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CWA, IBEW Bargain Innovative One-Year Agreement at Avaya
CWA and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers have negotiated a one-year agreement with Avaya Inc. that provides employment security and opportunity for workers and a competitive edge for the new Lucent Technologies spinoff.
CWA represents about 8,500 of the new company’s 10,500 employees.
Jim Irvine, CWA vice president for communications and technologies, said that in the wake of Lucent’s planned restructuring, CWA was determined to explore all options to keep union jobs at the new company.
“This agreement achieves our goals of maintaining and expanding jobs, eliminating the company’s use of subcontractors, and winning a guarantee of no layoffs,” he said. “We believe we’ll be very successful.”
It also gives Avaya a huge step up on the competition, with the company able to hire from among the best skilled technicians in the business and able to hire the flexible workforce it needs now, Irvine noted. “As Avaya grows and wins more contracts, it will need to hire more full time workers and we’ll grow with the company,” he said.
Under the agreement, some 1,500 union members who retire from Lucent will make up a supplemental workforce at Avaya, represented by CWA. They will have a yearly guarantee of at least 13 weeks’ work, but no more than 39 weeks. The agreement also bars the use of subcontractors for on-call work and provides bonuses for those workers who stay in the program at least a year.
The agreement is separate from the national collective bargaining agreement that expires in 2003. It remains in effect until next October and can be renewed in one-year intervals until the 2003 contract expiration.
Irvine credited the local bargaining team for its efforts, noting that its work and the efforts of the Lucent mobilization coordinators made the agreement possible. Bargaining team members were Art Frindt, Local 4340; Phil Pennington, Local 4320; Joe Connolly, president, and Richie Meringolo, Local 1101; and Keith Edwards, president, Local 1105.
Avaya, formerly the Enterprise Network Group at Lucent, provides communications systems — including voice/data, networking, and messaging and cabling services — for business, government agencies and other groups. Avaya began operating and trading as a separate company on Oct. 2.
CWA represents about 8,500 of the new company’s 10,500 employees.
Jim Irvine, CWA vice president for communications and technologies, said that in the wake of Lucent’s planned restructuring, CWA was determined to explore all options to keep union jobs at the new company.
“This agreement achieves our goals of maintaining and expanding jobs, eliminating the company’s use of subcontractors, and winning a guarantee of no layoffs,” he said. “We believe we’ll be very successful.”
It also gives Avaya a huge step up on the competition, with the company able to hire from among the best skilled technicians in the business and able to hire the flexible workforce it needs now, Irvine noted. “As Avaya grows and wins more contracts, it will need to hire more full time workers and we’ll grow with the company,” he said.
Under the agreement, some 1,500 union members who retire from Lucent will make up a supplemental workforce at Avaya, represented by CWA. They will have a yearly guarantee of at least 13 weeks’ work, but no more than 39 weeks. The agreement also bars the use of subcontractors for on-call work and provides bonuses for those workers who stay in the program at least a year.
The agreement is separate from the national collective bargaining agreement that expires in 2003. It remains in effect until next October and can be renewed in one-year intervals until the 2003 contract expiration.
Irvine credited the local bargaining team for its efforts, noting that its work and the efforts of the Lucent mobilization coordinators made the agreement possible. Bargaining team members were Art Frindt, Local 4340; Phil Pennington, Local 4320; Joe Connolly, president, and Richie Meringolo, Local 1101; and Keith Edwards, president, Local 1105.
Avaya, formerly the Enterprise Network Group at Lucent, provides communications systems — including voice/data, networking, and messaging and cabling services — for business, government agencies and other groups. Avaya began operating and trading as a separate company on Oct. 2.