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Verizon Concession Agenda Angers CWA Negotiators
Talks with Verizon East got off on a discordant note on June 23 when company negotiators at the Northeast regional table in New York threw down a set of demands that included medical cost shifting and attacks on job security that "would permit unlimited subcontracting and transfer of work" as well as other concessions, the union bargaining team reported. Similar demands faced CWA negotiators for the Mid-Atlantic region when talks opened June 26 in Washington, D.C.
The harsh company stance had been foreshadowed by demands at several local tables for the Mid-Atlantic area that negotiators termed, "the largest concessionary agenda... that we have ever seen." Retrogression demands included attacks on overtime pay and forced overtime caps, arbitration rights, bumping rights, differentials, sickness absence, use of term employees, force adjustment language, meal allowances and many other items affecting job titles, work scheduling and even wage payments.
Commenting on the issues in local talks last week, President Morton Bahr told reporters on a conference call, "If the company is looking for a strike, then riling up our members with demands like these is definitely the way to get one." But he also said that if the company gets serious, a settlement can be reached by August 2. Bahr cited Verizon's profitability, rapid growth in new areas such as long distance, and its ability to continue to generously reward its executives.
Verizon Executive Vice President Larry Babbio further angered CWA this week by sending a letter to members in the Northeast trying to justify the company's take-back agenda, a transparent attempt to try to divide workers from each other and from union bargainers. Members are urged to send Babbio a message by sending the shameful letter back (address: Verizon, 1095 6th Ave., N.Y., N.Y. 10036).
In CWA's opening statement at the Northeast table, District 1 Assistant to the Vice President Chris Shelton put a major focus on jobs, citing the massive layoffs in December. He said: "The union warned that if Verizon attacked us by laying off thousands of CWA members solely to line the pockets of a few at the top, there would be dire consequences. The union predicted... a precipitous decline in service quality and a corresponding loss of customers because of it. "Here we sit in June and history has proven the union correct," he said, pointing to the PUC's order for an independent audit of Verizon's failure to improve service quality.
"It's time for Verizon to come to its senses and make CWA and its members true partners to combat both service quality decline and loss of customers," he said. "The union cannot and will not allow Verizon to destroy its own business" through inferior service "because that business provides our members' livelihood."
The harsh company stance had been foreshadowed by demands at several local tables for the Mid-Atlantic area that negotiators termed, "the largest concessionary agenda... that we have ever seen." Retrogression demands included attacks on overtime pay and forced overtime caps, arbitration rights, bumping rights, differentials, sickness absence, use of term employees, force adjustment language, meal allowances and many other items affecting job titles, work scheduling and even wage payments.
Commenting on the issues in local talks last week, President Morton Bahr told reporters on a conference call, "If the company is looking for a strike, then riling up our members with demands like these is definitely the way to get one." But he also said that if the company gets serious, a settlement can be reached by August 2. Bahr cited Verizon's profitability, rapid growth in new areas such as long distance, and its ability to continue to generously reward its executives.
Verizon Executive Vice President Larry Babbio further angered CWA this week by sending a letter to members in the Northeast trying to justify the company's take-back agenda, a transparent attempt to try to divide workers from each other and from union bargainers. Members are urged to send Babbio a message by sending the shameful letter back (address: Verizon, 1095 6th Ave., N.Y., N.Y. 10036).
In CWA's opening statement at the Northeast table, District 1 Assistant to the Vice President Chris Shelton put a major focus on jobs, citing the massive layoffs in December. He said: "The union warned that if Verizon attacked us by laying off thousands of CWA members solely to line the pockets of a few at the top, there would be dire consequences. The union predicted... a precipitous decline in service quality and a corresponding loss of customers because of it. "Here we sit in June and history has proven the union correct," he said, pointing to the PUC's order for an independent audit of Verizon's failure to improve service quality.
"It's time for Verizon to come to its senses and make CWA and its members true partners to combat both service quality decline and loss of customers," he said. "The union cannot and will not allow Verizon to destroy its own business" through inferior service "because that business provides our members' livelihood."