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Strike Averted by New Pact at Valor
CWA bargainers reached a three-year agreement with Valor Communications on March 4, bringing wage increases of 9 percent compounded over term, holding the line on health care cost-shifting for retirees and drastically curtailing management's demand to pass a greater share of premiums on to active workers.
Valor for the first time agreed to an involuntary severance plan under which the company will offer retirement options to senior employees before resorting to layoffs. The agreement also provides for a company-paid tuition assistance plan, among other improvements.
"Bargaining was very tedious, and went late into the night," said Jimmy Gurganus, CWA vice president for Telecommunications. "Both the efforts of the bargaining committee to win this agreement and the mobilization activities of the locals have been outstanding."
Represented by Locals 6171 and 7019, about half of Valor's 800 operations and customer service employees work in Texarkana, Texas. The rest are employed at a number of facilities in West Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma. Their contract expired Feb. 28.
The agreement puts on hold a pending strike at Valor. After the bargaining committee had met more than 20 times with the company, the members approved the authorization of a strike, if necessary, with the date to be set by President Bahr.
"The Telecommunications, District 6 and District 7 vice presidents all concurred that Valor's prior last offer wasn't close to what the employees, retirees and their families deserve," the board stated in granting the strike authorization.
The agreement, when ratified, will bring six compounded wage increases of 1.5 percent, the first retroactive to Feb. 27, said CWA Representative Donna Bentley, who headed the bargaining committee.
The company dropped its demand for health care cost shifting for retirees and backed off its demands of active workers. Instead of the 30 percent increase in premiums for its $350-deductible plan that the company wanted, CWA negotiated only a 5 percent increase that will not take effect until January 2006. Other health plans offered by the company remain the same as under the old agreement.
Where the company had wanted to eliminate a memorandum of understanding concerning mandatory overtime, it agreed to a new memorandum setting the maximum number of overtime hours it can require of its Texas and Oklahoma workers at 14. Maximum overtime hours were raised from 10 to 14 in New Mexico, for parity.
Mobilization activities included strong turnouts by Local 6171 at bargaining rallies in Texarkana and Carlsbad, N.M., and for a candlelight vigil in Texarkana, counting down the hours to contract expiration.
Serving on the bargaining committee with Bentley were Local 6171 President Mike Simmons, Secretary-Treasurer Linda James, Texarkana area Vice President Joyce Poelstra, West Texas and Southern New Mexico Area Vice President Jimmy Funk, and Local 7019 Northern New Mexico area Vice President Bob Gahagan and Chief Steward Isaac Romero.
Ballots will be mailed to members of both locals next week, and ratification is expected by March 31.
Valor for the first time agreed to an involuntary severance plan under which the company will offer retirement options to senior employees before resorting to layoffs. The agreement also provides for a company-paid tuition assistance plan, among other improvements.
"Bargaining was very tedious, and went late into the night," said Jimmy Gurganus, CWA vice president for Telecommunications. "Both the efforts of the bargaining committee to win this agreement and the mobilization activities of the locals have been outstanding."
Represented by Locals 6171 and 7019, about half of Valor's 800 operations and customer service employees work in Texarkana, Texas. The rest are employed at a number of facilities in West Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma. Their contract expired Feb. 28.
The agreement puts on hold a pending strike at Valor. After the bargaining committee had met more than 20 times with the company, the members approved the authorization of a strike, if necessary, with the date to be set by President Bahr.
"The Telecommunications, District 6 and District 7 vice presidents all concurred that Valor's prior last offer wasn't close to what the employees, retirees and their families deserve," the board stated in granting the strike authorization.
The agreement, when ratified, will bring six compounded wage increases of 1.5 percent, the first retroactive to Feb. 27, said CWA Representative Donna Bentley, who headed the bargaining committee.
The company dropped its demand for health care cost shifting for retirees and backed off its demands of active workers. Instead of the 30 percent increase in premiums for its $350-deductible plan that the company wanted, CWA negotiated only a 5 percent increase that will not take effect until January 2006. Other health plans offered by the company remain the same as under the old agreement.
Where the company had wanted to eliminate a memorandum of understanding concerning mandatory overtime, it agreed to a new memorandum setting the maximum number of overtime hours it can require of its Texas and Oklahoma workers at 14. Maximum overtime hours were raised from 10 to 14 in New Mexico, for parity.
Mobilization activities included strong turnouts by Local 6171 at bargaining rallies in Texarkana and Carlsbad, N.M., and for a candlelight vigil in Texarkana, counting down the hours to contract expiration.
Serving on the bargaining committee with Bentley were Local 6171 President Mike Simmons, Secretary-Treasurer Linda James, Texarkana area Vice President Joyce Poelstra, West Texas and Southern New Mexico Area Vice President Jimmy Funk, and Local 7019 Northern New Mexico area Vice President Bob Gahagan and Chief Steward Isaac Romero.
Ballots will be mailed to members of both locals next week, and ratification is expected by March 31.