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CWA Charges U S WEST with 'Campaign of Deceit'
Comparing recent statements by U S WEST to "a bloody-handed criminal blaming his victim after the fact," the Communications Workers of America's top regional officer scoffed at today's company press statement claiming the union has been stalling in negotiations and charged that U S WEST engineered the current strike by its 35,000 employees.
(Note to reporters: Mediator has called the parties together at 2:00 p.m.
Sunday, August 23.)
"U S WEST asked for a federal mediator to take charge of the talks 10 days ago, to which we immediately agreed, and ever since then it has been subverting the process and defying instructions by Mediator Jim Mahon that all reports from the bargaining table come from him," said CWA District 7 Vice President Sue Pisha.
She charged that, "U S WEST has engaged in a campaign of deceit throughout negotiations, and its continuation of the Big Lie strategy through its continuing blizzards of news releases, in lieu of bargaining, is evidence that it has no intention of negotiating to end the dispute that it clearly planned and engineered all along.
"It completely defies common sense that our employees and their families wanted to endure the hardship of foregoing a paycheck and walking the picket lines, or that they would want to prolong that experience one minute longer than necessary," said Pisha.
"The motive and the opportunity for creating and prolonging this dispute points squarely at U S WEST, which continues collecting revenues from customers while we strike, and which seeks to impose conditions that would totally destroy the employees' job standards, health security and basic contractual rights," she noted.
She said, "the evidence is plain to see that U S WEST fully intended to force us on strike at midnight on August 15th," citing these points:
- After weeks of contract talks, the company only offered its first proposal on wage and pension increases-the starting point for discussion on these major issues- on the afternoon of August 15th, just hours before the contract expiration and strike deadline.
- Right to the end, the company was demanding health care cost shifting that would take an extra $2,000 to $3,200 a year out of the pockets of workers for family health coverage. The only modification came one hour before the deadline when a strike was inevitable and the company was readying its newspaper ads and press releases for the next day. Even with that, U S WEST is still demanding workers pay up to $840 additional or be forced from their jointly negotiated managed care doctor network into inferior HMOs named by the company.
- As of the contract deadline, and to this day, the company demands the elimination of premium pay after 8 hours work, enabling it to work people for 14 or 16 hours straight without having to pay time and a half, and also is demanding an end to premium pay for more than 49 hours in a week or for Sundays.
- Knowing that the horrendous levels of long hours employees are forced to work - 70 hours a week regularly for many - was an issue that had to be addressed, the company had offered nothing meaningful as of midnight, August 15. Its present proposal is unlimited forced overtime the rest of this year, and next year a "limit" of only 65 hours a week of forced hours (or as much as 7 days a week, 9 « hours a day).
- The company has told managers that they are enduring strike duty filling in for union workers essentially in a crusade to impose a pay plan on its customer service technicians that works like this: their base pay is frozen, any pay increases are based on job quotas set and changed at will solely by the company; workers are rewarded for rushing through repair jobs and doing quick-fixes, and they are punished for doing needed preventive maintenance or dealing with special customer problems. Termed by the company "pay for performance," it's a speed up plan driven by the bottom line rather than customer satisfaction.
- A raft of other management concession demands includes weakening workers' seniority rights in layoff situations, eliminating protections against surreptitious taping of employees and customers, and other language that would gut employees' contractual rights and protections on the job.
Union Vice President Pisha rebuffed U S WEST's version of a bargaining schedule that the company tried to sell reporters, which purported that little time had been spent in bargaining, stating: Countless hours have been spent by CWA negotiators the last three weeks in either direct negotiations at the formal bargaining table, in sidebar meetings of top union and company negotiations directly and with the mediator, and in subcommittee meetings and caucuses. We have been ready all along, and continue to be, to bargain day and night to reach a fair settlement. At present, the company seems to be only interested in bargaining on its own terms - imposing its demands with no give and take - and that's simply not the definition of bargaining in good faith."
