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Sprint Units Settle on 3-Year Pacts, Avert Strikes
After narrowly averting a year-end strike, Sprint local service units covering 2,700 workers are looking forward to 3 percent annual wage gains, pension and savings plan improvements and enhanced pay incentives for service representatives. And because CWA prevailed in getting the company to withdraw most of its retrogressive demands, T.O. Moses, CWA vice president for telecommunications, said he expected ratifications to be completed by the end of January and satisfactory settlements for other Sprint units that bargain this year.
Sprint bargaining committees in Oregon, Indiana, Tennessee and two in North Carolina reached tentative agreement on new three-year contracts Dec. 30, just hours before a strike deadline of midnight. A sixth committee, in Florida, extended bargaining and on Jan. 3 agreed to send the company’s final offer to the membership, once again averting a strike that would have begun the following day. Ratification votes were underway as the CWA News went to press, with Moses reporting that the Indiana, Tennessee and Oregon units had voted to ratify.
“Overall, these packages are very positive,” Moses said. “Sprint management expected these negotiations would produce big wins for the company, but the activism of our local leaders and members prevented that from happening.”
Moses said he was “very appreciative of the dedication of staff and local committee members who worked through the Christmas holidays,” as well as the “cooperation and active involvement” of CWA Vice Presidents Jimmy Smith, District 3, Jeff Rechenbach, District 4, John Thompson, District 7 and Vince Maisano, District 13.
The new pacts put standby assignments on a volunteers-first basis. They include new medical options to offset higher out-of-pocket costs where employees pay a share of medical costs, higher mileage and per diem payments, improved severance pay for most units, new long distance telephone concessions, and assurances that seniority will be considered ahead of qualifications for transfers and recalls.
Facing a common thread of retrogressive demands that varied somewhat by bargaining unit, Sprint locals in all five states kept up a high level of mobilization throughout bargaining. The day after Thanksgiving CWA and IBEW members passed out thousands of fliers calling attention to a general deterioration of local service and excessive compensation for Sprint CEO William Esrey, targeting such Sprint outlets such as K-Mart, Radio Shack and Staples. Members wrote to Esrey, asking if he would be willing to forego his stock options. They talked to proprietors of small businesses in their communities, posted signs in their front yards and wore red or purple T-shirts to work once a week in displays of solidarity.
Still, Sprint demanded to reduce or eliminate double-time pay, to weaken seniority and to cut out certain kinds of premium pay. The company also wanted to weaken recall rights and to freeze wages for certain technical classifications. CWA members responded with a 9-to-1 strike vote.
The remaining Sprint local service units that bargain in 2000 are: Missouri (333 members) and Kansas (140 members), whose contracts expire Feb. 12; Ohio (687 members), Feb. 28; New Jersey (222) members, May 14, and Virginia (152 members), May 15.
Sprint bargaining committees in Oregon, Indiana, Tennessee and two in North Carolina reached tentative agreement on new three-year contracts Dec. 30, just hours before a strike deadline of midnight. A sixth committee, in Florida, extended bargaining and on Jan. 3 agreed to send the company’s final offer to the membership, once again averting a strike that would have begun the following day. Ratification votes were underway as the CWA News went to press, with Moses reporting that the Indiana, Tennessee and Oregon units had voted to ratify.
“Overall, these packages are very positive,” Moses said. “Sprint management expected these negotiations would produce big wins for the company, but the activism of our local leaders and members prevented that from happening.”
Moses said he was “very appreciative of the dedication of staff and local committee members who worked through the Christmas holidays,” as well as the “cooperation and active involvement” of CWA Vice Presidents Jimmy Smith, District 3, Jeff Rechenbach, District 4, John Thompson, District 7 and Vince Maisano, District 13.
The new pacts put standby assignments on a volunteers-first basis. They include new medical options to offset higher out-of-pocket costs where employees pay a share of medical costs, higher mileage and per diem payments, improved severance pay for most units, new long distance telephone concessions, and assurances that seniority will be considered ahead of qualifications for transfers and recalls.
Facing a common thread of retrogressive demands that varied somewhat by bargaining unit, Sprint locals in all five states kept up a high level of mobilization throughout bargaining. The day after Thanksgiving CWA and IBEW members passed out thousands of fliers calling attention to a general deterioration of local service and excessive compensation for Sprint CEO William Esrey, targeting such Sprint outlets such as K-Mart, Radio Shack and Staples. Members wrote to Esrey, asking if he would be willing to forego his stock options. They talked to proprietors of small businesses in their communities, posted signs in their front yards and wore red or purple T-shirts to work once a week in displays of solidarity.
Still, Sprint demanded to reduce or eliminate double-time pay, to weaken seniority and to cut out certain kinds of premium pay. The company also wanted to weaken recall rights and to freeze wages for certain technical classifications. CWA members responded with a 9-to-1 strike vote.
The remaining Sprint local service units that bargain in 2000 are: Missouri (333 members) and Kansas (140 members), whose contracts expire Feb. 12; Ohio (687 members), Feb. 28; New Jersey (222) members, May 14, and Virginia (152 members), May 15.