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NLRB Schedules Hearing Over Sprint Charges
CWA has won another battle with Sprint Corp. where contracts for more than 400 CWA members expired September 1.
"We know these are difficult times in the telecommunications industry," said CWA Telecommunications Vice President Jimmy Gurganus, "but no other employer has attempted to solve its problems by attacking its employees the way Sprint has."
CWA's charges in New Bern maintain that the company has engaged in "interfering with, restraining and coercing its employees in the exercise of rights guaranteed" by the National Labor Relations Act, by threatening employees with plant closure and by encouraging them to decertify the union if they want to keep their jobs.
The union further charges that Sprint has refused to bargain in good faith and has unilaterally implemented a "compressed work week" schedule. CWA Representative Karen Murphy said that scheduling policy ignores seniority in bidding for overtime or weekend assignments and encourages employees to volunteer to work Saturdays in return for an extra half-day off during the week.
The allegations in the Fayetteville charges are essentially the same. Said District 3 Vice President Jimmy Smith, "We've maintained all along that there's a master playbook at corporate headquarters and that they're all following that playbook in attempting to eliminate the union from their workplace."
It's not the first time in New Bern or Fayetteville that the company has pushed decerts.
The New Bern unit was organized in June 1997. "Since then we have won three decertification elections and the company keeps instigating new ones," Gurganus said. In the most recent decertification drive, in spring 2003, CWA filed a complaint because of threats to close the facility.
The Fayetteville unit also won CWA representation in 1997. When members defeated a decert attempt in an NLRB election with two-thirds of the vote last December, "the facility manager cried and left the room," Gurganus said. Four months later, another decert petition was submitted and the regional NLRB ruled it was untimely. Sprint appealed the ruling to the national NLRB.
Smith said that in the last two years, in District 3 alone, CWA has filed more than 20 unfair labor practices against Sprint, most of them for sponsoring decertification drives or bad-faith bargaining.
Local 3681 represents 200 workers in New Bern and Local 3680 represents 220 in Fayetteville. The NLRB has also issued a complaint against Sprint in Martinsville, Va., where Local 2277 represents about 80 workers whose contract expired May 31. In Martinsville, Sprint declared impasse after only a few hours of bargaining and implemented parts of its so-called "final offer," at the same time agreeing to continue bargaining - both a contradiction and an impossibility under the law.
At all three locations, the company is attempting to cut sickness and disability benefits and wages and to eliminate bargaining unit work through the use of subcontractors.
"We know these are difficult times in the telecommunications industry," said CWA Telecommunications Vice President Jimmy Gurganus, "but no other employer has attempted to solve its problems by attacking its employees the way Sprint has."
CWA's charges in New Bern maintain that the company has engaged in "interfering with, restraining and coercing its employees in the exercise of rights guaranteed" by the National Labor Relations Act, by threatening employees with plant closure and by encouraging them to decertify the union if they want to keep their jobs.
The union further charges that Sprint has refused to bargain in good faith and has unilaterally implemented a "compressed work week" schedule. CWA Representative Karen Murphy said that scheduling policy ignores seniority in bidding for overtime or weekend assignments and encourages employees to volunteer to work Saturdays in return for an extra half-day off during the week.
The allegations in the Fayetteville charges are essentially the same. Said District 3 Vice President Jimmy Smith, "We've maintained all along that there's a master playbook at corporate headquarters and that they're all following that playbook in attempting to eliminate the union from their workplace."
It's not the first time in New Bern or Fayetteville that the company has pushed decerts.
The New Bern unit was organized in June 1997. "Since then we have won three decertification elections and the company keeps instigating new ones," Gurganus said. In the most recent decertification drive, in spring 2003, CWA filed a complaint because of threats to close the facility.
The Fayetteville unit also won CWA representation in 1997. When members defeated a decert attempt in an NLRB election with two-thirds of the vote last December, "the facility manager cried and left the room," Gurganus said. Four months later, another decert petition was submitted and the regional NLRB ruled it was untimely. Sprint appealed the ruling to the national NLRB.
Smith said that in the last two years, in District 3 alone, CWA has filed more than 20 unfair labor practices against Sprint, most of them for sponsoring decertification drives or bad-faith bargaining.
Local 3681 represents 200 workers in New Bern and Local 3680 represents 220 in Fayetteville. The NLRB has also issued a complaint against Sprint in Martinsville, Va., where Local 2277 represents about 80 workers whose contract expired May 31. In Martinsville, Sprint declared impasse after only a few hours of bargaining and implemented parts of its so-called "final offer," at the same time agreeing to continue bargaining - both a contradiction and an impossibility under the law.
At all three locations, the company is attempting to cut sickness and disability benefits and wages and to eliminate bargaining unit work through the use of subcontractors.