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CWA Pushes to Improve SNET's Customer Service
CWA members who recently staged a successful 26-day strike against the Southern New England Telephone Co. have joined forces with a consumer group to raise questions about whether windfall profits should be set aside to improve service or provide customer refunds.
CWA Local 1298, the Connecticut Union of Telephone Workers, and the Connecticut Citizen Action Group filed a joint petition with the state's Department of Public Utility Control on the issue Oct. 9.
CUTW affiliated with CWA earlier this summer and 6,300 union members launched a strike against the company on Aug. 23.
Connecticut Citizen Action and CWA contend that SNET earned unreasonable profits during the strike, since its expenses were reduced by up to $22.6 million while rates remained unchanged.
"This is the first time that anyone can remember when a major consumer group and the union representing telephone workers have joined together in a formal petition to the DPUC," according to Tom Swan, state Citizen Action director.
"We both want to urge the DPUC to do the right thing and insure that SNET's customers receive the high quality of service for which they are paying," he added.
Paul Hongo, administrative vice president of CWA Local 1298, said that the service quality problems are real.
"Right now, SNET management is holding customers hostage because they want to punish the workers who won the strike. They're forcing us to stop working on a job at 3 p.m., and to tell the customer to wait until the next day," Hongo said.
Workers then spend the next 90 minutes cleaning the trucks in order to finish the workday in a timely fashion without racking up any overtime, Hongo said, prompting him to ask:
"What does the company want - super clean trucks or satisfied customers?"
Local officers also say that since the strike, the normal lag time for providing service to a customer has increased from two to five days, to a month or more. The pre-strike lag for providing service to business customers was less than five days but now can be three or four weeks.
CWA and Citizen Action are asking DPUC to implement section 16-8b of a state statute that authorizes the regulatory agency to order refunds if it determines the company earned unreasonable profits or provided impaired service during the strike.
Specifically, the joint petition asks DPUC to take the following actions: conduct a formal hearing, provide party status to Citizen Action and CWA Local 1298, rebate some of the unreasonable profits to ratepayers, and enable the union to implement an independent quality monitoring program.
CWA was able to reach a tentative agreement with SNET in mid-Septem-ber and the members ratified the pact by a three-to-one margin days later.
CWA Local 1298, the Connecticut Union of Telephone Workers, and the Connecticut Citizen Action Group filed a joint petition with the state's Department of Public Utility Control on the issue Oct. 9.
CUTW affiliated with CWA earlier this summer and 6,300 union members launched a strike against the company on Aug. 23.
Connecticut Citizen Action and CWA contend that SNET earned unreasonable profits during the strike, since its expenses were reduced by up to $22.6 million while rates remained unchanged.
"This is the first time that anyone can remember when a major consumer group and the union representing telephone workers have joined together in a formal petition to the DPUC," according to Tom Swan, state Citizen Action director.
"We both want to urge the DPUC to do the right thing and insure that SNET's customers receive the high quality of service for which they are paying," he added.
Paul Hongo, administrative vice president of CWA Local 1298, said that the service quality problems are real.
"Right now, SNET management is holding customers hostage because they want to punish the workers who won the strike. They're forcing us to stop working on a job at 3 p.m., and to tell the customer to wait until the next day," Hongo said.
Workers then spend the next 90 minutes cleaning the trucks in order to finish the workday in a timely fashion without racking up any overtime, Hongo said, prompting him to ask:
"What does the company want - super clean trucks or satisfied customers?"
Local officers also say that since the strike, the normal lag time for providing service to a customer has increased from two to five days, to a month or more. The pre-strike lag for providing service to business customers was less than five days but now can be three or four weeks.
CWA and Citizen Action are asking DPUC to implement section 16-8b of a state statute that authorizes the regulatory agency to order refunds if it determines the company earned unreasonable profits or provided impaired service during the strike.
Specifically, the joint petition asks DPUC to take the following actions: conduct a formal hearing, provide party status to Citizen Action and CWA Local 1298, rebate some of the unreasonable profits to ratepayers, and enable the union to implement an independent quality monitoring program.
CWA was able to reach a tentative agreement with SNET in mid-Septem-ber and the members ratified the pact by a three-to-one margin days later.