New allegations leveled at striking Charter-Spectrum workers

Parent Company Charter Communications Accuses Strikers of Sabotage

October 16, 2017 By John Alexander Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Around 1,800 Spectrum workers have been on strike since March 28. Eagle photo by John Alexander

Share this:

The battle between striking Spectrum/Time-Warner employees and parent company Charter Communications is in its seventh month and with no end in sight. And now, new allegations are being leveled against the striking workers by Charter Communications.

According to a report in the New York Post, the striking workers are taking their frustrations out on tens of thousands of customers by cutting cable lines at “optimal locations” in what is being referred to as blatant acts of sabotage.

As a result, last Tuesday night Charter Communications filed a suit in the New York Supreme Court, asking a judge for an emergency order blocking the 1,800 striking members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local Union 3 from coming within 25 feet of any facilities, threatening workers or damaging equipment.

The striking union workers have been without a paycheck since March 28, and will soon lose their jobless benefits. They claim that Charter has refused to bargain in good faith and has attempted to slash benefits by gutting the pensions and medical plans of their employees.

For their part, Charter says that they have offered the workers a generous compensation package that includes an average 22-percent wage increase, with some employees receiving up to a 55-percent wage increase, along with comprehensive retirement and health benefits, including a 401(k) plan.

Charter spokesman John Bonomo gave the following statement to the Brooklyn Eagle. “We have filed a lawsuit in state court to help ensure we can provide the best possible service to New Yorkers in the face of the union’s efforts to block our vehicles from exiting our facilities and impede customers from visiting our retail stores.”

One such incident involved picketing workers who walked back and forth slowly, blocking seven company trucks from leaving at the765 Fifth Ave. location in Greenwood Heights.

The suit claims that “Charter has been subjected to more than 125 acts of sabotage undertaken . . . at Local 3’s behest or direction . . . in an effort to interrupt television, internet and telephone service for thousands of homes and businesses throughout New York City and northern New Jersey.”

The suit also claims that “Following several recent acts of sabotage, CBS News reported that police sources link it back to Spectrum technicians, who have been on strike for months.”

It also alleges that multiple arrests of strikers have not deterred the activity, including more than 125 occasions of cables being cut or damaged, “thereby denying thousands of subscriber’s access to cable, internet and voice service.”

Furthermore, according to the suit, “The saboteurs clearly knew the optimal locations where they could quickly cut cable lines to multiple customers without being harmed or observed, suggesting they are cable technicians who work for Charter,” the suit says.

“We continue to work with the NYPD on the acts of vandalism to our network,” said Bonomo. “And, as the complaint states, we have experienced more than 125 instances since the strike began. That’s compared to four instances of vandalism to our cable system in the three-year period that preceded the strike.”

The suit lists other incidents of vandalism in Brooklyn that necessitated the repair of thousands of fiber optic cables. A fiber cable was cut and stolen from a cable “vault” near the intersection of Clinton and Schermerhorn streets. Three other fiber enclosures were cut and stolen at the intersection of Washington and Flushing avenues, and two more fiber enclosures were cut and stolen at the intersection of Flushing Avenue and Navy Street.

At press time, union representatives did not return calls for comment.