Union workers strike in Sunset Park
Public advocate and councilmembers want contract resolution
The ongoing breakdown of talks between Charter Communications Inc. and its employees, who are represented by Local Union 3, has Public Advocate Letitia James calling on Charter to meet with the 1,800 striking employees represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 3 to negotiate a new contract. Charter Communications bought Time Warner Cable (TWC) for $55 billion in May 2015 and renamed it Spectrum
“The strike is over the fact that the company wants to take back pension and medical benefits,” Derek Jordan, business representative for Local Union No. 3, told the Brooklyn Eagle. “We’re also facing a situation where the employees are being disciplined for repeat service calls that are tied into Wi-Fi and poor internet service. That also ties into the Eric Schneiderman lawsuit where the company has basically falsified information regarding their internet speeds and our technicians are being disciplined over that.”
After an investigation that lasted for 16 months, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman determined that Spectrum-TWC subscribers were “getting dramatically shortchanged on both speed and reliability. Spectrum has an estimated 2.5 million subscribers across New York state.