Cablevision: Workers in Brooklyn vote against union

Cablevision Systems Corp. said its Brooklyn technicians voted Wednesday to discontinue representation by the Communications Workers of America.

Cablevision said the nonbinding vote was 129 to 115 against representation by the union, which represents 264 Cablevision employees in Brooklyn. The anonymous vote was conducted by the Honest Ballot Association, an independent third-party organization, the Bethpage-based company said.

Workers had voted three years ago to join the CWA. In January 2013, some employees filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board asking for a decertification vote. "For the first time in nearly three years, our Brooklyn employees have expressed their feelings about the CWA in a vote," Cablevision, which owns Newsday, said in a statement.

The union called the vote a "sham filled with voting irregularities and intimidation." It said the vote was held illegally because of pending charges of unfair labor practices by the union against the company filed with the National Labor Relations Board. Cablevision has called those allegations baseless.

It would be up to the NLRB to schedule a binding vote.