March 28, 2024

Labor Board Accuses Cablevision of Bad-Faith Bargaining

John J. Walsh, the acting director of the labor board’s regional office in Brooklyn, said in an interview on Thursday that his office would issue a complaint against Cablevision, saying the company “has bargained with no intent to reach an agreement” — in what several workers said was a strategy to undermine support for their union, the Communications Workers of America.

The fight has been particularly vitriolic and visible, not least because the family that controls Cablevision, the Dolans, also controls the Knicks and Rangers.

This week, the labor board’s Brooklyn office is accusing Cablevision of engaging in bad-faith bargaining by failing to provide union negotiators with needed information, by retracting previously agreed-upon proposals and by refusing to meet on a regular basis. Cablevision, Mr. Walsh said, has also insisted on “proposals that no — quote unquote — self-respecting union could accept, such as the unfettered right to subcontract work.”

The two sides have not settled on a contract since the Brooklyn employees voted 180 to 86 to unionize 15 months ago, motivated in part because Verizon’s unionized cable installers were earning about one-third more than they did. The vote made them the only group among Cablevision’s 17,000 employees to unionize.

Cablevision disputed the board’s claims. Charles R. Schueler, a company spokesman, called the accusation of bad-faith bargaining “absurd on its face.”

“We have a complete package of contract proposals on the table in front of the communications workers, and we are awaiting a response,” he added.

Mr. Schueler said the board was “factually inaccurate” in asserting that Cablevision had retracted proposals or avoided talking. “The company has participated in 25 negotiating sessions with the union, with 4 more scheduled,” he said.

On Monday, the labor board’s regional office for Manhattan and the Bronx said it would issue a complaint accusing Mr. Dolan of illegally telling Cablevision workers in the Bronx that they would be excluded from training and job opportunities if they voted to unionize. That office also said Cablevision had illegally offered better pay and benefits to workers in the Bronx and elsewhere to discourage them from unionizing. The Bronx workers voted 121 to 43 against unionizing last June.

Neither complaint constitutes a finding of wrongdoing. The cases are likely to be heard by an administrative law judge.

On Monday, Cablevision said in a statement that the board’s allegations were inaccurate and that the communications workers’ assertions were “part of their ongoing campaign to damage Cablevision’s reputation.”

Mr. Walsh said his office had told Cablevision that it could head off a formal complaint by reaching a settlement with the labor board and the union.

He said the Brooklyn complaint would also accuse Cablevision of acting illegally by permanently replacing 22 workers in January when they were seeking to meet with a company official to discuss the stalled negotiations. The company reinstated them over the last two months — after the union had complained to the labor board that they had been fired illegally — and the board is seeking back pay for them.

Mr. Schueler said that with those employees back at work, “we consider the matter largely behind us.”

Frustrated that the union has failed to reach a contract, dozens of Cablevision workers in Brooklyn have petitioned the labor board to hold a vote to determine whether the workers favor getting rid of the union.

Because of the board’s complaint against Cablevision, it will dismiss the petition, Mr. Walsh said. “We have evidence that there is a causal nexus between the employer’s unfair labor practices in the failure to bargain in good faith and the employees’ disaffection from the union and the employees’ coming to us wanting to have a decertification election,” he said.

But Mr. Schueler said, “It would be outrageous if this election were not allowed to proceed and our employees’ voices were not allowed to be heard.”

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/12/nyregion/cablevision-attacked-again-by-nlrb-in-new-york.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Official From F.D.I.C. Picked To Lead Banking Regulator

Mr. Curry, a longtime state banking regulator in Massachusetts, has served for the last seven years as one of the five directors of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

Mr. Obama also said he would nominate Mary J. Miller as under secretary of the Treasury for domestic finance. She is currently assistant secretary for financial markets.

Mr. Curry’s nomination responds to the demands of Senate Democrats that the White House replace the acting head of the comptroller’s office, John G. Walsh, whom they regard as obstructing key aspects of the law passed last year to overhaul financial regulation.

But Mr. Curry’s confirmation also requires the acquiescence of Senate Republicans, who support many of the decisions made under Mr. Walsh and are likely to grill Mr. Curry about his commitment to maintaining the agency’s independence from the administration.

There are now more than a dozen vacancies in senior regulatory and economic positions. Mr. Obama has yet to nominate people to fill many of those jobs, while others remain vacant because Senate Republicans have refused to allow votes on his selections.

The comptroller’s office has lacked a permanent leader for almost a year.

Senator Tim Johnson, the South Dakota Democrat who is chairman of the banking committee, issued a statement praising Mr. Curry and pledging to advance his nomination “as quickly as possible.”

“Tom has been a strong, effective director at the F.D.I.C. for the past seven years, and his experience should serve him well as the next comptroller of the currency,” Mr. Johnson said.

Senator Richard Shelby, the ranking Republican, did not respond to a request for comment.

Mr. Walsh has angered Democrats by arguing in speeches that the extent of new and planned regulations may impair the health of the banking industry, in particular capital requirements that place new limits on the ability of banks to borrow money.

A second issue concerns the balance of state and federal power. The comptroller’s office has fought with considerable success to exempt national banks from the requirements of state laws. The financial legislation passed last year required the agency to revisit the issue, and last month it issued a proposal that would leave its longstanding policies essentially unchanged.

In response, the Treasury Department took the unprecedented step of submitting a public comment to the agency criticizing its proposal for ignoring the law’s intent.

Mr. Curry, who spent almost a decade running a state banking agency, has made it clear that he believes that states should have more latitude to apply laws that protect consumers.

His current thoughts are likely to be a central subject at his confirmation hearing.

Ms. Miller joined the Treasury Department last year. She now oversees the vast task of borrowing money to finance the government’s operations. Earlier on Friday, she announced her latest estimate — Aug. 2 — of when the government would reach the limit of its borrowing authority, unable to pay its bills unless Congress authorizes additional borrowing.

She spent 26 years at T. Rowe Price, rising to lead its fixed-income division.

She would succeed the current under secretary for domestic finance, Jeffrey A. Goldstein, who has announced that he will leave the department at the end of the month.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=c56e6a8d3965396e4d81da57536a9435