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Tuesday, August 16, 2011

A Charelston Gazette Article

August 12, 2011
 
Union assails Frontier CEO's $8.6M pay package
Execs make out big while workers ignored, CWA leadership says
CHARLESTON, W.Va. --

Frontier Communications CEO Maggie Wilderotter's total compensation jumped from $4.8 million to $8.6 million last year, and the increase is drawing criticism from union workers who are seeking pay raises in West Virginia.  The Communications Workers of America said Friday that Frontier is rewarding its top executives -- to the tune of $2 million in bonuses -- but snubbing rank-and-file employees.
The union also took issue with recent statements from Wilderotter and Frontier West Virginia operations chief Dana Waldo that the union's contract demands were "rich and unrealistic."

"The priority for Frontier's top executives is to cut middle-class jobs and enrich themselves," said Elaine Harris, a Communications Workers spokeswoman in West Virginia. "If things are so good up there [for executives], then what about us?"  Waldo responded that the union's attack on Wilderotter's compensation package is nothing more than a "red herring" designed to "distract attention from the real issue.
"We want to reach an agreement that reflects the reality we face in a very competitive environment, a contract that best serves the interests of our customers, company and our employees," Waldo said Friday.
Stamford, Conn.-based Frontier has 2,300 employees in West Virginia.

The Communications Workers and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers are negotiating with Frontier on two new contracts that would cover workers in Bluefield and more than a dozen communities in central West Virginia.

Those employees -- referred to as "legacy" workers -- worked for Frontier before the company purchased Verizon's landline business in West Virginia last year. Former Verizon employees who joined Frontier after the July 2010 sale earn significantly more -- about $6 an hour -- than Frontier's "legacy" workers. The former Verizon employees work under a more lucrative contract -- one that Frontier inherited from Verizon -- that doesn't expire until 2013.  The union wants Frontier to raise the "legacy" workers' salaries so their pay matches former Verizon workers' wages. "We've got people working side by side, getting paid different amounts," Harris said. "All we want is parity."  Harris said Frontier could have reduced top executives' bonuses by $1.5 million and used the savings to "achieve parity for every single one of its employees" covered by the contracts now being negotiated.

"But in its infinite wisdom, the compensation committee of the Frontier board simply chose to line the pockets of the company's highest-paid employees," Harris said.

Last year, Wilderotter's compensation included stock awards worth $5.6 million, $1.2 million in incentive pay and a $750,000 bonus, according to a March filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Frontier also paid $39,843 in legal expenses that Wilderotter ran up while negotiating her employment contract.

Among other top executives:


  • Frontier Chief Financial Officer Donald Shassian's total compensation increased from $1.8 million in 2009 to $2.7 million last year.

  • Chief Operating Officer Daniel McCarthy's compensation increased from $1.2 million to $2.2 million.

  • Human resources executive Cecelia McKenney's pay package jumped from $952,434 to $1.6 million.

  • Commercial sales Vice President Peter Hayes compensation increased from $1.02 million to $1.3 million.
    In July 2010, Frontier purchased Verizon's landlines in West Virginia and 13 other states as part of an $8.6 billion deal.
    Frontier tripled in size with the sale.
    Waldo said Frontier's board awarded Wilderotter a "market-based" compensation package.
    "We want an agreement with the CWA that's also market-based and appropriate," Waldo said.
    Reach Eric Eyre at http://www.wvgazette.com/News/contact/revprler+jitnmrggr+pbz+return=/News/201108122650?page=2&build=cache or 304-348-4869.

  • 1 comment:

    1. These high paid CEO's and their cronies need to be dragged down Wall Street along with their other high-paid pals. They do not care about their workers. Their only care is how much money, stocks, perks, etc. they can line their own pockets with.

      These are not feeling human beings we are dealing with folks. These are cold-blooded greedy entities that have no problem sleeping at night after they lie to you and take food off your table.

      Appealing to their "human" side when negotiating contracts is simply not going to be effective. They don't care about the middle class so the next round of contract negotiations are going to have to be done on a much more sophisticated level. They only understand dollars and cents- not common sense and the human condition.

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