Deadline for strike is Aug. 1
Midnight on Aug. 1 is the deadline for Verizon Communications and 38,000 of its union workers in New England to come to terms on a new contract or face a strike. So far, there has been no major progress in more than five weeks of negotiations.
As the clock ticks down to the deadline, some New York elected officials are getting involved. The mayors of Syracuse and Kingston, two cities that could potentially be affected by the strike, have joined the Communication Workers Association at the bargaining table in Rye, N.Y.
The CWA said mayors from Albany, Utica and Rome also wrote letters telling Verizon how much their communities need high-speed Internet.
The latest update from the CWA said the union, along with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, had put their proposal “on building out FiOS in all areas across the northeast, including upstate New York and New England cities, the Town of Brookhaven, and eastern Suffolk County” on the table.
Follow the latest from the CWA here.
According to the unions, Verizon asked them to make concessions in the negotiations including downsizing retirement plans, allowing for more outsourcing and increasing health care contributions for members. The labor unions are upset that Verizon is asking them to sacrifice in spite of huge profits and executive salaries for the company in recent years.
Verizon is looking to trim costs from its wireline operations, which through the first half of the year posted $909 million in segment income compared to $394 million for the first half of 2014. Verizon’s overall revenue, including its wireless division, posted a 15.7% dip in net income through the first half of the year compared with 2014.
New York City recently conducted an audit blasting Verizon for not following through on promises to outfit the city with FiOS service.
On July 27, Verizon sent a letter to employees outlining where the talks stand. In the letter, the carrier outlined its stance on key issues with the bullet-pointed list below.
- Wages: Unclear. The unions have proposed “substantial” increases but have not specified what that means.
- Healthcare Contributions: Despite agreeing to employee contributions for healthcare coverage in 2012, the Mid-Atlantic CWA and the New York and New England unions are proposing the elimination of all employee contributions towards healthcare coverage. We are not aware of any other collective bargaining agreements that the unions have in the wireline telecommunications industry in which employees make no contributions for healthcare coverage.
- Retirement Benefits: Increase 401(k) match to 100%. Significantly increase pension benefits for employees and retirees. In addition, the Mid-Atlantic unions have proposed that those who already retired with a lump sum should get a pension increase.
- Job Security: Those hired in the future would have job security from Day One on the job
- Paid Time Off: Depending on geography, the unions propose up to 19 additional paid days off. Proposals made in some areas include 2 or 3 new holidays (including the employee’s birthday), 2 new excused work days, 5 or 10 more days of vacation and 10 more sick days plus additional days off for doctor appointments
- Tuition Assistance: In Mid-Atlantic, the unions propose no criteria at all for tuition reimbursement and raising the cap on tuition reimbursement from $8K to $12K, and the CWA also proposes covering classes taken by employees’ dependent children (including paying off student loans). The New York and New England unions are proposing to eliminate the $8K cap on tuition reimbursement and extend tuition reimbursement to medical and aviation classes.
- Contract Duration: The unions have made no proposal to date
The letter adds, “We commit to you that, for our part, we will continue to work through this process until we reach a resolution that addresses the needs of our dynamic and ever-changing business environment and also preserves good jobs with competitive wages and benefits that we provide to our employees.”
Follow the latest from Verizon here.
Verizon is preparing for a potential work stoppage. The company recently begun distributing an application to its nonunion employees that will allow them to document bad behavior by union workers in the event of a work stoppage. The app is designed to allow the user to take a geotagged photo documenting the time and location of the photo, and can then write a brief incident report before forwarding the whole thing to Verizon corporate security, which will maintain a database of such reports.
“The app serves three primary purposes: the first is a means for our management employees to report or document an unsafe situation, unlawful act, or violation of our code of conduct, and it will also be used by managers who have been assigned to these union positions for the duration of the strike to ask questions about installations or repairs they are handling,” Amy Seifer, Verizon associate general counsel for labor and employment, told RCR Wireless News. “It also provides a means for our employees to submit suggestions on process improvements.”
The carrier has also trained more than 15,000 nonunion employees to take over in the event of a strike.
“These employees are receiving training in various customer service functions, repair and maintenance, and in other areas,” Verizon spokesman Richard Young told RCR Wireless News. “We need to ensure that any dispute between our company and the unions does not impact our customers.”
At last polling, the CWA said 86% of union employees involved in the negotiations approved of a strike.
