Two weeks ago in Canarsie, a group of Cablevision workers took advantage of their company’s famous “open-door” management policy by stopping by a vice president’s office at the beginning of their shift. They wanted to talk about the future of their union. The technicians had voted to join the Communications Workers of America nine months prior, but contract talks were dragging on, and they wanted some assurance that the company was negotiating in good faith and not just trying to break the union.

The VP kept them waiting for 40 minutes and then fired them all on the spot, Michael Powell reports:

They waited for 20 minutes to talk, then 20 more. La’kesia Johnson, 44, grew restless and walked to the front office. A manager told her to go back inside. Then the vice president walked in and asked, essentially: Who’s supposed to be working now?

Every worker, 22 in all, raised a hand.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” the vice president said, according to multiple accounts, “I am sorry to tell you that you’ve all been permanently replaced.”

“I said, ‘Whaaat?’ ” Ms. Johnson says. “Replaced? You just fired us? You don’t even know what we want.”

Ms. Johnson says the vice president looked at her and stated: I don’t care what you want. [NYT]

Cablevision claims that the workers were fired because they refused to go to work, a claim that is undermined by the fact that the workers loaded up their trucks with all the supplies they needed for their shift before they went to see the VP.

The Village Voice reports that about 50 workers initially showed up to meet with vice president Rick Levesque, but that most left to go back to work when they realized he had no intention of meeting with them, but a core group of activists was invited stay, according to the Voice:

As the technicians were leaving, Levesque approached Adams, his fellow shop stewards and a few other technicians to meet with him inside the site’s conference room.

“He says he has time all of a sudden to speak with us. So, we sit down, and we’re expecting to speak with him right then and there. And, he spends another 20-25 minutes before he comes back,” Adams says.

When he came back the workers were informed that they’d been permanently replaced for staging an unauthorized meeting and refusing to work. Five of the fired workers, who were rehired last week, were already in the middle of jobs when they were called back to be fired for “refusing” to work. [VV]

All of the major mayoral candidates in New York are supporting the Cablevision workers. The union and the fired technicians were in Albany this week urging state legislators to investigate Cablevision’s labor practices.

[Photo credit: A cable technician, for illustration, jDevaun, Creative Commons.]