CWA Counters Alcatel Lucent on Plant Closing

CWA has countered Alcatel Lucent’s demand that 250 workers represented by CWA Locals 1365 and 1366 bear the brunt of $6.6 million in cost cutting at the North Andover, Mass., plant.

The CWA proposal will save the company millions of dollars while continuing to keep North Andover open, said CWA Vice President Ralph Maly, Communications and Technologies.

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick also is working with CWA to find additional savings to help keep the plant in operation.

Massachusetts Senators Edward Kennedy and John Kerry, with Representative John Tierney, wrote to Alcatel Lucent CEO Pat Russo to express their support for CWA’s plan to significantly reduce costs over the next several years and to “urge you to give it full consideration.” 

“Closing the plant, which is among the last of Lucent’s manufacturing facilities in the United States, would send a deleterious signal about the company’s commitment to its workers who helped build it,” they wrote.