| NEW YORK, July 20, 2012-- At about 13 hrs EST, a fire broke out in a Con Edison manhole next to the Union Square subway entrance on East 14th Street between Fourth Avenue and Broadway. 8500 utility workers from UWUA Local 1-2 have been locked out since July 1 by Con ED, but are being replaced by only 5000 management supervisors to address emergencies such as these. A protesting union worker questions why supervisors within the work area demarcated by the yellow tape are not wearing all the required gear for descent into manhole: harness, vest, protective glasses, steel-toed boots and a rig to yank your partner out if he/she gets stuck. The cause of the fire, which is not an unusual occurrence after a storm, is still being investigated. According to Con Ed, there were no outages and no injuries. The date of the last safety inspection report has not yet been provided by Con Ed. Filmed by Liza Béar, lizajbear@gmail..com | Views: 8 0 ratings |
