AVAYA: ALCATEL-LUCENT: OFS - UNI TELECOM BULLETIN 12/07

UNI Telecom Bulletin - December 2007

Haber-Is strike over, union gets a deal
Haber-Is, UNI's Turkish telecom affiliate, has reached an agreement with Turk Telekom after a hard fight with a strike of more than 40 days. The union was fighting to stop the company lowering wage rates and taking jobs out of union coverage. The workers took strike action and supported the union negotiators to gain a fair new contract. On November 28, Haber-Is and Turk Telekom came to an agreement to end the dispute. UNI Telecom and Graphical delivered their solidarity in person as they joined a demonstration outside a Türk Telekom office in downtown Istanbul in support of a strike that is now affecting 81 towns and cities in Turkey.
The Agreement hammered out overnight between management and the union, provides for pay hikes of 10 % this year and 6.5 % plus inflation in 2008 as well as several fringe benefits.Another crucial point for the union was the demand by the employer that working time should be more than 5 days and 45 hours a week. Workers will also receive one-time bonuses of 168 USD and the settlement will cost the company 30 million YTL. The one-time bonuses will act to compensate strikers for lost pay during the action. Haber-Is sends its thanks to all of the UNI Telecom unions that sent them messages of support and sent protest messages via UNI's web page to the management.

France Telecom: mobilising unions in Central and West Africa

UNI affiliates from four Central and West African countries came together in Douala, Cameroon, to play their part in the application of the UNI-France Telecom global agreement (13-14 November). In this event funded by ILO unions from Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Mali and Senegal discussed organisation and recruitment within France Telecom companies and subsidiaries in the region. Making the most of the neutrality toward trade union activity in all France Telecom work sites, as guaranteed by the global agreement, was high on the agenda as was enhancing cooperation between trade unions in Africa. Participants heard from: France Telecom's International Social Relations Director, Laurent Zylberberg; the chair of the UNI France Telecom Trade Union Alliance, Gabou Gueye; and F3C-CFDT Secretary General, Hervé Morland. The positive approach France Telecom adopts to social dialogue was further in evidence as participants visited an Orange call centre in Douala to talk to workers at the end of the two-day seminar.

Mobile telecom employees in Pakistan agree on the programme for organising

UNI Apro Telecom together with UNI Pakistan Liaison Council (UNI-PALC) initiated a workshop on organising mobile telecom employees. This event targeted the telecom unions in Pakistan and was supported by SASK - the Trade Union Solidarity Centre of Finland. The aim of the workshop was to collect information, get feedback and suggestions on how to better assist employees of the mobile phone companies and to discuss how UNI could help them to organise. Non-unionised employees as well as members of 5 existing affiliates in the telecom sector agreed to make all possible efforts to organize mobile companies' employees in Pakistan. Workers from the mobile phone companies were very encouraged by the seminar agreed to take the message back to their workplaces. It is important as many sector employees as possible could improve their knowledge about the union movement.

Private telecom company workers organized in Nepal

Workers of the first private sector telecom operator United Telecom Limited (UTL), a consortium of 4 companies which have merged in a joint venture to explore various telecom opportunities, have formed a trade union with the support of UNIDOC Nepal. Workers are in a very difficult situation as the company has outsourced various units and didn't recognise workers as UTL staff. "UNIDOC has organized various activities to support the union; finally with the integrated support of Nepal Telecom Workers Union (NTWU), UNI NLC and NTUC, it has succeeded in forming the union with more than a 100 members. UNI-Apro is providing development and organising support to unionise telecom workers in Nepal in the framework of the South Asia Telecom Project implemented together with SASK.

UNI Telecom helps Swaziland telecom union to get on line

UNI-Africa Regional Secretary Fackson Shamenda has handed over a laptop from UNI Telecom to SPTWU Swaziland's Treasurer Ms. Phumzile Simone, General Secretary Mandla Mdluli and President Kennedy Dlamini during a mission on November 6-8. The laptop is to help this well-organised union whose leadership has integrated well both the old and the youth, and to ensure they can stay on line and progress with their work which includes recently gained recognition at the Pan Africa mobile phone company MTN. M. Mdluli is also a member for the UNI-Africa Regional Youth Committee while P. Simone is from MTN-Swaziland. The Treasurer from MTN participated in the recent UNI/ILO skills training programme held at the Zambia Telecommunications College in Ndola in August 2007.

