Workers Rights = Human Rights - Support Cablevision Workers. January 16, 2012, click on the photo to view the photo gallery.
CWA Members, Occupy Wall Street and elected officials joined Cablevision Workers for a Martin Luther King, Jr., Day rally outside of Madison Square Garden today.
Speakers slammed Cablevision and its CEO, James Dolan, for their anti-union policies. Their complaints stem from Cablevision’s efforts to dissuade its Brooklyn employees from unionizing with the Communications Workers of America.
Multiple candidates for citywide office in 2013, including possible mayoral contender and friend to CWA, Public Advocate Bill De Blasio, spoke at the event.
“As we commemorate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who died because he was marching for working families, we stand here in the cold,” said Councilwomen Tish James. “And I’m glad it’s cold out here because it reminds me of our sacrifice and all that we have to do to make sure that we’re in the struggle for basic human rights.”
Councilman Jumaane Williams added that if Dr. King were alive today, “he’d be out here today with CWA, with Cablevision, trying to organize a union.”
“He was as much of a labor leader as a civil rights leader,” said CWA Vice President Chris Shelton of Dr. King. What Cablevision is doing, brothers and sisters, is acting like a schoolyard bully. I’m telling you, I come from a neighborhood in the Bronx where we know how to deal with schoolyard bullies,” he said. “Brothers and sisters, I’m here to tell you that every member of CWA is your big brother and your big sister. And we’re ready to go back to that schoolyard and tell Dolan, and anybody else: You mess with my brothers and sisters, and we’re going to kick your ass!”
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
On Dec 15th, the National Labor Relations Board held a hearing about holding a union election at Cablevision in Brooklyn. The employees will be voting on forming their union in an election to be held on January 26th. Management is going to do all in its power to threaten, harass and intimidate these workers.
Read more on the CWA Local 1109 website.
This Site Is Not Affiliated With The Communications Workers of America Local 1101