About 40 technicians and customer-care personnel picketed earlier this week
in front of the Adelphia Communications Corp. facility in State College, Pa., to
draw attention to a strike by cable workers in Morgantown, W. Va.
The Morgantown workers have been on strike since May 21. They alleged that
the MSO is proposing cuts in health care and a wage freeze.
The Pennsylvania workers took the public action, according to the union, to
notify State College consumers that Adelphia has allegedly been "jeopardizing
customer service" by sending workers from the Pennsylvania community to work in
Morgantown in order to break the strike.
But members of the local Communications Workers of America unit went back to
work Thursday, according to the union. The CWA alleged that the workers were
threatened with replacement if they didn't return to their jobs.
Adelphia's corporate office deferred requests for comment on the job action
to the local office, but a machine was answering calls there.
The union has alleged that the cable operator has failed to bargain in good
faith and illegally coerced three employees. The National Labor Relations Board
is investigating the allegations.
Meanwhile in Montgomery County, Va., another CWA local has postponed a vote
that could have formed a 300-member union among technicians and other workers at
the Comcast Corp. system there.
The labor group has been trying to organize, but officials alleged that
Comcast has intimidated employees. Comcast countered that it adheres to
organizing rules governed by the NLRB.
The CWA said the vote delay gives the union more time to organize. No new
date has been set for an election.
