Spectrum Strikers On Strike Now for Three Years, Workers Are Demanding Public Ownership
Cable technician Troy Walcott, along with 1,800 of his fellow members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 3, has been striking for three years, and there’s still no end in sight.
Local 3 first walked off the job in March 2017 when their employer, Spectrum/Charter Communications — the largest provider of cable TV, internet and telephone service in New York State and the second-largest cable provider in the country — attempted to replace its union health insurance and pension plans with the firm’s prevailing benefits.
The strike has now earned the unpleasant distinction as one of the state’s longest strikes. Yet with the recent wave of labor strikes gripping the country and capturing the imagination of progressives like Bernie Sanders, little attention has been given to the plight of Local 3. “I’m figuring that none of the politicians at this point want to stick their neck out for something that might not be a winner, because honestly, from the hole we are in and the position we are at, it’s hard to see if we are going to come out at the top,” Walcott told Truthout. “A lot of people who claim to be on the side of unions and working people are scared to even mention we are still on strike.”
Prior to walking off the job, Walcott had 20 years under his belt as a cable technician and served as a shop steward at his local. Now, like many of his union comrades, Walcott finds himself driving 10-hour shifts for Uber as a means of survival. “People are still at the point that they are losing their houses on a daily basis. Their family life is horrible. Their medical is horrible,” he said. “Each day the strike goes on, they are losing things. They can cross the line at any time but they don’t because it’s the right thing to do.”
With the strike dragging on into its third year, Charter, which operates under the brand name Spectrum in New York, has refused to play fair with its workforce. Instead of negotiating with Local 3, Charter has hired an army of replacement workers from out of state as well as moving to decertify the IBEW Local 3. In a nutshell, decertification is the process by which workers vote to replace or remove their current union. Charter plans on using the replacement workers to vote for decertification.
Since taking office, the Trump administration has used the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) as a weapon against workers’ rights. The NLRB is run as an independent agency, but the president has the power to appoint all the members of the five-member board. Trump has since appointed board members who have made rulings intended to weaken long-established worker protections under the National Labor Relations Act.
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