LABOR

Con Edison, Union Reach Tentative Accord: The New York-based utility company and a union representing 13,000 of its workers narrowly averted a lockout with a tentative contract agreement that includes unique emergency day care for children of sick workers. The four-year pact, reached just hours before the old one was to expire at midnight Saturday, also includes lifetime monitoring for asbestos and pension improvements. Con Ed management had threatened to lock the workers out if an agreement was not reached. Joseph Flaherty, president of Local 1-2 Utility Workers of America, predicted that union members will approve the deal by July 20.