Candidates for Public Advocate Allow NY1 Moderators to Skate Past 2-Year-Old Spectrum Strike

New York, NY – Seven candidates running for the office of New York City public advocate had another chance to call out Charter Communication’s refusal to reach a deal with striking Spectrum workers during a NY1 debate broadcast ahead of Tuesday’s special election— they all came up short.

Out of all the candidates taking part in the often acrimonious 90-minute showdown, only three of the hopefuls angling to take Tuesday’s special election even alluded to Spectrum workers — let alone IBEW Local 3’s nearly 24-monthold struggle with Charter Communications to retain union pensions and healthcare packages. Journalist and activist Nomiki Konst, New York State Assembly Member Michael Blake and New York City Council Member Jumaane Williams each expressed solidarity for “Spectrum workers” at the top of their opening statements.

But that was it. None of the candidates vying to become New York City’s next public advocate — a plumb position that has come to be seen as a launching pad for the mayor’s office — pressed NY1’s trio of moderators to talk about the strike, its implications or the punishing affect its had on hundreds of striking union households. The following day, at a rally against Amazon’s new warehouse slated for Woodside, Queens, New York State Assembly Member and NYC public advocate candidate Ron Kim expressed regret that he had not, at least, expressed support for striking Spectrum workers — saying, like Amazon, Charter Communications, Spectrum’s parent company, is “another monopoly that needs to be held accountable.” “For the last four months I’ve been micro-focused on Amazon,” Kim told LaborPress. “As you know, it’s $3 billion that they’re trying to extort from us. But now, that that fight is closing down, we need to focus on other abusive companies like Spectrum. And I plan on attacking that issue as public advocate.”

For many striking Spectrum workers who have lost homes, cars and marriages over the last 24-months — just being on Charter’s corporate stage was an affront to all those struggling to hold onto their small piece of the American Dream