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One Adelphia Unit Strikes; Others Could Follow
Nearly 150 Local 2004 members and their supporters rallied outside the Adelphia cable office in Morgantown, W.Va., May 22, on the second day of a strike there by 42 workers, reported District 2 Vice President Pete Catucci.
After seven months of attempting to bargain a new contract, they walked off the job in frustration over Adelphia's position.
"The company wanted people to accept zero pay increases over the term of the contract, and with the money Adelphia's got flowing everywhere else, that just doesn't seem fair," said Local 2004 President Ron Gaskins.
The company is paying $41 million to its two top executives, Gaskins said.
Adelphia also wants to eliminate from a future contract binding arbitration and a just-cause standard for discipline, which would undercut the union's ability to represent its members, and would impose significantly higher health care co-pays on the workers.
Local 2004 has built a groundswell of labor and community support for the workers' cause, and Adelphia locals elsewhere are doing the same. CWA represents 500 Adelphia members at 12 locations. Three have contracts, four are bargaining first contracts and five, including Morgantown, are bargaining for new pacts. The five have continued to work under the terms of contracts that expired in October 2002.
In addition to Morgantown, three other units have taken strike votes: 200 workers in Los Angeles, 20 in Norton, Va., and 25 in Huntington, W.Va. Local 2004 Verizon members and officers of Laborers Local 814 chanted union slogans at the Morgantown rally and waved to passing cars that blew their horns in support. They were joined by about 100 Glass Molders and Pottery Workers attending a summer school at the Institute for Labor Studies at nearby West Virginia University. Local 2004 members have kept a daily presence on the picket line and had roving pickets follow replacement workers to customers' homes and businesses, where most of their work is performed.
After seven months of attempting to bargain a new contract, they walked off the job in frustration over Adelphia's position.
"The company wanted people to accept zero pay increases over the term of the contract, and with the money Adelphia's got flowing everywhere else, that just doesn't seem fair," said Local 2004 President Ron Gaskins.
The company is paying $41 million to its two top executives, Gaskins said.
Adelphia also wants to eliminate from a future contract binding arbitration and a just-cause standard for discipline, which would undercut the union's ability to represent its members, and would impose significantly higher health care co-pays on the workers.
Local 2004 has built a groundswell of labor and community support for the workers' cause, and Adelphia locals elsewhere are doing the same. CWA represents 500 Adelphia members at 12 locations. Three have contracts, four are bargaining first contracts and five, including Morgantown, are bargaining for new pacts. The five have continued to work under the terms of contracts that expired in October 2002.
In addition to Morgantown, three other units have taken strike votes: 200 workers in Los Angeles, 20 in Norton, Va., and 25 in Huntington, W.Va. Local 2004 Verizon members and officers of Laborers Local 814 chanted union slogans at the Morgantown rally and waved to passing cars that blew their horns in support. They were joined by about 100 Glass Molders and Pottery Workers attending a summer school at the Institute for Labor Studies at nearby West Virginia University. Local 2004 members have kept a daily presence on the picket line and had roving pickets follow replacement workers to customers' homes and businesses, where most of their work is performed.