Swisscom workers get a 2.7% salary increase

Syndicom, UNI Telecom's Swiss affiliate, reports that it has negotiated a 2.7% salary increase for its members working in Swisscom. This was achieved after 4 rounds of negotiations. The union was arguing in the negotiations that the economic conditions in Switzerland were good, the company was making a good profit and that not only the managers but also the workers should gain from the increased profits. Hence a wage raise of 2.7% was agreed, which is an excellent result when compared to the rise for other Swiss contracts such as La Poste which saw a 2.2% increase.

The social partners have also agreed that a joint commission will be established to make a study on how the objective of equal opportunity and equal pay can be met. This group plans to complete this work before the end of 2008 with a goal of ensuring that the collective contract reflects the objective of equal pay for work of equal value.

IGBCE negotiates wage rise with O2 Germany

The German union, IGBCE, has just finished negotiations with the O2 Telecom company, a member of the Telefónica Group, for a wage increase of 2.8% from January 2008. For more information on the negotiations and the settlement you can see IGBCE's blog (in German) at; www.igbce-blogs/o2-tarifrunde

COMFIA-CCOO & FeS-UGT have reached a preliminary agreement with owners' organisation in telemarketing

The Spanish trade unions (COMFIA-CCOO & FeS-UGT) have reached a preliminary agreement with owner's organization to sign the 4^th contact center agreement at Christmas. This new collective agreement will help to fight for the professional career and promotion, something that did not exist in telemarketing, and increase employees' payment over inflation. The agreement also has improvements in equality and family conciliation clauses. The press release views can be seen at; http://www.uniglobalunion.org/UNITelecom.nsf/0/101207_EN_18

Joint UNI-Europa Telecom and IBITS Meeting of ICTS Task Forces in Luxembourg

The first meeting of the UNI Europa ICTS Task Forces took place in Luxembourg on 20-21 November. ICTS (Information and Communication Technology Services) will be a new feature in UNI Europa and in UNI Global Union as well. UNI Europa Telecom and UNI Europa IBITS have come together and formed a new sector in order to better respond to members' needs in the converging industries of telecommunications, IT and business services.During the two days meeting some 60 delegates from all over Europe determined in detail the objectives of the respective Task Forces and set out comprehensive action plans for each of them. Key objectives for ICTS are to improve trade union density levels in the sector, to reinforce trade union cooperation, build trade union alliances and work for multinational framework agreements. The work of ICTS Europe will be organized around five different Task Forces: Multinationals and Organising, Skills Development; Diversity/Equality, Regulation/Industry Development; Work Organisation. Each of them will work towards social dialogue, advocating members' interests in European legislative decision making and develop concrete actions improving working conditions, employability, work organization and equal opportunities.They will be composed of experts delegated by ICTS affiliates.

Telecom Social Dialogue goes to Poland

UNI and ETNO (European Telecommunications Network Operators' Association), the social partners in the Telecom Social Dialogue, took the SD meeting to Poland to try and help improve the representation of the new member states in the activities of the Social Dialogue committee. The seminar started with a presentation on the process, activities and objectives of the social dialogue by both UNI and ETNO, followed by discussion on how to make this process work better.
The seminar also heard presentations from participants from the new member states on what is the social dialogue realities in their countries and how the Telecom Social Dialogue can contribute to the improvement of workers' opportunities in the industry. For skills & training the discussion focused how to make practical steps to improve lifelong learning and certification and mobility of qualifications. The seminar also made a huge step forward when the Social Partners discussed a joint CSR statement. It covers issues such as respect for the environment, human and labour rights, sustainable development, regulatory compliance, supporting research & development and ensuring accountability on these issues and how to ensure the pledges made by the partners are observed and implemented.

Verizon Business ordered to Stop Violating Workers' Rights

In agreeing to settle CWA charges of illegal union-busting by Verizon Business in Pennsylvania, the company was ordered by the NLRB to post notices affirming the workers' rights to organize and declaring that it will no longer engage in coercive threats to prevent workers from unionizing. CWA filed charges on behalf of Verizon Business techs in both New York and Pennsylvania, and in early October NLRB regional directors issued complaints against the company and ordered hearings over the charges. A similar settlement is expected in the New York case. Several hundred technicians at the former MCI unit, which Verizon set up as a separate non-union business, have been organizing with CWA and IBEW throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic and have petitioned for representation based on majority union support, as validated by congressional and community leaders in Boston and New York. In the Pennsylvania settlement, the notice Verizon Business is required to post at worksites for 60 days clearly describes the nature of the illegal abuses that CWA and the workers charged. Among other rights, Verizon Business must let workers know that "Federal law gives you the right to form, join or assist a union."
"Given the pro-business and anti-union record of this labor board in recent years, the settlement shows just how blatant and egregious Verizon Business's anti-worker behavior has been", said CWA President Larry Cohen.

