ConEd Workers Ready For Strike

This report from the pages of the New York Daily News:

Con Edison ushered workers out of some power plants early Sunday when a strike deadline passed with no deal, even as heated labor talks continued, the union says.

“They had already started the process at about 12:05 [a.m.] of escorting our people off Con Ed properties,” said Joe Flaherty, spokesman for Utility Workers Union of America Local 1-2. “Almost immediately, they got calls out to people to escort our workers back in.”

The strike deadline for 9,000 union workers has now been pushed back until early Wednesday morning, after Gov. Paterson late Saturday night asked ConEd boss Kevin Burke and union President Harry Farrell for a three-day cooling-off period.

The union says Con Ed has proposed a minimum 0.5% wage increase in the first year of a new contract, as well as putting new workers in a 401(k)-style retirement program instead of a traditional pension plan.

Con Ed has declined to talk about specifics, but spokesman Michael Clendenin said both sides were exchanging proposals as the clock struck midnight - and that no workers were led off the job.

“We’ve worked past midnight deadlines before,” Clendenin said. “Constructive negotiations were going on. But people thought they should take advantage of some time off.”

Paterson said substantive talks were scheduled to resume at 9 a.m. Tuesday, although both sides will meet today to discuss logistics.

The last walkout was in 1983 and lasted nine weeks. Con Ed managers slept on cots in power plants while keeping the system running, including repairing the damage from a three-day blackout in Manhattan’s Garment District.