A labor dispute at Cablevision escalated Thursday after the cable TV operator claimed its Brooklyn technicians voted to tune out their union, the Communication Workers of America.
Cablevision said it hired an outside firm to anonymously poll its 264 workers in the tech unit on whether they wanted to continue being represented by CWA Local 1109.
The firm said 93 percent of the workers responded to the non-binding survey. The results found that a slight majority of respondents voted — 129 to 115 — to sever ties with the CWA.
“It is time for the CWA to respect our employees’ wishes and withdraw,” Cablevision said in a statement.
CWA officials dismissed the company-sponsored poll as a “sham vote” and propaganda.
“The conduct of this election would make Vladimir Putin blush,” said CWA District One VP Chris Shelton.
The union said that in the only legal vote that matters, Cablevision workers voted three years ago to join the CWA in an election monitored by the federal government.
Cablevision said it asked the National Labor Relations Board to schedule another binding vote.
For his part, Mayor Bill de Blasio is siding with the CWA — one of the first unions to endorse him for City Hall — in the dispute.
In an extraordinary use of his office, de Blasio in July directly interceded by appearing at a private CWA meeting held in a Brooklyn public school building.
He told the workers, “I am with you every step of the way.”
Nearly 14,000 other Cablevision workers are not represented by the CWA.
Cablevision on Thursday accused de Blasio of “advocating the union’s agenda against the wishes of our employees.”