NEW YORK—Power giant Consolidated Edison and the union representing 8,000 of its employees resumed talks on Thursday, four days after contract negotiations broke down.
Meanwhile, a noisy protest staged by the Utility Workers of America Local 1-2 continued near Union Square in Lower Manhattan, where a crowd of about 300 union workers rallied in front of the Con Edison headquarters.
Negotiations broke down early Sunday after the workers’ contract expired midnight Saturday. Con Edison said it had offered a two-week extension of the current contract to buy time for the negotiations, but the union did not take it.
The union said its workers would be happy to work without a contract during negotiations and demanded higher wages, pensions, and health care. The union maintains that it was Con Edison that cut off talks and kicked union negotiators out of the room at 2 a.m. on Sunday. On its website, the union has a banner reading, “Burke is a jerk.”
With the union workers sent home, Con Edison has deployed 5,000 management personnel to fill field positions. After a week of hot weather in New York, Con Edison said on Thursday that its crews “are continuing to work through the heat to provide reliable service.” Three of the managers sent to the field have apparently suffered injuries during those duties.
Even though the union workers are eligible for immediate unemployment benefits, they said they cannot afford to stay out of work for too long. The workers are again hopeful with the talks resuming.
Con Edison serves 3.2 million customers in the five boroughs and Westchester County.
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