Consolidated Edison and its biggest union made progress on Monday toward getting back to bargaining, one day after the utility company locked out 8,000 workers and sent managers and contractors into the field to keep electricity flowing throughout sweltering New York City.þþRepresentatives of both sides agreed to meet on Thursday with federal mediators in hopes of restarting negotiations on a new contract for Local 1-2 of the Utility Workers Union of America. They were urged to reconcile by several elected officials, including the City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, just hours after a supervisor burned his head while repairing equipment in a substation in Brooklyn.þþUnion officials quickly cited the accident as the sort of trouble that would inevitably occur with less-experienced people maintaining a sprawling network of cables, switches and wires that serve 3.2 million customers in the city and Westchester County.þþBut a Con Ed spokesman, Michael Clendenin, said the injuries were minor and could have happened to any of its workers.þþMr. Clendenin said company representatives hoped on Thursday to persuade the workers to return while negotiations resumed. But he said union officials would have to agree to give warning before walking off the job so the company would not be caught unprepared and be forced to send managers back out to replace them.þþThat demand led to the lockout, about 2 a.m. on Sunday, and still appears to be a sticking point. Local 1-2’s president, Harry Farrell, had stayed at the negotiating table past the midnight expiration of the last four-year contract, instead of immediately calling a strike. “His considered opinion was that they had shown enough progress that he felt that they could get it done,” said John Melia, a spokesman for the local.þþTwo federal mediators attended the talks over the weekend, and the union asked them to come back on Thursday to help clear the obstacles to another round of negotiations, Mr. Melia said. That plan could appease Ms. Quinn and other city officials, like the comptroller, John C. Liu, and the Manhattan borough president, Scott M. Stringer. Without taking sides in the dispute, each of them called on the company and the union to head off widespread problems that could be caused by a lack of manpower.þþIn a letter to Mr. Farrell and Kevin M. Burke, the chief executive of Con Ed, Ms. Quinn called on the company to end the lockout and for the union to agree to provide notice before striking.þþ“As you both know, when the power goes out and air-conditioning and lights go off, it is often the most vulnerable, such as the elderly and chronically ill, that suffer, with often serious consequences,” Ms. Quinn wrote.þþOn Monday, as the heat wave broke, Con Ed’s system had only scattered, small power failures.
Source: NY Times
