2006 CWA/Avaya Bargaining

2006 CWA/Avaya Bargaining

Ralph Maly, Vice President CWA

Opening Remarks

As we enter into this round of bargaining with Avaya, I want to reflect back to what I said in my opening statement in 2003.

At that time, I said this was an historic event.  The Unions and their members brought a sense of pride and dedication knowing they have been instrumental in helping to create a successful business, a business they wanted to be part of as it grows and prospers.

Today that relationship and partnership has all but gone.  Avaya has gone down the path of mismanagement; misrepresentation; greed and continuous failed business schemes resulting in a no growth business strategy, which has led to the downsizing of the very people who helped to create this company.

The services division has continued down a path of incompetence with managers showing an arrogant disregard for our members, customers, and shareholders alike.  In a recent 2006 article in a publication of the voice report it stated that “Avaya has great products but poor support”, a quote from a Telecom Manager who was upset about service staff cuts and the impact it is having on Avaya’s customers.  As I said in 2003, our members want Avaya to be a successful business.  They have a vested interest in making that happen but not at the sacrifice of their jobs.  As we approach this round of bargaining, we continue to lose jobs in the represented workforce while the company is in the process of hiring hundreds of management titles to do the work of our Technicians.  It is clear that services and its leaderships’ only goal is to replace the Union jobs with subcontractors, managers, and business partners.

When Avaya’s CEO Don Peterson responsed to the concerns we raised at the Shareholders meeting, he stated that our Union partners and their members were an integral part of the success of Avaya and that Avaya could not succeed as a business without the Unions and their members.  Somehow, that belief and ideal has not resonated down to the Business Unit leaders.

To that end, CWA cannot and will not wait for the next shoe to drop or the next failed business plan to take place to see what happens to our members and their jobs.

Our goal in this round of bargaining will be to protect our member’s jobs today and in the future.  Without it, there will be no agreement.

As I stated earlier, we want Avaya to be a successful business but more importantly, we want to share in that success with jobs for our members.  No one in management should take that goal lightly, or misunderstand what we are willing to do to achieve it. 

Our will, our determination and our solidarity to do whatever it takes, is our resolve.  There should be no misunderstanding.  Avaya will not survive as a business without us.