Trade union criticises exploitation in call centres

Services trade union ver.di has criticised the wages and working conditions in call centres. Despite the boom in this sector, wages in more than 110 call centres in the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania had not increased "at all", said department manager of ver.di North, Dieter Altmann, in an interview with German press agency dpa. Basic hourly wages in the so-called outbound sector were only 4.10 euros in Schwerin. Even going to the toilet was restricted in some call centres. "There's ruinous competition, and structurally less privileged areas are exploited to obtain subsidies", Altmann gave as the background explaining the low wages. The union demanded a minimum wage of 7.50 euros. So far, the union hadn't had an easy task. There was a low level of organisation which, among other things, was caused by high employee fluctuation. Fluctuation averaged 100%, which according to Altmann, means that the entire staff changes over on a yearly basis. At least most companies now had employee representatives. Altmann believes that collective bargaining would also benefit employers and negotiations will start in due course. He also expects an improvement for employees due to the occupation now being classified as a qualified job. Since 2006, young people in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania could gain a trade qualification in dialogue marketing within two years. So far, call centres mainly employed students and women on a part time basis.

Australia: change of Government sees broadband and labour rights high on the list of things to do

Implementing its broadband policies will be one of the new Australian Labour Government and Prime Minister Rudd's Government's top priorities. During the election campaign, Shadow Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, said that ideally he'd like to have Labour's proposed Fibre-to-the-Node (FTTN) project up and running by mid-2008. That timetable may turn out to be rather ambitious, but it does suggest that Labour will move quickly in this area. The first step will be establishing a new expert panel to assess competing proposals for a network roll-out. Conroy has indicated that he wants more people who understand telecommunications on Labour's panel than the Coalition had on theirs. But this is the easy part of the exercise.
The scope of the panel's work also needs to be established. Labour's plan will raise many thorny problems - access pricing at both retail and wholesale levels, the question of whether ADSL-based competitors should be compensated for "stranded" assets (i.e. DSLAMS) as fibre is pushed out further past exchanges and perhaps the biggest of all - the implications of an FTTN roll-out for the Opel project. It is likely that Labour will find that what is really involved here is not just a decision about how its $4.7 billion contribution to Australia's broadband future is best spent but a more thoroughgoing overhaul of current policy and regulation. And that job could take more than six months.

Conflicts with Deutsche Telekom continue

Even after the harsh confrontation in the first half of this year, Deutsche Telekom continues a policy directed against its own workforce. Prominent features of Deutsche Telekom corporate policy still are the dismantling of the group and selling of parts of the company as well as job-killing and deteriorating working and income conditions of the workforce. Since the financial investor Blackstone has joined the company, DT is more concerned with financial markets than medium-term corporate strategies aimed at maintaining and expanding market shares, and securing jobs. Instead, DT uses cost-cutting and deconsolidation in order to maximize short-term profits and meet shareholder expectations. After the fierce conflict over terms and conditions for 50,000 workers in the first half of the year, UNI's German affiliate ver.di has to deal with a number of individual conflicts in almost all units of the group in the next few months. More than 36,000 jobs are at stake which are planned to be either cut or pushed out of the group. DT shirks its responsibility for workers destroying safe jobs and good employment conditions for thousands of workers.

Australian unions condemn Telstra desperate post election moves

Having seen the Australian Labour party sweep into power in last weekends election, Telstra, the largest telecom company in Australia, in a desperate move to try and keep people under the oppressive conditions of the discredited "Work Choices Act", have been tryingto get thousands of staff to sign new five-year AWAs (Australian Workplace Agreement - Individual contracts). Unions have described this as a "cynical and renegade" move, Telstra management is pressuring staff in customer service centres on existing AWAs to sign new five-year individual contracts, regardless of how long their current agreement has to run. They are also urging staff to sign up immediately and forgo the usual seven day 'cooling off' period. CPSU National Secretary, Stephen Jones is advising Telstra staff to proceed with "extreme caution" with any new contracts. "It is obvious Telstra is doing everything it can to lock in the Howard Government's discredited work laws for as long as possible. The union is providing technical analysis of the proposed AWAs for members, but we urging people not to be hasty in signing a new agreement. Voters have sent a clear and unmistakable message about workplace fairness to the Government. It is a message that big business would be unwise to ignore. Even Joe Hockey has declared WorkChoices dead. Yet Telstra remain hell-bent on moving as many staff as possible onto WorkChoices agreements," said Mr Jones.
CEPU, UNIs other telecom affiliate in Australia, says that with negotiations for an enterprise-level union collective agreement due to start in May next year, the Telstra Contact and Service Stream Agreement offers a sneak preview of how Telstra would like to restructure wages and conditions. Just weeks before the election, a Telstra plan to introduce a WorkChoices, non-union collective agreement for non-AWA staff was overwhelming rejected by employees. More information on this move by Telstra and the unions views can be seen at;
http://www.cepu.asn.au/comms/section_news/current/N2007-123.shtml; http://www.cpsu.org.au/campaigns/news/4994.html

