In late July, a bitter four-week lockout of over 8,000 unionized utility workers in New York City came to an end. Consolidated Edison, the private utility monopoly that delivers gas and electricity to the city, brazenly locked out their unionized workforce during a massive heat wave.
Despite earning billion-dollar profits, the company insisted that as part of any new contract the union accept a two-tier pension system, eliminating secure pensions for new hires. They further demanded higher employee-contributed health costs and advance notice prior to any strike action.
The union leadership conceded to many of the company’s demands in exchange for returning to work—and the contract was then ratified by the membership with a 93 percent vote.
The company’s attack on their workers, largely victorious, points again to the need to develop a fighting strategy for labor, both in its level of preparation and capacity to disrupt and halt business as usual.
For nearly a month, the company relied on supervisors and retired managers, as well as imported scab labor from utility contractors based in the South. Union members had begun to use social networking sites to document and confront these non-union operators, many of which lacked the proper licensing and safety credentials.
Finally, with a major storm anticipated in the New York area that could have seriously disrupted the electrical system, Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo intervened to push through a tentative agreement to end the lockout. Posing as a “friend of labor,” Cuomo had been silent for weeks, allowing the company to further tighten the screws on its financially desperate workers.
While some portrayed Cuomo’s intervention as being on the side of the union, the settlement shows otherwise. His intervention was aimed to protect business from heightened disruptions, and ending an impasse that could have led to a wider labor conflagration in the state.
The lockout appeared to catch Local 1-2 by surprise. It is a warning to the labor movement as a whole about the present era of collective bargaining. Rather than a ritualistic practice in which both sides will yield a few items but management will accept labor’s place at the table, more and more corporate executives are aiming for wholesale concessions and major restructuring, if not outright union-busting. Failing to prepare for struggles, strikes and lockouts in the lead-up to negotiations only invites such open aggression and makes the union less able to respond in times of crisis.
There are other lessons for labor to learn from the Con Ed defeat, including revisiting its war chest of tactics. While the union’s pickets powerfully symbolized and presented the grievances of the workers, they did not physically prevent the use of scab labor.
The New York labor movement did not respond effectively to the assault on Con Ed workers. Any widening of the struggle would have given Con Ed workers further encouragement to fight, and may have stiffened the resolve of their union negotiators.
There was no comprehensive outreach campaign to the city’s working class to counter the capitalist press, which portrayed the workers as lazy and pampered in an attempt to pit Con Ed consumers against them. Instead of the struggle broadening, which would have brought more ruling-class pressure to bear on Con Ed’s management, Con Ed management was allowed to hold the cards and the leverage.
Rallying in the streets
On July 25, the day before the lockout ended, Con Ed workers showed their anger, unity and resilience with a rally in downtown Manhattan. They enjoyed the support of a huge crowd of community organizations and labor unions who rallied earlier in the day demanding an increased federal minimum wage.
They were joined by members and supporters of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, who spent the month of July petitioning to put the Peta Lindsay / Yari Osorio Presidential Campaign on the New York state ballot. After a morning of petitioning in Union Square, PSL members joined the main picket of locked out Con Ed workers at 4 Irving Place, and offered their help to the union organizers on duty. Many workers welcomed the campaign’s press release calling for citywide solidarity with the workers and exposing the lies of ConEd’s management.
PSL members dispatched with other Utility Workers Local 1-2 members to join the union’s contingent at the Living Wage Campaign rally at Herald Square. Riding the N train, a small group chanted and blew air horns while carrying signs that read “Hands Off Our Pensions!” “Con Edison, Con Everyone!”
The march from Herald Square to Union Square made a number of stops along the way, including at Burlington Coat Factory, which was targeted in nationwide protests for paying their employees unlivable wages. Marchers also targeted companies like Chipotle and J.C. Penney.
Con Edison workers enthusiastically greeted the Living Wage march as it entered Union Square and joined their rally. Despite the company’s aggressive move to lock out its workforce, pushing thousands onto unemployment insurance and temporarily stripping them of health insurance, the union members present appeared to be in high spirits and ready to fight for a good contract.
Unfortunately, it was not enough to turn back the utility giant’s offensive.
