Today is October 20, 2021 Remember United We Stand !

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Update

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Over the last two days we held a Labor Management meeting in Sherburne, visited our brothers in Keeseville and concluded our trip last night in Adams. 

Our brothers and sisters across the state have raised many questions and concerns.  The two common concerns that have  been raised are the lack of training and the under staffed departments. We will be speaking to the company about these two major items.

In regards to the Retail Stores we have another call on Monday August 29th and then will present to the company our list of questions. 


We need to hear your concerns and questions, please use this page to write your concerns and thoughts.  Let your voice be heard.  Stay focused and united, we need to pull together in order for all of us to survive.

Thank

Fraternally yours,

Gil

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Scare Tactic

Verizon to strikers: Stop picketing, or lose benefits

Published: Wednesday, August 17, 2011, 6:45 PM     Updated: Wednesday, August 17, 2011, 9:12 PM
Leslie Kwoh/The Star-Ledger
verizon4.jpg
 
 
About 45,000 Verizon union workers could lose their benefits Aug. 31 if they don't agree to a new deal, the company said today.
Thousands of Verizon union workers could lose their benefits on Aug. 31 if both sides cannot agree on a new contract, the company said today.

Verizon said it sent out letters to its 45,000 picketing workers reminding them about a contract provision, approved three years ago, stating that medical and other benefits would be suspended at the end of the month in the case of a strike.

"It’s not a surprise to them," said company spokesman Lee Gierczynski. "If the striking employees are not serving our customers, our investors should not be expected to pay their benefits."
Union representatives responded by accusing the company of employing "scare tactics."
"The point was to scare workers, of course," said Candice Johnson, a spokeswoman for the Communications Workers of America. "The best for everybody is to just get serious about negotiations and move forward."

The two sides have been locked in a standoff since Aug. 7, when negotiations for a new three-year contract broke down over provisions for health care and pensions. Verizon has filed court injunctions against the picketers in four states, including New Jersey, accusing them of harassment and obstruction at its facilities. The CWA, meanwhile, has filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board.
The strike ends more than a decade of peaceful labor relations between the telecommunications giant and its two unions, the CWA and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which together comprise one-fifth of the company's national workforce.

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.

  • Saturday, August 13, 2011

    Protest, vigil held at Verizon CEO's West Nyack home

    A coffin carried by pallbearers clad in red T-shirts led a march Friday as 500 supporters of the 45,000 striking union members employed by Verizon marched to the home of the company's chairman and CEO.


    Sunday, August 7, 2011

    Verizon Update !! Support our Brothers & Sisters in The IBEW and CWA

    A Letter from CWA to the Rockland County Central Trades Unions on an update of their negotiations.  keep our brothers and sisters in mind.  verizon is stating that they want to reduce things because of industry standards not that they can not afford.  We are at   the table in 11 months                        
     


    Communications Workers of America
    Local 1107

    3 E. Evergreen Road
    New City, N.Y 10956

    Robert E. Milone
    Secretary/Treasurer
    Legislative and Political Coordinator


    Verizon at the Bargaining Table:
    Tens of Billions in Profits, a Quarter-Billion in Executive Compensation, Intent on Destroying Middle-Class Jobs

    DATE: August 5, 2011

    President RCCLC Gil Heim

    8 Taylor Lane
    New City, N.Y 10956

    Dear Gil,

    We are writing to update you on the very serious situation currently taking place in our collective bargaining with Verizon Communications.

    CWA’s contract with Verizon—covering 16,000 workers in New York, approximately 800 here in Rockland (and a total of 45,000 CWA and IBEW members from Massachusetts to Virginia)—expires on August 6th.

    The short story is this: 

    Despite over $19 billion in profits and $258 million in compensation to its top five executives over the last four years, Verizon seems hell-bent on destroying the middle class jobs CWA has fought so hard to create over the last 50 years of collective bargaining.

    In the first several days of negotiations, Verizon has put on the table demands to:

    ·        Eliminate all job security provisions of the contract.
    ·        Vastly increase contracting out of work to low-wage contractors, including outsourcing jobs overseas.
    ·        Freeze pensions for current workers and eliminate them for future employees.
    ·        Replace the current high-quality health care plan with a high-deductible plan requiring thousands of dollars in premium cost-sharing.
    ·        Eliminate accident disability benefits, and slash sickness disability benefits.
    ·        Eliminate long-standing subsidies for employee child care.
    ·        Slash paid holidays to seven.
    ·        Reduce annual paid sick days to no more than 5, with none at all for employees with fewer than 2 years of seniority.
    ·        Even eliminate the half-day off that was historically granted on Christmas Eve.

    There is little question that the telecommunications industry is rapidly evolving.  New technologies like FiOS, cable telephony, and wireless 4G are surging.  Many young consumers are switching to wireless only.  But all these technologies continue to depend on a robust land line network maintained and serviced by skilled workers.  And millions of consumers remain dependent on landlines, no matter how eager the company may be to abandon them

    Despite the rapid changes in the industry, and despite the worst economic environment in 75 years, Verizon has managed to remain enormously profitable.  Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg alone pocketed $80.8 million in the last four years.  Even more outrageous, Verizon actually managed to squeeze a $1.3 billion tax rebate out of the U.S. government despite its billions in profits.  And in New York alone, Verizon has cut its workforce in half in the last decade —almost entirely through attrition and buyouts—a reduction of 15,000 workers.

    At a time like this, corporations like Verizon should not be destroying middle class jobs. They should be helping to rebuild the American economy and sharing their success with the workforce that made it possible.  And they should not be “redlining” America by refusing to build out FiOS in our upstate cities like Buffalo, Syracuse, Utica, Albany and Binghamton.

    Instead, Verizon should be working with its unions to provide high quality service to the public and building out FiOS as broadly as possible.  It should be ensuring that the unionized workforce—with good family-supporting jobs—grows with them.  It should not be slashing living standards and contracting out work to low-wage contractors or to overseas companies.

    If Verizon refuses to modify its outrageous demands at the bargaining table, there could well be a costly and economically damaging strike beginning on August 6th.

    We ask you to write Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg and President Lowell McAdam today and urge them not to destroy middle-class jobs across the Northeast.  Urge them to moderate their bargaining demands and work cooperatively with their unions.

    Thank you in advance for your support and we will keep you posted as the situation develops.


    In Solidarity,
    R. E Milone
    Robert E. Milone
    Legislative and Political Coordinator
    CWA Local 1107

    Chris Shelton                                                                Bob Master
    Vice President, CWA District One                                Legislative and Political Director
                                                                                        CWA District One