LaborNet

Bargaining committees reach a agreement in principle with Verizon

The unprecedented level of education, engagement, and mobilization of the united CWA and IBEW members bring us this contract in a very tough economic and political environment.

August 10, 2008

Washington, D.C. -- A new tentative three-year contract settlement with Verizon achieves union employees' major goals of promoting union jobs and expanding bargaining rights, providing good health care for both active and retired workers, and increasing wages and pensions for 65,000 workers from Virginia to Maine, the Communications Workers of America and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers reported.

In a breakthrough agreement, Verizon will extend union recognition to 600 former MCI technicians at Verizon Business who have been seeking representation for nearly two years. These workers, who perform the same jobs as the union workforce, have received strong support from CWA and IBEW members in a campaign to "tear down the wall" between union and non-union sectors at Verizon. The agreement also includes new opportunities for union workers to provide customer support and service at Verizon Business.

The tentative settlement also eliminates subcontracting of work in a number of job areas, converts many temporary jobs to permanent and brings additional jobs associated with Verizon's cutting edge FiOS technology into the union bargaining units. Overall, the settlement should create 2,500 new union jobs.
Verizon and the unions have agreed to meet regularly during the course of the new agreement to review technological and business developments affecting employment, which will allow the company to stay current with business opportunities while also insuring that the unions are able to continue to represent employees as the business environment changes.

The issue of health costs and benefits was a major focus of the talks, as it has been in contract negotiations in virtually every industry. The settlement preserves fully-paid health care premiums for all active and retired employees. Future hires will have a defined contribution formula for retirement health care with the amount of Verizon's contributions subject to negotiation in each subsequent contract.

In addition, Verizon agreed to work with the unions in a joint effort to achieve meaningful health care reform. The company will provide funding of $2 million per year to the project.

The settlement calls for wage increases totaling 10.87 percent compounded over the three-year contract term. COLA (cost of living adjustment) language remains in the contract.

Pension bands also will be increased by 10.87 percent compounded over the term of the agreement.

The settlement also provides for a streamlined grievance dispute resolution system which will speed up a process that has been taking as long as three years to complete.

"This is a breakthrough agreement in many ways," said CWA President Larry Cohen. "It creates new union jobs including major growth areas like FiOS, it takes a big step forward on health care and it brings hundreds of Verizon Business employees the union rights they deserve. We applaud management for agreeing to keep the best health coverage in America and for their commitment to work with us for real health care reform. This settlement provides a framework for growth at Verizon and a good standard of living with careers for our members."

"This agreement is a tribute to the solidarity and activism of IBEW and CWA members working at Verizon," said IBEW President Ed Hill. "Our members mobilized strong and negotiated hard for a good contract that will benefit workers and their families now and in the future. We congratulate union and company negotiators for finding solid common ground upon which we can build a better Verizon. With this agreement we have met our goals to protect the retirees who helped build this company and have negotiated important provisions that will ensure future jobs for union members."

CWA represents 50,000 workers at Verizon and IBEW represents another 15,000 in the northeast.

Verizon still in union talks hours before deadline

Sat Aug 2, 2008 9:00pm EDT

NEW YORK, Aug 2 (Reuters) - Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) was still in negotiations with two major unions over a labor contract covering 65,000 workers, as a Saturday midnight deadline approached for union workers to go on strike.

One labor representative said the unions were considering late company proposals at about 8:30 p.m. (0030 GMT on Sunday) but gave no details. A union spokeswoman said there was still a lot of work ahead four hours before the contract was set to expire at midnight (0400 GMT).

"We'll keep talking over the next several hours and hope to reach an agreement," said Candice Johnson, a spokeswoman for the Communications Workers of America said at about 8 p.m. "There's still many issues to resolve."

The majority of CWA's 50,000 members and the 15,000 members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers covered by the contract have voted in favor of a strike authorization.

Areas in dispute involve job security, outsourcing and a potential increase in worker payments for health care coverage as well as a proposal that workers retiring from 2009 onward pay for their own health care and the elimination of retiree health care coverage for new hires, according to the CWA.

Verizon spokesman Alberto Canal said he was optimistic they would reach an agreement.

The expiring contract covers workers in the the U.S. Northeast, in states reaching from Virginia to Maine.

Verizon has about 103,000 workers in its telecom unit which covers residential and small business telephone, broadband and video services. Hundreds of Verizon workers picketed company offices several times in the last week ahead of the deadline.

Any large-scale strike would be a blow at a time when Verizon is trying to expand its FiOS high-speed Internet and video service to compete with cable service providers like Time Warner Cable (TWC.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Cablevision (CVC.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and stem losses in landline subscribers.

Verizon launched its FiOS TV service in New York City on July 28. The network buildout, for which Verizon is spending $22.9 billion from 2004 through 2010, is labor-intensive.

The last time Verizon workers walked out was in 2000 when about 85,000 workers went on strike for about three weeks. (Reporting by Sinead Carew; editing by Mohammad Zargham)

Verizon unions mull making call to strike

By Jay Fitzgerald, Boston Herald, Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Tens of thousands of Verizon workers are now casting votes for a possible summer strike as management and two unions brace for what could be the largest labor showdown in the Northeast in five years.

