Cablevision Systems Corp.’s technical workers on Long Island, N.Y., have voted overwhelmingly to reject union representation by the local of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
Workers voted over three days during the week of Jan. 17. IBEW already has a regional foothold in cable as it represents about 2,000 employees of Time Warner Cable in New York.
The proposed union would have comprised 658 technicians, but when the ballots were counted, only 193 voted to support a union shop.
Cablevision noted that other recent unionization efforts have failed. In a November election among workers in Brooklyn and the Bronx, workers rejected a Communications Workers of America organizing effort by a vote of 366-88. In December, workers in New York’s Rockland and Orange counties also rejected an IBEW unionization effort.
IBEW Local 1049, which targeted the Long Island workers, did not return a call for comment.
“While workers have the right to unionize under federal law, when given the choice, Cablevision employees have always opted to retain their nonunion status and deal directly with the company, underscoring Cablevision’s strong desirability as a workplace,” company officials said in a prepared statement.
