The Communications Workers of America said 86 percent of the Verizon employees it represents voted to authorize a strike if negotiations between the carrier and both the CWA and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) aren't successful by the time the current contract expires, a CWA news release said. The current contract is to expire at midnight Aug. 1, and covers 39,000 CWA and IBEW Verizon workers from Massachusetts to Virginia, the release said. "Our members are clear and they are determined," Dennis Trainor, CWA vice president-district one, said in a statement. "They reject management's harsh concessionary demands, including the elimination of job security, sharp increases in workers' healthcare costs and slashing retirement security." "Saturday's union vote was predictable and achieved nothing," a Verizon spokesman told us Monday. "As we move closer to this weekend's contract deadline, we hope the unions work with us on ways that will continue to ensure solid, upper middle-class jobs for our employees and exceptional services for our customers."

Members of the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers will join Verizon employees from the mid-Atlantic region to rally outside Verizon headquarters in New York City Saturday, a CWA news release said Thursday. The rally is in response to ongoing contract negotiations (see 1507200062) between the carrier and the CWA and IBEW, which collectively represent about 39,000 Verizon employees. The contract is set to expire Aug. 1, and the CWA has begun voting to authorize a potential strike if negotiations aren't successful by the expiration date, the union said. CWA said that it plans to announce the results of the strike vote at the rally. "Verizon is an extremely profitable company," said Ed Mooney, CWA vice president-district 2-13, "yet this company is making outrageous demands for concessions from the workers who have made Verizon so successful." Rallies "are old news," a Verizon spokesman told us. "They've been held in the past and are only truly distractions. Verizon has presented the CWA and IBEW with a solid proposal that recognizes the changing communications landscape and offers a path towards success."

Verizon employees in Massachusetts and Rhode Island "overwhelmingly" gave strike authority to union negotiators if they determine it's necessary after a current labor contract expires Aug. 1, said leaders of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers System Council T-6 in a news release. Union negotiators are frustrated with the lack of progress as contract talks enter a fifth week, said the release emailed Monday.

Verizon offered unions representing 38,000 wireline employees 2 percent wage increases the next two years and a $1,000 lump sum payment in the third year as part of a three-year contract offer, the company said in a news release Monday. Opening labor talks, Verizon made the comprehensive offer to the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers at the outset "to encourage a substantive and productive dialogue," said Robert Mudge, wireline operations executive vice president. Verizon said the proposed pay increases were contingent on signing an agreement by Aug. 1, and would add to an average annual salary and benefit package of $130,000 for Verizon associates in the east. Pension-eligible associates could choose between continuing to earn benefits under a traditional pension plan with some limitations and forgoing a 401(k) company match, or opting for an enhanced 401(k) plan currently offered to management (including a bigger company match) with a frozen pension benefit, the release said. Verizon called the combined pension and 401(k) benefits for employees hired before Oct. 28, 2012, a structure "from another era." Noting Verizon associates' healthcare costs were above the national average and calling cost control "essential," the carrier proposed an increase of $8.10 per week for individual healthcare premiums and said "other reasonable cost controls" were needed to keep the wireline business competitive. Mudge said fiber deployment had positioned Verizon for growth, but the company's "cost structure has not changed nearly fast enough to align with today's market realities and consumer needs." Verizon said it seeks more flexibility to manage the workforce "consistent with customer demands." Tami Erwin, president of Verizon's Consumer and Mass Business unit, said, "We need contractual changes that position us to compete with new and emerging technologies." The last contract negotiations lasted 15 months in 2011-12, the release noted. IBEW representatives had no comment. CWA issued a statement Tuesday from Dennis Trainor, District 1 vice president, that said: “Verizon’s claims about the pay increases they put on the bargaining table yesterday are simply a smokescreen designed to hide the harsh reality of their concessionary demands: deep cuts to pension benefits, skyrocketing increases in medical costs, and the complete elimination of job security. Despite $9.6 billion in profits in 2014 and $44 million in compensation to their top five executives, Verizon wants to eliminate middle-class jobs and let customer service deteriorate. Their proposals would slash thousands of jobs and leave our remaining members with a diminished standard of living at the end of any new contract."

Members of the Communications Workers of America and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers who work for FairPoint Communications did informational picketing at company headquarters in Portland, Maine, Thursday to protest the company’s unwillingness to compromise on significant issues during talks about the recently announced layoff of more than 10 percent of FairPoint's northern New England workforce (see 1505150013), said a news release from Fairness@FairPoint, which is made up of CWA and IBEW members. Since FairPoint announced in May it would lay off employees, leaders of the unions have met with company representatives to discuss the layoff process in an effort to reduce the number of workers who will lose their jobs, it said. Union leaders said the company has refused to cooperate on several issues of importance, and the unnecessary cuts will further erode already severely compromised service quality for the region’s telecommunications customers. “There is absolutely no shortage of work out there,” said Peter McLaughlin, business manager of IBEW Local 2327 in Maine. “The company is forcing hundreds of workers to work overtime and many are on permanent standby at locations where the company is planning to cut positions.” Customer service and satisfaction is the company's top priority, and it's confident it has the workforce to deliver quality service, emailed a FairPoint spokeswoman. "Telecom is a highly competitive industry and have seen our voice lines decline by over 15 percent in the past two years," she said. "We need to align the size of our workforce to meet the needs of the business. The size of our workforce is based upon the ongoing needs of the business. Like any prudent business, we are going to manage spikes in demand rather than staff to the highest point. We have the ability to use overtime and recall employees on lay off if needed." Leaders of Fairness@FairPoint cite widespread rumors of an imminent sale.