About 70,000 members of the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers are expected to approve authorization for a strike when votes are finally counted later this month.

The two unions, which represent about 12,000 workers in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, then intend to use that strike threat as pressure against Verizon as negotiators try to hammer out a new agreement before the current five-year deal expires Aug. 2.
"It's really a way to send a message to the company," said Rand Wilson, a spokesman for CWA and the IBEW.

A spokesman for Verizon would only say the giant telecom company hopes an agreement can be reached before the current contract expires.

But if history is any indication, the coming weeks will see an escalation of tensions, high-stakes public-relations moves and bitter accusations as the two old adversaries square off.

In 2000, union members went on strike for about 10 days over thorny issues such as wages, health care, job security and union expansion into Verizon’s cell-phone unit, Verizon Wireless.
In 2003, a final contract wasn't signed until 33 acrimonious days after the unions' contract expired.

This year, the battle lines are similar.

But there's also a new twist: the unions' attempts to organize hundreds of New England and New York workers who used to be employed by MCI, which was purchased by Verizon two years ago. Those workers, who now are part of Verizon’s corporate customers unit, are not unionized.

Let’s Get Ready!
The Countdown Begins: 312 Days to Expiration

We’re getting ready! August 2 began the one-year countdown to expiration of the Verizon East contracts, which also have huge implications for future Verizon West contracts.

On that day, IBEW and CWA members rallied at Verizon’s New England headquarters in Boston, in Upland, CA, Richmond, VA, Baltimore, MD and Morgantown, WV. Members also gathered at garages and workplaces throughout Verizon’s footprint. “Union members are getting prepared now because the next collective bargaining agreement offers us our best chance to refocus management on making Verizon work for everyone: customers, employees and investors alike,” said IBEW Local 2222 Business Manager Myles Calvey.

**Verizon MEMBERS**

If you are not yet FOI or FOT certified and want to begin working towards this goal, here is an easy way to get started. More

100 join in protest against Verizon
Employees in L.B., N.Y. complain of overwork, anti-union actions, outsourcing. More

Stan Santos, with Communication Workers of America (CWA) Local 9408 in Fresno dress to protray Verizon Wireless CEO Seidenberg holding a sign with the quote said by Seidenberg, "No company can guarantee work, pensions, or health care." CWA are voicing their opinions against mandatory overtime and for Employee Free Choice Act in front of Verizon's Long Beach facility on Ocean Blvd. (Diandra Jay / Press-Telegram)

Long Beach Techs Testify about Verizon's Illegal Tactics
August 16, 2007

In arbitration hearings this week and last, eight technicians from Verizon's Maintenance Control Office in Long Beach, Calif., have stepped forward to testify that the company used coercive tactics to intimidate union supporters in a representation election the workers narrowly lost in April.
The day before the election, Verizon's senior vice president for network operations, Michael Poling, went cubicle to cubicle telling the workers, "You will not get raises. You will not get under the union contract." Poling had been flown into Long Beach at the apparent instruction of Denny Strigl, Verizon's president and chief operating officer. The actions are violations of CWA's neutrality and expedited election agreement at Verizon that covers former GTE network services units. The workers lost the election by just 7 votes. Weeks earlier, 105 of the 170 workers had signed union authorization cards.

"It's courageous of these workers to come forward and testify given what they have endured," said CWA Local 9586 President Gregg Gibson, whose local has been assisting the workers. "The experience has made them stronger and increased their respect for what unions are all about," he said. Verizon's number two HR official flew in for the hearings assisted by three high-powered attorneys.

A second round of hearings is scheduled in October, but Verizon has filed suit in U.S. District Court to rule the arbitration out of order. It is claiming the complaint should have been filed before the vote, not afterwards. CWA's agreement with the company, however, specifically states that the union has 5 days after an election to file charges.
According to a mid-level manager who tipped off the local, Strigl had stressed the importance of defeating the union drive in a conference call for managers in California. From then until the vote, the company deluged the workers almost daily with e-mails attacking the union and collective bargaining.

If you are not yet FOI or FOT certified and want to begin working towards this goal, here is an easy way to get started. More

The wall that Verizon is building around VZ Business is a bad idea. Bad for workers, bad for customers, bad for shareholders, and bad for business.
Verizon is using VZ Business—and its non-union working conditions—to perform communications work usually done at union rates and benefits.

Clerical, tech, service, and operator work is being moved out of the bargaining unit—even for non- Enterprise customers.

• If small and medium business customers
  purchase MCI platform products, such as
  VoIP, their DA and operator calls will be
  handled at former MCI call centers.
• Orders for POTS circuits coming to union
  service reps for one huge customer have
  dropped by 90% since the merger.
• In Washington state, tech work for
  Washington Mutual bank will be
  performed by VZB employees.

Verizon’s bad plan sets the stage for labor unrest—the last thing Wall Street wants to hear when it’s already jittery about Verizon’s FiOS vs. cable. It’s up to us to get Verizon to change this plan. Educate your
co-workers, report info to your Local, and mobilize!