Editorâs Note: LaborPress has recently obtained a copy of the audit referenced above, and will be further updating this report shortly to more fully reflect the contents of that audit.Â
New York, NY – The Mayorâs Office, on Saturday night, said that the findings of a newly-completed audit of Charter Communicationsâ Franchise Agreement with
the City of New York could result in the city issuing a âdefaultâ against the mega-corporation.Â
For months, striking Charter/Spectrum workers with IBEW Local 3 have insisted that the corporationâs use of out-of-state contractors violates the Franchise Agreement it holds with the city.
Roughly 1,800 IBEW Local 3 workers went on strike last March, in a battle to preserve union health care plans and pensions.
According to the Department of Information Technology & Telecommunications (DoITT), Charter Communications â the second-largest cable TV provider in the country â is using an “overly broad interpretation of the term ‘located in New York City” as it refers to contract workers brought in during the strike.
As a result, the DoITT says it has interpreted the term for them, Â and will once again audit Charter Communications within the next 12 months to see if the telecom has moved into compliance with the appropriate definition of âlocated in New York City.â If Charter is not in compliance, the city promises a default will be issued.
The audit, in part, recommends “going forward, Charter employ more stringent criteria and process for determining whether or not a vendor is a “City vendor” under the Franchise Agreements and systematically document in writing both its determination process and efforts to engage local vendors.”
The audit, begun in July 2017 and completed this past January, specifically looked at Charterâs compliance with Article 17 of the Franchise Agreement it holds with the City of New York.
Mayor de Blasio directed the audit following complaints IBEW Local 3 workers made against Charterâs use of out-of-state contractors.
The criteria the city is using to establish the definition of âlocated in the cityâ includes, being registered to do business in New York; holding a long-term commercial lease and having more than 50-percent of the workforce headquartered here.
Charter, conversely, Â maintains that simply âdoing workâ or maintaining storage facilities in the city means âlocated in the city.â
âWe continue to meet our franchise obligations and our response to their findings is included in the report,” Charter spokesperson John Bonomo said in an email.
A standard âdefaultâ is defined as a written record of noncompliance with a provision of the Franchise Agreement, and could impact Charter’s ability to renew its pact with the city in 2020.
Last week, NY Supreme Court shot down Charterâs attempts to crush Attorney General Eric Schneidermanâs lawsuit alleging the cable TV giant is ripping off subscribers by failing to deliver advertised internet speeds.
38 thoughts on “Charter/Spectrum Faces ‘Default’ Following Franchise Agreement Audit”
As per the article – how will the Mayor auditing Charter, within the next 12 months, help the 1800 striking technicians?
Lol u gotta be kidding me…..theyre going to give charter a yr to see “if” theyre in compliance smfh UNBELIEVABLE…….
F*****g bull**** in a year they replaced an entire workforce in another year what!!!!!!
Is the lack of clarity contagious? First, the City says ‘Charter you are being unclear’ then they give a statement that is equally unclear ‘within 12 month’ that could mean anything, tomorrow, next week, next month…etc. Am I just missing the obvious?
Yup,smh
And I was just about to switch to Spectrum from Verizon, which no longer provides email services. What is going on with the companies? Has greed finally overtaken loyalty to customers?
You want to switch internet providers because of lack of free email? Who relies on ISP email? Have you not heard of gmail hotmail and yahoo? And besides Verizon owns yahoo and aol and both provide FREEemail.
Loyalty to customers? Let’s be honest. Brighthouse got bought out by charter because they were constantly lowering customers bills to keep them. Did anyone throw a fit went brighthouse was no more? Nope. A company can either make a profit and risk losing customers or keep their customers until they go bankrupt.
I agree totally…
I have been calling for months about my internet speed because every time i start watching something it is buffering throughout the whole show. What am i paying $80 a month for? We need other providers. It’s not ok that they are monopolizing the business.
Agreed it Ian t right at all high prices no choices
Another year to come.up with more double talk. Money wins everytime.
Cross the line and go back to work you entitled union crybabies!
Dear, I would guess an at will worker enjoy the ride for now. I’m sure Soon you will have no choice but to be an indepedent service contractor doing service & installations and then given no choice but to obtain your own Medical Plan & IRA. Let’s just see what the future holds.
Lazy union workers. They always want more and work less.
Hey Stewie, you are just like the rest of the easily swayed “sheep” who have no idea what unions have done for the betterment of the working middle class in this country. Get educated before you lash out at unions. I say thank you to them for making a stand decades ago for giving me a 40 hour work week and not a 80 hour work week. And also thanks for Saturday and Sunday off just to name a few of the many things that ingrates like you take for granted.
Your statement about what the unions provided it correct. But IMHO the union of today is a joke and a far cry from what they were when all of those accomplishments were made. Most IBEW workers around here try harder to look busy than actually get the job done.
