[NYTr] Marchers keep pressure on Con Ed

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Workers World - Aug 2, 2007 issue
http://www.workers.org/2007/us/queens-0802/

Marchers keep pressure on Con Ed

by Mary Owen

On the evening of July 17, people who live and work in Western Queens,
N.Y., gathered for a rally and “flashlight march” through the streets
of Sunnyside and Woodside to mark the first anniversary of last
summer’s 10-day-long Queens power outage. The event was organized by
the Western Queens Power for the People Campaign.

Chanting “Con Ed, it’s payback time!” and “Hey hey, ho ho, the Con Ed
rate hike’s got to go,” some 100 marchers carrying flashlights sent a
message to Con Ed management to accept fault for last year’s outage and
to pay what it still owes to residents and small businesses who
suffered losses.

Protesters also said “No!” to the giant utility’s request for a rate
increase of 17 percent for residents and 10.7 percent for businesses.
They were greeted by smiles, waves and applause from residents, workers
and small shop owners along the route, which passed through working
class, immigrant neighborhoods affected by the 2006 outage. For more
information on this struggle, go to www.powerforthepeople.info.

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