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CWA Keeps Up the Fight for Jobs at Lucent
Lucent Technologies is continuing a major company-wide restructuring as it seeks to weather the economic downturn that has hit telecommunications companies especially hard — Lucent’s primary customers.
For some CWA members at Lucent, restructuring has meant a change in employer, while others have faced surpluses and downsizing. Through it all, however, “CWA continues to fight to keep jobs at Lucent and successor companies, and to ensure that new employers honor the contracts we have negotiated,” said Ralph Maly, CWA vice president for communications and technologies.
Discussions between CWA national and local officials and Solectron Corp., which began in late January, are continuing as Lucent and Solectron work to finalize a sales agreement which will turn over certain Lucent products, on an ongoing basis, to Solectron for production.
CWA’s ongoing discussions with Solectron involve all aspects of the present collective bargaining agreement, but official negotiations can’t begin until CWA members become Solectron employees, said Robert Richhart, assistant to Maly.
“The discussions continue to be very positive as we go through the elements of our current agreements — wage and benefit issues, contract language, local work rules and policies — with Solectron,” he said.
Among CWA’s key goals is to ensure that the work remains in the Mermack Valley or within a 35-mile radius. “We’ve made it clear to Solectron, and the company fully agrees, that it will need the expertise of our members to meet its sales agreement with Lucent,” Richhart said. Presidents Joe Kanan, CWA Local 1365 and Marcie Vincent, Local 1366, also are taking part in the discussions with Solectron, along with Richhart and CWA Representative Mary Jo Sherman.
If the contract manufacturing arrangement goes through, a still undetermined number of employees will stay with Lucent and others will have the opportunity to become Solectron employees under a seniority/voluntary choice procedure.
At other Lucent units, Lucent has put plans to subcontract some of its Bell Labs work to Cushman and Wakefield on hold, following CWA’s refusal to allow the company to use excess pension assets to fund the changeover and other major roadblocks.
For some CWA members at Lucent, restructuring has meant a change in employer, while others have faced surpluses and downsizing. Through it all, however, “CWA continues to fight to keep jobs at Lucent and successor companies, and to ensure that new employers honor the contracts we have negotiated,” said Ralph Maly, CWA vice president for communications and technologies.
Discussions between CWA national and local officials and Solectron Corp., which began in late January, are continuing as Lucent and Solectron work to finalize a sales agreement which will turn over certain Lucent products, on an ongoing basis, to Solectron for production.
CWA’s ongoing discussions with Solectron involve all aspects of the present collective bargaining agreement, but official negotiations can’t begin until CWA members become Solectron employees, said Robert Richhart, assistant to Maly.
“The discussions continue to be very positive as we go through the elements of our current agreements — wage and benefit issues, contract language, local work rules and policies — with Solectron,” he said.
Among CWA’s key goals is to ensure that the work remains in the Mermack Valley or within a 35-mile radius. “We’ve made it clear to Solectron, and the company fully agrees, that it will need the expertise of our members to meet its sales agreement with Lucent,” Richhart said. Presidents Joe Kanan, CWA Local 1365 and Marcie Vincent, Local 1366, also are taking part in the discussions with Solectron, along with Richhart and CWA Representative Mary Jo Sherman.
If the contract manufacturing arrangement goes through, a still undetermined number of employees will stay with Lucent and others will have the opportunity to become Solectron employees under a seniority/voluntary choice procedure.
At other Lucent units, Lucent has put plans to subcontract some of its Bell Labs work to Cushman and Wakefield on hold, following CWA’s refusal to allow the company to use excess pension assets to fund the changeover and other major roadblocks.