"U S WEST is really taking the low road in labor relations, and it is a ruinous road for all who have a stake in this company - customers, employees and shareholders," Pisha stated.
Contact: Sue Pisha or Bill Thornburg, 303/770-2822
###
(Note to reporters: Mediator has called the parties together at 2:00 p.m.
Sunday, August 23.)
"U S WEST asked for a federal mediator to take charge of the talks 10 days ago, to which we immediately agreed, and ever since then it has been subverting the process and defying instructions by Mediator Jim Mahon that all reports from the bargaining table come from him," said CWA District 7 Vice President Sue Pisha.
She charged that, "U S WEST has engaged in a campaign of deceit throughout negotiations, and its continuation of the Big Lie strategy through its continuing blizzards of news releases, in lieu of bargaining, is evidence that it has no intention of negotiating to end the dispute that it clearly planned and engineered all along.
"It completely defies common sense that our employees and their families wanted to endure the hardship of foregoing a paycheck and walking the picket lines, or that they would want to prolong that experience one minute longer than necessary," said Pisha.
"The motive and the opportunity for creating and prolonging this dispute points squarely at U S WEST, which continues collecting revenues from customers while we strike, and which seeks to impose conditions that would totally destroy the employees' job standards, health security and basic contractual rights," she noted.
She said, "the evidence is plain to see that U S WEST fully intended to force us on strike at midnight on August 15th," citing these points:
- After weeks of contract talks, the company only offered its first proposal on wage and pension increases-the starting point for discussion on these major issues- on the afternoon of August 15th, just hours before the contract expiration and strike deadline.
- Right to the end, the company was demanding health care cost shifting that would take an extra $2,000 to $3,200 a year out of the pockets of workers for family health coverage. The only modification came one hour before the deadline when a strike was inevitable and the company was readying its newspaper ads and press releases for the next day. Even with that, U S WEST is still demanding workers pay up to $840 additional or be forced from their jointly negotiated managed care doctor network into inferior HMOs named by the company.
- As of the contract deadline, and to this day, the company demands the elimination of premium pay after 8 hours work, enabling it to work people for 14 or 16 hours straight without having to pay time and a half, and also is demanding an end to premium pay for more than 49 hours in a week or for Sundays.
- Knowing that the horrendous levels of long hours employees are forced to work - 70 hours a week regularly for many - was an issue that had to be addressed, the company had offered nothing meaningful as of midnight, August 15. Its present proposal is unlimited forced overtime the rest of this year, and next year a "limit" of only 65 hours a week of forced hours (or as much as 7 days a week, 9 « hours a day).
- The company has told managers that they are enduring strike duty filling in for union workers essentially in a crusade to impose a pay plan on its customer service technicians that works like this: their base pay is frozen, any pay increases are based on job quotas set and changed at will solely by the company; workers are rewarded for rushing through repair jobs and doing quick-fixes, and they are punished for doing needed preventive maintenance or dealing with special customer problems. Termed by the company "pay for performance," it's a speed up plan driven by the bottom line rather than customer satisfaction.
- A raft of other management concession demands includes weakening workers' seniority rights in layoff situations, eliminating protections against surreptitious taping of employees and customers, and other language that would gut employees' contractual rights and protections on the job.
Union Vice President Pisha rebuffed U S WEST's version of a bargaining schedule that the company tried to sell reporters, which purported that little time had been spent in bargaining, stating: Countless hours have been spent by CWA negotiators the last three weeks in either direct negotiations at the formal bargaining table, in sidebar meetings of top union and company negotiations directly and with the mediator, and in subcommittee meetings and caucuses. We have been ready all along, and continue to be, to bargain day and night to reach a fair settlement. At present, the company seems to be only interested in bargaining on its own terms - imposing its demands with no give and take - and that's simply not the definition of bargaining in good faith."
"U S WEST is really taking the low road in labor relations, and it is a ruinous road for all who have a stake in this company - customers, employees and shareholders," Pisha stated.
Contact: Sue Pisha or Bill Thornburg, 303/770-2822
###