Station Will Vote Again to Unionize

The first vote didn't pass, so they will try again. 

The technical staff at NY1 will get a second chance to unionize when a new vote is taken this week. 

Local 1212 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers failed to secure the majority needed to be recognized as the bargaining unit for roughly 70 NY1 employees on Jan. 31 — but now it gets a do-over.

Usually, a union must let a year pass before trying again after a failed organizing vote.

But executives at NY1 owned by Charter Communications and its subsidiary Spectrum — took the unusual step of offering to let workers cast ballots again.

“Questions regarding the previous vote were raised by the union. While we believe that the initial vote was valid, we agreed to a prompt rerun election to avoid delaying the outcome for our employees,” a spokeswoman said.

The NY Daily News says that the company fired an employee — one of the key organizers who tried to bring in Local 1212 — after the failed Jan. 31 vote.

The company also canned a manager who was stridently against bringing in a union, sources added.

The manager had acted in an intimidating way to workers before and especially on the day of the vote, sources said.

The Charter spokeswoman declined to comment on reports of two firings.

The union immediately filed six alleged objections against Charter in the wake of the failed organizing effort. Two of those were dismissed, but four remained.

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