New York Mayor Bill De Blasio Sides With IBEW In The Strike Battle Against Charter®

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has finally decided to side with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) in their three-month battle with one of the leading internet providers in the country, Charter Communications^®. He recently made an appearance on the weekly talk show “Inside City Hall” that runs on a local channel owned by Charter^®.

“This is a situation that has to be resolved for the good of New York City,” Blasio said. “We’re talking about working people who are trying to make ends meet, trying to get a fair contract.” Reports claim that approximately 1,700 workers who are with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 3 organized a strike against the telecom company on March 28.

The strike happened because of the disagreement about the contribution of the telecom company to the benefits and pensions of the workers. Reports claim that the workers union arranged several meetings with the officials of Charter Communications^®, but both the parties failed to reach a settlement on the issue.

Mayor Blasio recently announced his support to the workers and he took aim at the CEO of Charter^®, Tom Rutledge, who received the biggest compensation amount for a top executive for a publicly traded company in the United States last year. It is to be noted that the cable company shed a sum of $98 million to successfully purchase Bright House Networks^® and Time Warner Cable^® last year.

De Blasio said, “So I have to imagine the resources are there to give working people a decent contract, and I hope this is something that can be resolved for everyone’s benefit.” According to reports, the existing franchise agreement offers a non-exclusive right to Charter^® for operating cable franchises in Staten Island, Queens, Brooklyn, and Manhattan through 2020.

However, the above-mentioned provision does come with certain conditions and one of them is that the telecom company must allow their employees the right to collective bargaining, a subject that is right at the heart of the current Charter Spectrum^® employee strike.

The franchise agreement of the city states that Charter spectrum^® “shall recognize the right of its employees to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing.” However, the strike has not yet affected the subscribership of Charter^® and they are still one of the favorite internet provider choices of U.S. customers, thanks to their cheap internet deals.