Agere Bargaining (IBEW)

The following message is a response from Troy Johnson, International Representative IBEW to an Agere retiree regarding negotiations.

The IBEW is currently in negotiations with Agere and to answer your question specifically, yes they have announced their intentions to discontinue retiree healthcare. You should know that retiree benefits are not a considered a mandatory subject of bargaining under the National Labor Relations Act which means the company can negotiate the issue or they can simply choose not to.  I can guarantee you that

although our bargaining strength is considerably less than it once was (we now only represent a few hundred Agere employees) the IBEW is working diligently in negotiations at this time to assure that former IBEW and CWA represented retirees continue to maintain a level of benefits provided to them by Agere however, I cannot provide you with any more of a guarantee than that at this point.  As you can see by what happened to your cousin [Note: cousin is a management employee who was downsized at Agere, and was informed that he will lose medical coverage 1/1/2008], this company could care less about their former employees.  I'm not telling you what you should or shouldn't do, but several thousand letters from concerned retirees to Agere officials and/or the press may help.

The only reason the IBEW is in negotiations with Agere without the CWA is that there are no current employees represented by the CWA. Bargaining takes place between the employer and the employees or their designated representative.