Avaya Members Voting on Strike Authorization

CWA members at Avaya are voting on strike authorization as negotiations move toward the May 27 contract expiration. Locals have until 4 p.m. on Friday, May 19, EDT, to return the vote count; the tally will be announced after that. 

"With just two weeks to go, Avaya has put nothing but giveback demands on the table, from cuts in health care for active and retired members to reductions in disability benefits to the elimination of carryover of vacation days," said Ralph Maly, CWA vice president for communications and technologies. "It's time that Avaya got serious about this contract. Our members clearly are very serious and have been mobilizing to send a loud message to the company: we deserve a fair contract," he said.

CWA locals are holding lots of mobilizations, along with actions at Kinko's, FedEx/Kinko's and other users of Avaya services. Some CWA members report directly to Kinko's locations as their primary work sites, so CWA locals are letting Kinko's management know that the union has the right to have a union bulletin board on site. Locals in Kansas City, Oakland, Calif., Charlotte, New York, Columbus and Akron, Ohio, and other sites all held Kinko's actions. Leafleting and other mobilization events also continued in Denver, Memphis and other communities, with more planned for the final two weeks until contract expiration.

CWA represents about 2,900 workers at locations including Atlanta, Oklahoma City and the Denver area (customer service) and Anaheim, Calif., Dallas and Houston, Tex., Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio, and the New York City metro area.

Separately, bargaining got underway May 8 for a new contract covering 225 workers at OFS — Optical Fiber Solutions — the Japanese-owned company that bought some of Lucent Technologies operations.

Key issues for members in Sturbridge, Mass., and Norcross, Ga., are health care for both active and retired workers, jobs and job security and wages, said CWA Representative Bill Bates. Bates is chairing the bargaining team, with Gary Nilsson, Local 1365, and David Lasley, Local 3263.

The contract expires May 31.