Charter Communications last week sued a workers' union, alleging that its members have repeatedly sabotaged Charter's network in New York City during a strike that began in March.

"On over 125 occasions, Charter cables, including both coaxial and fiber optic cables in both secured and unsecured locations at sites throughout New York City, have been deliberately cut or damaged, thereby denying thousands of subscribers access to cable, Internet, and voice service and interfering with their ability to contact emergency services, and forcing Charter to devote hundreds of thousands of dollars and hundreds of man-hours to investigating and repairing its property," Charter alleged in its complaint filed in the New York State Supreme Court.

It's no coincidence that these incidents happened during the strike, Charter further claimed. Charter blamed members of IBEW Local Union No. 3:

Upon information and belief the perpetrators of these acts of sabotage were Local 3 members and/or agents acting to support Local 3's strike. The incidents occurred in large numbers and rapid succession immediately upon Local 3's walkout from collective bargaining, whereas before the strike such incidents were almost entirely unheard of. The saboteurs clearly knew the optimal locations where they could quickly cut cable lines to multiple customers without being harmed or observed, suggesting they are cable technicians who work for Charter.

Nothing of value has been stolen, suggesting that the "sabotage was done purely out of maliciousness," Charter wrote. Charter also claims that union members have blocked access to Charter facilities, intentionally damaged Charter vehicles, and threatened "physical violence against Charter employees and their families."

Charter asked the court for an injunction against Local 3 to prevent sabotage; vandalism; threats against non-striking employees and customers; threats against vendors who work with Charter; trespassing or picketing at Charter properties or facilities; and approaching within 25 feet of Charter facilities, vehicles, or property.

Union to Charter: You can’t prove it

In response, Local 3 told the court that New York's labor laws do not allow injunctions "involving or growing out of a labor dispute."

The union also argued that it's not enough for Charter to prove that some members cut cables. The burden is on Charter to prove that "every member" of the labor union authorized the unlawful acts, Local 3 wrote in its court filing:

Plaintiff has virtually no likelihood of success on the merits as the New York Court of Appeals held long ago, and consistently upheld time and again, that a plaintiff must plead and prove that each and every member of a labor union authorized, or ratified after the fact with full knowledge, the alleged unlawful acts. Plaintiff has not and cannot meet this pleading requirement, much less prove that the 30,000 members of Local 3 authorized or ratified the alleged unlawful acts claimed by Plaintiff in its Order to Show Cause.

Ars called Local 3 today and will update this story if the union provides any further response to the lawsuit.

Local 3 Business Manager Christopher Erikson said the union does not condone sabotage and that such acts hurt the union's position, according to the New York Daily News.

Local 3 represents 1,800 Charter employees and says that Charter wants to eliminate numerous employee benefits, such as pension contributions and personal days. The union also points out that New York Attorney General Schneiderman sued Charter and alleged that the ISP lied about the Internet speeds it is capable of providing.

Charter took over Time Warner Cable's network in New York after a 2016 merger. Despite an expired contract, "Both TWC and Charter have refused to bargain with Local 3 for over two years," the union says.

Outages plague New York

Numerous outages in New York have been blamed on vandalism in the past few months. Vandalism in Queens reportedly took out cable service for 60,000 residences on June 26. (Police arrested a union member, but the charge was dropped.) A Brooklyn outage in September reportedly affected 80,000 customers.

Charter's complaint said the "acts of sabotage bore telltale signs of careful coordination and inside knowledge."

In one case, Charter dispatched an electrical contractor to repair a newly cut fiber cable, but "picketers arrived—even before the contractor’s employees—and attempted to interfere with any repair," the suit said.

On July 11, there was damage to 144 cable nodes and hundreds of fibers, "causing service outages that affected over 34,000 customers" in Queens, Charter wrote.

In a few cases, Charter said "the saboteurs were also careful to steal the fiber 'can' into which numerous individual fibers are routed and spliced, and which contained a detailed blueprint of how the various fibers were connected," making it difficult to repair the network.

"Local 3 and its leadership and employees have encouraged and condoned such conduct by, without limitation, public statements since March 28 referencing service outages suffered by Charter during the strike," Charter wrote.

Disclosure: The Advance/Newhouse Partnership, which owns about 13 percent of Charter, is part of Advance Publications. Advance Publications owns Condé Nast, which owns Ars Technica.