union. He offered up the unborn.
“We asked the company to let the workers hired before the strike, who are in the union health care and pension plans to stay in them,” he said.
“And workers hired after the strike would pay into the new plan, the company’s 401(k). We would give up new hires — and eventually, through attrition, Spectrum would get what they want. The union benefits would be phased out.”
He did ask the company to have the new hires pay 3% into an international IBEW defined benefit pension fund — “just so in case the stock market goes bust again, they would have something,” Erikson said.
But the Spectrum representatives rejected the deal at the table, Erikson said.
Mayor de Blasio and Gov. Cuomo have expressed their support for ending the strike — even marching with Local 3 in a massive demonstration across the Brooklyn Bridge over the summer.
State Controller Tom DiNapoli has also weighed in, as have quite a few other lawmakers in the city and in Albany.
The City Council even convened a hearing to discuss whether the Spectrum strike was a violation of the company’s exclusive charter — a reminder that its franchise agreement is also up in two years.
Even a rally appearance from the head of the AFL-CIO, Richard Trumka, didn’t seem to dent Spectrum’s corporate shield.
But Local 3 hasn’t given up. Across the network affiliates of the New York City Central Labor Council, which represents most of the city’s public and private unions, Local 3 is reaching out for strategic and networking support.
Many have offered financial help too, like the New York Hotel and Motel Trades Council, which has made generous donations, Erikson said.
Within IBEW, the wing of construction electricians — who remain employed — are taking a .5% pay cut to provide extra relief to the strikers and their families.
That will generate enough money to cover the strikers for an additional eight weeks, Erikson said.
But Erikson is quick to note that the Spectrum strike is about more than just keeping union benefits.
One of the other contract battles with Spectrum is over its use of cheap, subcontracted labor, Erikson said.
“They want to be able to bring that in, and we are against it — not just for the union’s interests, but because it will bring down all workers’ wages,” he said. “The guys who earn $25 an hour, how long are they going to last when the company can hire someone else for $15 – and what if there’s no union to fight for them? These kinds of policies will set all workers back.”
A Spectrum spokesman told The News the company is “willing to participate in meaningful and reasonable negotiations.”
Since July, according to spokesman John Bonomo, Spectrum has put an offer on the table that includes a 22% wage increase — and higher for certain workers — and “excellent health insurance choices. . . And a 401(k) savings plan with a generous match.”
But Erikson said the company’s only had one negotiating position all along: It’s their offer, or nothing.
After his Dec. 20 meeting with Spectrum, he said, the company issued an explanatory letter to its employees that Erikson felt misrepresented his position at the table.
“They said I made a ‘final offer’ and refused to negotiate more,” he said. “That’s not what I said, and when I saw the letter I called the mediator and she agreed with me that they were misrepresenting the discussion.”
Through the mediator, he asked Spectrum to meet again, so he could better explain the union’s position.
On Friday, shortly after talking to The News, the mediator called him back, he said.
“She told me Spectrum has refused to meet with me again,” Erikson said. “They don’t see the need.”
