Rochester Pact Raises Bar for Telecom Bargaining Round

About 600 Local 1170 members at Frontier Telephone in Rochester, N.Y., will get a 2 percent raise and an annual 4.5 percent performance bonus in each of the three years of their new contract — and they'll keep their fully paid health benefits.

The bargaining committee "reached a great agreement in particularly hard times," District 1 Vice President Chris Shelton said. "I think our agreement in Rochester will remain the best we have with that company."

Local 1170 President Linda McGrath said members are pleased. "Overall it's a good contract, and it will help the company beat the competition," she said.

The victory comes as four smaller CWA units at Citizens Frontier are bargaining or preparing to bargain, as are three at Century Tel and two at Windstream.

The Rochester pact also includes job security language covering all but 48 workers hired after Jan. 1, 1999, and an agreement that Frontier will provide a full year's wages plus a lump sum payment into the defined contribution pension plan for any workers surplused between now and Dec. 31, 2008.

The pact provides pension and vacation improvements and, McGrath said, performance bonuses are guaranteed for all employees as long as the company meets installation and repair standards established by the state Public Utility Commission.

The victory wasn't easy, however. Bargaining past expiration of their old contract on Jan. 31, 2007, Local 1170 members voted to authorize a strike and wore black T-shirts to work every Thursday as a sign of solidarity. They held informational pickets outside the home of a Frontier executive and lined the halls of the conference center where bargaining took place. A busload of members picketed corporate headquarters in Connecticut.

In reaching a contract, the local agreed to consolidate numerous job titles and to give Frontier some of the flexibility the company sought.

Citizens Frontier pacts expire April 14 for Local 2276 in Virginia; May 31 for Local 4671 in Wisconsin; June 30 for New York Locals 1111 and 1112; and July 31 for Local 2001 in West Virginia. Together the units have about 500 members.

Negotiations have stalled with Century Tel in Wisconsin, where the company said it made its last best offer to 130 members of Local 4671 in February. The company wants a two-tier pension plan and no more seniority for layoffs, recalls and transfers. CWA has filed unfair labor practice charges over issues that include the company's demand to use nonunion workers for the same work performed by union members. At press time, Local 4270 was  bargaining with Century Tel over similar issues. Local 6171's Century Tel contract, in Arkansas, expires on Aug. 14.

Windstream's contracts with Locals 3683 and 3684 in North Carolina expired April 2 but were extended indefinitely. At presstime, Local 3511 in Mississippi was bargaining with Windstream, facing an April 17 contract expiration. Job classifications and health care costs were major issues.