Search News
For the Media
For media inquiries, call CWA Communications at 202-434-1168 or email comms@cwa-union.org. To read about CWA Members, Leadership or Industries, visit our About page.
Lucent Buyers Agree to Assume CWA Contracts
The sale of Lucent Technologies’ optical fiber solutions business, affecting nearly 2,600 members at CWA-represented plants in Norcross, Ga., and Sturbridge, Mass., “should result in a more secure future for these employees and help secure the futures of all our Lucent members,” reported CWA Communications and Technologies Vice President Ralph Maly.
At the same time, he noted that “we hate to see one more piece of a once-proud 135-year-old company leave Lucent.” Sale of the fiber optic and cable business is a key component in the debt-ridden Lucent’s recovery plan.
The two CWA plants will be owned by a joint venture between Furukawa Electric Co. of Japan and Comm Scope, a North Carolina-based company, which together have agreed to employ all of the workers at the plants and to recognize CWA and assume the collective bargaining agreements, said Maly.
Comm Scope will own 51 percent of the Norcross plant, long known as the Atlanta Works and once part of the former Western Electric Co., the manufacturing arm of the old Bell Telephone System, which was broken up in 1984. CWA represents more than 2,200 workers at the facility.
Furukawa will own 51 percent of the Sturbridge plant, employing about 350 workers, which CWA organized earlier this year.
Altogether, the sale of Lucent’s worldwide fiber optics business, to be finalized in September, is a $2.75 billion deal involving Furukawa and Corning Inc. Comm Scope’s investment in the joint venture with Furukawa is $650 million.
Both companies are financially stable, Maly said. He reported to locals that CWA has a tentative agreement on union recognition and will shortly enter into “discussions with the companies to transition the current collective bargaining agreements and benefit packages to the new (owners) similar to what was done with the transition of the Dallas Workers to Tyco.”
At the same time, he noted that “we hate to see one more piece of a once-proud 135-year-old company leave Lucent.” Sale of the fiber optic and cable business is a key component in the debt-ridden Lucent’s recovery plan.
The two CWA plants will be owned by a joint venture between Furukawa Electric Co. of Japan and Comm Scope, a North Carolina-based company, which together have agreed to employ all of the workers at the plants and to recognize CWA and assume the collective bargaining agreements, said Maly.
Comm Scope will own 51 percent of the Norcross plant, long known as the Atlanta Works and once part of the former Western Electric Co., the manufacturing arm of the old Bell Telephone System, which was broken up in 1984. CWA represents more than 2,200 workers at the facility.
Furukawa will own 51 percent of the Sturbridge plant, employing about 350 workers, which CWA organized earlier this year.
Altogether, the sale of Lucent’s worldwide fiber optics business, to be finalized in September, is a $2.75 billion deal involving Furukawa and Corning Inc. Comm Scope’s investment in the joint venture with Furukawa is $650 million.
Both companies are financially stable, Maly said. He reported to locals that CWA has a tentative agreement on union recognition and will shortly enter into “discussions with the companies to transition the current collective bargaining agreements and benefit packages to the new (owners) similar to what was done with the transition of the Dallas Workers to Tyco.”