FairPoint Communications and the northern New England chapters of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) said they reached a tentative accord on new collective bargaining agreements. The sides set a Wednesday end-date for a monthslong strike of more than 1,700 of the telco's workers. The CWA- and IBEW-affiliated workers in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont have been on strike since October, when negotiations for a new contract broke down. The strike has since prompted complaints about FairPoint’s service quality in the three states and attracted scrutiny from members of the states’ congressional delegations and state officials. The company, CWA and IBEW had been in Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service-mediated negotiations since early January (see 1501020042, 1501050045 and 1501280062). FairPoint and the unions didn’t disclose details on the new agreements. The parties said in a joint Thursday news release that they “will address, in meaningful and constructive ways, the objectives of the parties and that the new labor agreements will provide employees with wages and benefits that are among the best in northern New England.” They said the new agreements will let the telco “achieve a much more competitive position in the marketplace." The 1,700 striking workers will need to vote on the pacts before they go into effect.

FairPoint Communications continued negotiations Monday with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) to end a monthslong strike in northern New England, though none of the parties would say how the talks are progressing. More than 1,700 FairPoint workers affiliated with the CWA and IBEW have been on strike since mid-October in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont over what the workers view as unacceptable conditions included in a new FairPoint contract proposal. FairPoint is also contending with related broadband and wireline service quality issues in New Hampshire and Vermont that have attracted state governments’ scrutiny.

The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service said Friday it will mediate renewed negotiations that were slated to begin Sunday between FairPoint Communications and leaders from the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) to resolve an ongoing strike of more than 1,700 FairPoint workers in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. The strike, which began in October after negotiations for a new contract broke down, has prompted complaints about FairPoint’s service quality in the three states and criticism from the states’ congressional delegations. “This is a positive step and we look forward to resuming negotiations with FairPoint,” IBEW Local 2327 Business Manager Peter McLaughlin, head of the unions’ bargaining committee, said in a statement Friday. “It’s time to reach a fair deal for working families and communities in New England.” FairPoint “remains willing to listen to reasonable union proposals that ensure the company's ability to compete,” a company spokeswoman said.

Region 1 of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rejected the bad faith bargaining charges against FairPoint Communications, the company said in a news release Wednesday. The NLRB posted the dismissal letter and said the appeal is due by Jan. 12. FairPoint has been battling against the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. “As described in the NLRB ruling, FairPoint engaged in lawful bargaining designed to achieve our stated goals of cost savings and operational flexibility,” FairPoint CEO Paul Sunu said in a statement. “The ruling today ... confirms our position and honest belief that we have bargained in good faith. As the unions appeal to the General Counsel of the NLRB, my expectation is that our case will continue to receive the fair and objective treatment that it did at the Regional level.” Peter McLaughlin, who chaired the unions’ bargaining committee and is IBEW Local 2327’s business manager, called the decision disappointing but not surprising. “Unfortunately, US labor law favors corporations like FairPoint, not working people,” he said in a statement. “The NLRB is one tool in our toolbox -- the NLRB does not decide what’s best for our workers and our communities. We remain united and committed in our fight for fairness at FairPoint.” The unions will appeal, they confirmed.

Region 1 of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rejected the bad faith bargaining charges against FairPoint Communications, the company said in a news release Wednesday. The NLRB posted the dismissal letter and said the appeal is due by Jan. 12. FairPoint has been battling against the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. “As described in the NLRB ruling, FairPoint engaged in lawful bargaining designed to achieve our stated goals of cost savings and operational flexibility,” FairPoint CEO Paul Sunu said in a statement. “The ruling today ... confirms our position and honest belief that we have bargained in good faith. As the unions appeal to the General Counsel of the NLRB, my expectation is that our case will continue to receive the fair and objective treatment that it did at the Regional level.” Peter McLaughlin, who chaired the unions’ bargaining committee and is IBEW Local 2327’s business manager, called the decision disappointing but not surprising. “Unfortunately, US labor law favors corporations like FairPoint, not working people,” he said in a statement. “The NLRB is one tool in our toolbox -- the NLRB does not decide what’s best for our workers and our communities. We remain united and committed in our fight for fairness at FairPoint.” The unions will appeal, they confirmed.