Search News
For the Media
For media inquiries, call CWA Communications at 202-434-1168 or email comms@cwa-union.org. To read about CWA Members, Leadership or Industries, visit our About page.
Verizon Settlement Protects Jobs, Health Benefits
After a month-long post-contract mobilization campaign at Verizon East, CWA members won a tentative settlement that meets the key goals of protecting job security rights and company-paid health care premiums for both active workers and retirees, along with wage and pension gains.
The 5-year agreement preserves the existing contract language protecting against layoffs and the transfer of work out of communities in the 12 Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states and the District of Columbia. Verizon initially had demanded removal of the no-layoff provision and other changes that would have allowed them to shift thousands of jobs a year to other areas.
"We achieved our major goals and won a victory for hometown jobs," said President Morton Bahr, who credited the rank-and-file mobilization campaign and broad labor support for the web-based Fairness at Verizon initiative. "Our strategy of deferring an actual strike, which cost Verizon $5 million a day, caught management by surprise, and it clearly worked."
CWA, bargaining in coordination with the IBEW, also beat back concession demands targeting sickness absence benefits, forced overtime limits and other rights and protections.
The agreement preserves fully paid health care premiums for the 60,000 active CWA workers and another 35,000 retirees. When talks started, management took a hard line with demands for premium sharing.
The agreement calls for some increases in medical and prescription drug co-pays and deductibles, but the percentage that workers contribute toward Verizon's total health care costs, currently 5.6 percent, will be the same or even less by the end of the contract term.
Among health care improvements, a new preferred provider option will be integrated into the existing indemnity plans, which will save money for many employees and also cut Verizon's costs. The pact also calls for improvements in preventative health care, dental coverage, infertility treatment and other areas.
The settlement provides an immediate 3 percent cash bonus, averaging $1,600, and guaranteed base wage increases for years 2004 through 2007 that, together with estimated COLA, yield an increase of at least 10.6 percent depending on the Consumer Price Index. Additional annual profit-sharing bonuses will deliver a minimum of $3,000 between next year and 2008.
Also, each April the parties will hold discussions over potential additional wage increases as well as the broad area of jobs and job security. Only matters that are mutually agreed-to in these yearly talks will be implemented.
Pensions will be increased by 11 percent and the lump-sum pension cash-out option is preserved.
The parties also agreed to work with Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service Director Peter Hurtgen, who assisted with the talks, in a process to develop a cooperative relationship based on mutual trust and respect. Such a relationship "is essential to making Verizon as successful as we all want it to be," said Bahr.
The 5-year agreement preserves the existing contract language protecting against layoffs and the transfer of work out of communities in the 12 Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states and the District of Columbia. Verizon initially had demanded removal of the no-layoff provision and other changes that would have allowed them to shift thousands of jobs a year to other areas.
"We achieved our major goals and won a victory for hometown jobs," said President Morton Bahr, who credited the rank-and-file mobilization campaign and broad labor support for the web-based Fairness at Verizon initiative. "Our strategy of deferring an actual strike, which cost Verizon $5 million a day, caught management by surprise, and it clearly worked."
CWA, bargaining in coordination with the IBEW, also beat back concession demands targeting sickness absence benefits, forced overtime limits and other rights and protections.
The agreement preserves fully paid health care premiums for the 60,000 active CWA workers and another 35,000 retirees. When talks started, management took a hard line with demands for premium sharing.
The agreement calls for some increases in medical and prescription drug co-pays and deductibles, but the percentage that workers contribute toward Verizon's total health care costs, currently 5.6 percent, will be the same or even less by the end of the contract term.
Among health care improvements, a new preferred provider option will be integrated into the existing indemnity plans, which will save money for many employees and also cut Verizon's costs. The pact also calls for improvements in preventative health care, dental coverage, infertility treatment and other areas.
The settlement provides an immediate 3 percent cash bonus, averaging $1,600, and guaranteed base wage increases for years 2004 through 2007 that, together with estimated COLA, yield an increase of at least 10.6 percent depending on the Consumer Price Index. Additional annual profit-sharing bonuses will deliver a minimum of $3,000 between next year and 2008.
Also, each April the parties will hold discussions over potential additional wage increases as well as the broad area of jobs and job security. Only matters that are mutually agreed-to in these yearly talks will be implemented.
Pensions will be increased by 11 percent and the lump-sum pension cash-out option is preserved.
The parties also agreed to work with Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service Director Peter Hurtgen, who assisted with the talks, in a process to develop a cooperative relationship based on mutual trust and respect. Such a relationship "is essential to making Verizon as successful as we all want it to be," said Bahr.