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Consolidated Edison (ED) locks out 8,500 its unionized workers after a collective bargaining...

  • Sunday, July 1, 2012, 3:14 AM ET
    Consolidated Edison (ED) locks out 8,500 its unionized workers after a collective bargaining agreement expires and talks over a new contract break down. The New York electricity utility, which  is drafting 5,000 managers to replace the workers, says the lockout won't prevent it from being able to provide enough power to  cope with the increased demand brought by the city's heatwave.
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This news story has 8 comments:

  •  
    The next step here would be, when the strike is over, check and see if there were any problems caused by 5,000 managers being engaged elsewhere.
    1 Jul 2012, 06:54 AM Reply Like
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    You would think that the workers would realize if life goes on without them maybe they are not that critical to the company. Just a thought.
    1 Jul 2012, 10:47 AM Reply Like
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    These managers are going to take off their ties, dress up in hard hats and rain gear, and go up in a bucket lift and fix power lines during an outage caused by for instance a hurricane or an icestorm.

    Just try to imagine it. The CEO will explain to the public, how life goes on without electricity, only it's not as pleasant and convenient, like your furnace or air conditioner doesn't work.

    Utilities here in Connecticut saved a lot of money by having fewer workers, the plan was to bring in outsiders if there was trouble. That backfired very badly during the freak snowstorm in October last year, while the leaves were still on the trees, outages went on for weeks while ratepayers howled.
    1 Jul 2012, 11:37 AM Reply Like
  •  
    100k people would take those jobs for 30% less and they wouldn't be hiding out in the truck on the phone.
    1 Jul 2012, 02:38 PM Reply Like
  •  
    5,000 managers to 8,500 union workers. Seems like a pretty low ratio.
    1 Jul 2012, 02:57 PM Reply Like
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    One way to deal with Union workers, it seems. Con Ed may find that a few of the 8,500 union folks actually were essential to their company. Or maybe not. Pretty big gamble in my opinion.

    Thank goodness that those few of us who live "upstate" (where ever that is) don't rely on Con Ed for our power supply. Best wishes to those NYers who have to deal with semi-skilled workers trying to bring your electricity back on-line.

    National Grid and Rocherster Gas and Electric (RG&E) do excellent work and are quick to fix outages. Living in WNY for over 40 years, I have seen my share of outages.

    I hope market currents will keep tabs on this story.
    1 Jul 2012, 08:14 PM Reply Like
  •  
    I know a lot of people that would love to take those jobs
    1 Jul 2012, 11:00 PM Reply Like
  •  
    Why are there 5,000 managers????? Wait - there are probably more!!!! Only 5,000 are going out in the field. Guess they'll have to leave there expresso machines and desktop computer games at the office.... Oh well... i feel so sorry for all those poor managers...
    2 Jul 2012, 07:03 AM Reply Like
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