France Telecom announces the signing of a new agreement on equality at work

The agreement, reached by France Telecom and five trade unions (CFDT, CFTC, CGT, FO and SUD) is an important new step towards greater job equality, in line with the company's employment policies. It affects all France Telecom SA employees based in France, and is a part of the extension of the law on equal wages and the sector agreement, emphasising the principle of non-discrimination. France Telecom wants to take concrete actions to ensure greater professional equality in all its activities. For example, the company would like to obtain the "Job Equality Label" in France and apply for equivalent schemes existing in other countries where the Group is present. To achieve that, the new agreement establishes many measures, such as developing gender-neutral employment and recruiting, balancing professional/family life, reducing female/male differences in remuneration, strengthening of equality in career development and training , appointing a job equality correspondent in each entity, monitoring indicators identified in the agreement by a monitoring commission including representatives of the trade unions that signed the agreement, actions strengthening gender balance in Representative Personnel Bodies.

Telstra CEO gets $22 million bonus while workers get real pay cut

The fact that Telstra CEO Sol Trujillo will get a $22 million pay packet this year while one million working families will get a real pay cut of up to $800 shows the unfairness of the Howard Government's Work Choices IR laws said the ACTU (Australian Council of Trade Unions).
ACTU President Sharan Burrow said: "CEO pay bonuses like this one for Telstra boss Sol Trujillo are obscene. Australian working families are struggling to cope with interest rates rises and the effect of Work Choices."
Professor Ian Harper, the head of the now defunct Howard Govt's wages setting body confirmed that real wages for more than a million low paid workers have fallen by up to $15.67 a week or $814 a year under Work Choices this year. This is another sign that Work Choices is taking Australia down the United States path of large numbers of workers earning poverty-level wages while a small number of executives earn outrageous multi-million dollar bonuses.

EU Commission proposes wide ranging changes to telecom regulations

The European Commission proposals released in November 2007 on the regulatory framework for telecom are made up of three separate proposals: access, interconnection and authorization, universal service and users' rights and establishment of the European Electronic Communications Market Authority.
In addition, there is a recommendation on the ex-ante markets subject to regulation and a document summarising the proposals and reporting on the existing framework. UNI Telecom is in the process of developing a document for affiliates to highlight concerns for workers but in the meantime these proposals, which are backed-up by a number of reports, assessments etc. are available in several languages on the DG INFOSOC website at; http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/ecomm/tomorrow/index_en.htm

ETNO study: "Access Regulation and Infrastructure Investment in the Telecommunications Sector: An Empirical Investigation"

LECG, with the support of ETNO (the European Telecommunications Network Operators' Association), has produced an independent study on "Access Regulation and Infrastructure Investment in the Telecommunications Sector: An Empirical Investigation" carried out by finance and economic consultants. LECG, a global expert services firm, provides independent expert testimony and analysis, original authoritative studies, and strategic consulting services to clients including Fortune Global 500 corporations, major law firms, and local, state, and federal governments and agencies around the world. You can download the study at: http://www.etno.eu/Default.aspx?tabid=1948

Vodafone Newsletter No 2

The second number of UNI Telecom Vodafone newsletter was produced. It can be downloaded at;
http://www.uniglobalunion.org/UNITelecom.nsf/0/281107_EN_F3

Kentucky has a goal of universally available broadband

The Sate authorities in Kentucky, a largely rural state in the United States, have had an innovative programme in place to try and get all citizens with broadband access by the end of 2007. This innovative programme is an excellent blueprint for other municipalities, provinces, states and indeed countries to follow to get a universal broadband service up and running for their citizens.

Kentucky is very close to achieving their goal. For full information on the project visit the Connect Kentucky web page at; http://connectkentucky.org

Forthcoming UNI Telecom Events in 2008

20.12.2007 - UNI France Telecom Global Union Alliance Annual meeting, Paris.
17.01.2008 - 18.01.2008 - UNI Telefónica Global Union Alliance Annual meeting, Panama.
28.02.2008 - 29.02.2008 - ICTS Task Forces meetings, Brussels.
31.03.2008 - 01.04.2008 - Vodafone Global Union Alliance, Johannesburg.
12.05.2008 - 14.05.2008 - UNI Americas Telecom Conference, Panama.