Bargaining Update

CWA, IBEW Workers Continue Strike at FairPoint

Dozens of union activists protested yesterday outside a New York City conference attended by officials of Angelo, Gordon & Co., a Wall Street hedge fund that owns the biggest stake in the troubled telecom company FairPoint Communications. CWA and IBEW members in northern New England have been on strike at FairPoint since Oct. 17.

FairPoint negotiators walked away from the bargaining table in late August and imposed a contract that ended restrictions on subcontracting and outsourcing, froze pensions, increased health care costs for active workers, slashed retiree health care, added a two-tier wage plan and more. That move by FairPoint forced 215 members of CWA Local 1400 in New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine and 1,500 members of IBEW Locals 2320, 2326 and 2327 to strike.

Angelo, Gordon & Co. owns nearly 20 percent of FairPoint shares. The Wall Street hedge fund also manages a portion of the New York State Common Retirement Fund (CRF), the nation's third largest public pension fund.

"The hypocrisy of Angelo, Gordon is appalling," CWA District 1 Vice President Chris Shelton said. "They want to make huge profits by investing public employees' pensions, and then they stand by while FairPoint tries to gut workers' pensions and end retiree health care. This is a betrayal of their investors and the public and we will expose it at every opportunity."

CWA and the IBEW have filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board over FairPoint's illegally imposing contract proposals before the impasse was reached.

FairPoint bought Verizon's northern New England landlines in 2007 and filed for bankruptcy protection 18 months later. CWA and IBEW led a campaign fighting the sale at the time.