After 8,000 utility workers were locked out earlier this summer, Utility Workers (UWUA) Local 1-2 in New York City approved a new labor contract with Consolidated Edison. 

The New York Times reports:

Harry Farrell, president of Local 1-2 of the Utility Workers Union of America, said on Wednesday that its membership voted by a margin of 93 percent to accept a new four-year agreement with Consolidated Edison.

This is a cross-post from the New York State AFL-CIO website.

New York State AFL-CIO President Mario Cilento on the end of the Consolidated Edison lockout:

This was one of the toughest contract fights New York has seen in recent memory, and I could not be prouder of the way the labor movement responded. Up against Con Ed’s billions, union members from across New York City and the state joined together to support the 8,500 workers and their families who were forced to the street. Public sector, private sector and building trades—our unions wholeheartedly embraced Utility Workers (UWUA) Local 1-2 members as their own, walking picket lines, rallying in Union Square, and reaching out to our communities.

This is a guest post from New York State AFL-CIO social media coordinator Kevin Eitzmann.

A diverse group of thousands of union members and community supporters marched in the heat from Con Edison’s "ivory tower" at 4 Irving Place to Union Square, New York City. With chants of “We Are One!” and signs bearing such slogans as “Con Ed Can’t Con Me” and “Con Ed Took Away My American Dream,” people were expressing their frustrations and showing solidarity with the locked-out Utility Workers (UWUA).

New York’s Consolidated Edison Power Co. made $1 billion in 2011 profits and its CEO Kevin Burke raked in a nearly 40 percent pay hike over the past several years, making it “hypocritical and inhumane for Con Ed to propose cuts in employee health care and retirement benefits,” says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.

Con Ed locked out some 8,500 workers after contract negotiations stalled July 1. The power company wants to replace pensions with a 401(k)-type savings plan. After locking out the workers, members of Utility Workers UWUA Local 1-2, Burke cut off health care for all of them.

Some 8,500 workers locked out at Consolidated Edison Power Co. after contract negotiations stalled Sunday, say they hope the company's promise to go back to the bargaining table on Thursday means management is serious about bargaining a fair contract. The power company wants to replace pensions with a 401(k)-type savings plan, according to the New York Post, and the workers, meanwhile, are asking for a 4 percent pay hike, said union spokesman John Melia.