Press Releases
Con Edison Contract Workers Take Union Fight to Shareholders’ Meeting
(NEW YORK) –– Workers at Allstate Power Vac, a Con Edison contractor, delivered a petition to Con Edison’s board of directors today at the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Manhattan. The petition asks the company to urge Allstate Power Vac to treat its workers with fairness and respect.
Allstate Power Vac workers are on the front lines of Con Edison’s work across the city, cleaning and vacuuming underground electrical infrastructure so that Con Edison employees can maintain power lines and transformers.
Allstate Power Vac workers voted to join Teamsters Local 813 in November 2015, but negotiations have dragged into their seventh month without progress toward a first contract.
“It is unacceptable that workers are risking their lives and maintaining this essential infrastructure for near minimum wage salaries,” said Sean Campbell, President of Local 813. “Allstate Power Vac and Con Edison need to take these workers’ demands for fair pay and respect seriously. The workers are only asking Con Edison to hold their contractor to the same workplace standards that the company holds itself to.”
Allstate Power Vac starts new workers at close to the minimum wage ($12-$13/hour), far lower than Con Edison employees doing the same work. The company endangers temp workers by putting them on the job untrained. One worker suffered a bad electrocution. Employees fear being disciplined if they try to refuse unsafe work.
While the petition was presented inside the meeting, Local 813 members distributed fliers about the labor conflict to shareholders entering the meeting.
“We work side-by-side every day with Con Edison workers and Con Edison takes their safety seriously. So why shouldn’t its contractor be held to the same standard?” said Reginald Riddick. “We all signed the petition because Con Edison can make a difference and protect its frontline workers at Allstate Power Vac.”