FILE- In this Aug, 20, 2989 file photo, a Consolidated Edison crew works to repair a steam pipe that had exploded in New York City. Consolidated Edison and its unionized workers are facing a midnight, July 1, 2012, deadline as their contract negotiations continue. (AP Photo/David A. Cantor, File
David A. Cantor — AP
NEW YORK — As Manhattan streets heated up, so did the tempers of union workers locked out of more than 8,000 Consolidated Edison jobs.
“Kevin Burke, come out with your hands up, we want our pensions!” mechanic John Lucchini yelled into a bullhorn, naming Con Ed’s CEO amid a protest in front of company headquarters.
Elsewhere in New York City, union leaders planned their next move after contract talks broke down early Sunday, after a midnight deadline.
Con Ed offered a two-week extension, on condition the workers promise not to suddenly strike during that time. The union refused, and the utility declared a lockout, saying 8,500 workers would be replaced by 5,000 managers to keep services running.
A union spokesman said that sometime Monday, Harry Farrell, president of Local 1-2 of the Utility Workers of America, would call for federal mediators to intervene to get talks started again.
Both sides said there are many issues on which they have not reached agreement, including changing pension terms.
Union spokesman John Melia said Monday there was nothing new to report. He planned to issue a statement later in the day.
“We’ve been trying to get them back to the table since yesterday,” company spokesman Mike Clendenin said Monday on “Good Morning New York.”
The unionized workers told the company they’d be willing to work without a contract to keep the power company running, said Melia, who disputed the company’s claim that its managers could do the job of the union workers.
A manager doing routine Con Ed work suffered minor burns, Con Ed confirmed.
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer issued a statement, saying Con Ed employees “deserve respect and a fair contract, and residents of the New York City region deserve assurances their power will continue without interruption as the heat wave continues.”
He said both goals can be achieved “if we work together and settle this dispute amicably.”
Another mechanic, Rick Brown, said there’s nothing workers would like to do more than “than be on the clock.”
But “the people who are doing the public an injustice are management,” he said.
Brown was part of the noisy scene outside Con Ed headquarters near Union Square that included a chorus of honking, cheers and whistling heard a couple of blocks away. The honking was a show of support by drivers passing about 200 union demonstrators.
Many union workers wore T-shirts that said, “If we go out, the lights go out.” They also featured a cracked, yellow light bulb with a red circle and slash.
Boos, catcalls and foul language erupted as management workers left the building.
Gregory Stephenson, a government relations employee at Con Ed who exited the company’s corporate office to a loud chorus of boos, said he was disappointed by demonstrators’ behavior.
“I understand the union’s sentiment, but once you start to hurl abusive language – I just think there needs to be a level of decorum and respect,” he said.
Con Ed closed walk-in centers, suspended meter readings and limited work on major construction projects in New York after the talks broke down around 2 a.m. Sunday, a couple of hours after the existing contract expired. The impasse came as New York endured more high temperatures that increased demand for air conditioning among the utility’s 3.2 million customers.
There were about 200 outages overnight, nearly all of which were resolved by morning, Con Ed spokesman Chris Olert said Monday. He said management personnel were standing by, ready to address any problems.
Temperatures are expected to be in the high 80s and low 90s throughout the week.
The extreme weather included vicious storms from Indiana to New Jersey and south to Virginia that left 17 people dead and 2.7 million without power. Most of the damage came in the mid-Atlantic region, and only scattered outages across Con Ed’s service area in New York were reported as of Sunday. Con Ed said it is keeping a close watch on its system and has trained managers working on essential operations.
Associated Press Writer Alex Katz contributed to this report.