Awesome!!! I agree
I knew something was crooked with them they charge high prices An not give customers exactly what they pay for.they merged with Timewarner to rip customers off An donât give you what they avertise
Enough is enough. Bye bye charter service for me. Too many years of poor service, high prices and diminishing programming choices. To read they are playing that game with the IBEW is just one too many bad moves. I support the IBEW and I am not even affiliated with them.
If they used IBEW workers in my geographic location I could probably drop the “poor service” complaint from my list.
What they can really say is that they are giving spectrum a year to fix the problems so when tbey check again the problems do not exist. A free get out jail card
a month to line their pockets. prob another yr after that to fill them up
Why is NYC in such strong support of a trade union?
Shouldn’t good inexpensive internet and cable services be important to the majority of people that make up the city NY.
I would wager the majority of cable workers live outside the city and commute to work.
The service is far from inexpensive actually keeps going up. Here in NYC it seems since the union workers went on strike the service has become shorty and unstable I don’t think that’s what the consumer regards as a good deal ?
Since spectrum took over bright house IT SUCKS. OVER PRICED WITH NO BENEFITS. LESS CHANNELS. GO BACK TO BRIGHTHOUSE. LOWER PRICES U THIEVES!
Go talk to the President who praised Charter just a year ago. đ˛. Money runs the cycle of business kids. The union can’t compete. Good luck tho with a Major who talks Tru both sides of his mouth ever making something happen!
Charter should not be given 1 year to see if they are in compliance. I had spectrum, they keep raising rates, I cancelled them, I signed up with direct tv
Spectrum is devious I live in North Carolina and they’re not even going to put fiber optic in matter of fact they’re pulling it out in Winston-Salem which was already there. and they have no competition because no one else can come into the area other then AT&T when it comes to internet
Corporate American greed. Time Warner took their âEmployee Firstâ motto with them when they sold to Charter/Spectrum. They are cutting senior employees and still jacking up the prices on customers….. their employees are lucky if they get Donuts in the morning, before it was quarters BBQ to bring unity…..thank God I left their service…I was loyal for years!
I am a charter Employee in the Midwest. We just watched Tom Rutledge yearly town hall. In this video he talked about how well charter is doing as a company. He talked about stock holders and how much money charter was pulling in because of Trumps tax breaks.
So charter is doing great and pulling in more and more money. So how about your employees. No raises, no bonuses. Nothing for the people that do the hard day to day work. This company is corporate greed at its finest. Mr Rutledge just pulled in a 98 million dollar contract but said screw the middle class in this company.
Go get another job if youâre not happy!!!! Stop complaining. Youâre probably as lazy as the union workers.
B, your a heartless jerk. You have no idea what you’re talking about. You attack people whose lives are being affected by Charter. We are losing everything we worked our butts off for because they are greedy. I hope wherever you work for does a merger and you get laid off and lose everything like the rest of us. Then maybe you’ll grow a heart.
Why is the city letting Spectrum destroy the industry with a Monopoly. Many people in New York City should I say Manhattan have no choice for internet other than Spectrum not fair to the people not have to the workers that’s Spectrum replaced with out-of-state workers
Why couldnt Local 3 negotiate a contract and not walk out? Some unions go years without a contract and no one is out of work. Look at teachers and police unions in NYC. Eventually they got raises. Local 3 did wrong to 1800 families and blame everyone from President on down to Charter but donât take responsibility.
This strike will not get resolved by facebooking and twittering but tell that to crooks at local 3 that ruin so many lives.
The reason so many out of state workers are working is cause there is a shortage of workers in NYC and the company needs to continue operating while you losers cry about how your losing your home.
I also work with Spectrum in NC. Everyday i hear the same complaints, from customers, no loyalty to customers, should have a rate for senior citizens on fixed incomes, prices too high, constantly increasing every few months, no changes in services, internet speed to slow. I agree with these customers. I read the Town Hall reports, no money for the workers that make them rich, increasing the minimum rate to $15.00, that’s ridiculous. Is that suppose to make us happy, then on top of that, they don’t even say when and how the rate is going to start. The turn over rate, would be less if they took care of there frontline. This is the reverse of robin hood technique. You work where you have to, even though you hear alot of complaints, you do the best you can. What we say and do for the customer, makes no difference in the end, it comes from the top.
Take care of frontline employees? They offered their NYC techs 5 everything that non union gets plus $43 an hour and they went out on strike. They think they shouldnât have to contribute a penny to their medical, still have a full pension along with any other company perks. If youâre a tech, transfer to NYC and get the money youâre looking for
This is such a digrace that spectrum worker are on strike so long. They should all get lawyer and sue that damn spectrum and tbe union for being out of a job so freaking long.