By Tom Bell

FairPoint Communications on Tuesday froze the pensions of nearly 2,000 employees in northern New England, according to unions representing the employees.

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Communications Workers of America had been in negotiations for a new contract until talks ended in August when the company announced an impasse, paving the way for an employee lockout or strike.

The unions represent nearly 800 FairPoint workers in Maine.

The company has already stopped providing retiree health care and support for child and elder care, the unions said in a news release on Tuesday.

Source: http://www.pressherald.com/2014/10/14/fairpoint-freezing-pensions-of-union-workers/

CWA District 1, October 10, 2014

Memo from Dennis Trainor, Assistant to Chris Shelton, Vice President, District One.

Earlier today we found out that the Company is planning to send an e mail to employees this afternoon regarding this situation.  As usual, when dealing with Verizon their communication will cause confusion in the ranks and is being sent to all employees, even ones not included in the Company’s proposal.

Please be assured that we will provide any updates regarding this matter as they develop.

VERIZON PROPOSES SPECIAL ENHANCED INCENTIVE OFFER

10-10-2014

The Company continues to have a significant associate surplus in certain titles and locations in New York and New England. To address this force problem in a way that is beneficial to those associates, the Company has made a proposal to CWA District 1 to extend a special offer to them. The proposal would provide the following enhancements to the contractual Enhanced Income Protection Plan (EIPP) program for eligible associates voluntarily leaving under the offer:

• A one-time bonus of $50,000. This is a $40,000 increase over the existing $10,000 voluntary termination bonus provided for in the labor contracts.
• The elimination of age-based pension reductions for service pension eligible associates under age 55 with less than 30 years of service. This reduction equates to 6% per year, up to a maximum of 30%.
• The raising of caps on EIPP payments from thirty years of service to forty years. This would increase the maximum payout from $66,000 up to $88,000.
• A protected interest rate used for pension lump sum conversion, which could be particularly valuable if interest rates increase.

The Company’s proposal contains two options. The first is a statewide offer by surplus title by FAA. The second option is an offer by union local and surplus title which would allow a particular local(s) to participate in the incentive offer even if other locals did not wish to participate. CWA District 1 may select either of these two options.

We look forward to continuing our discussion with the union regarding this offer.

Peoples Climate March Sunday, September 21

Assemble at 10:15am on south side of 57th St. at Broadway.

The big corporations that are fighting measures to reduce global warming pollution are the same corporate interests that are attacking our wages, benefits and working conditions. We know from our own experience they will do anything to increase their profits, from firing workers who stand up for justice on the job to covering up the effects of toxic chemicals on our health.

The full list is too long to include here, but here are just a few of the progressive leaders we are working to send to Albany in this Tuesday’s Democratic primaries:

• Lori Boozer (55th Assembly District) – Lori is a housing advocate who has spent her entire life fighting to secure economic and housing justice for those in need. She’s a proud representative for NOLSW/UAW local 2320 who has helped rebuild homes, protected legal rights for victims, and worked with struggling families to find jobs. Lori loves her home and her community in Brownsville, and she would be a true public servant who would fight for all of us.
• Rubain Dorancy (20th Senate District) – As a community advocate and former teacher, Rubain has long been committed to the core progressive values of equality and justice. Born and raised in Crown Heights, he has served as Community School Board Vice President and a senior administrator in the NYC Department of Education. We know he will take his values with him to Albany to represent the families of his district.
• Senator Tim Kennedy (63rd Senate District) – Tim is a lifelong resident of western New York who has done a great job representing one of the most diverse districts in in the state while also being a champion for our progressive issues. A former healthcare professional and union member, he has worked in office to bring jobs to western NY, raise the minimum wage, and protect vulnerable populations.
• Pete Sikora (52nd Assembly District) – Pete is a community leader, consumer advocate, and union economist for CWA — and on nearly every major progressive fight in the last twenty years, from preventing the lead poisoning of New York City’s children, to standing up to reckless developers, to working to stop outrageous tuition hikes for CUNY and SUNY, he has worked side-by-side with WFP to fight for our values.
• Dell Smitherman (19th Senate District) – Dell is an unyielding advocate for working families who knows firsthand the importance of economic security. A lifelong Brooklyn resident who grew up in East New York and has spent most of his life in the district he is now running to represent, he is the former Political Coordinator of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East and has devoted the last 18 years of his life to representing working and middle class New Yorkers.

These candidates — and others — want to lead the charge next year in Albany to make our progressive vision a reality. But they won’t get there unless we do everything we can to support them in Tuesday’s primaries.

Working Families website: workingfamilies.org

There are a total of 26 declared surplus in FAA 1.  They are as follows: Accounting Financial Clerk (8);  Building Servicer (4); Office Assistant (2); Senior Administrative Assistant (2); Special Assistant (10).

BY TOM RAUM

WASHINGTON (AP) — Unions representing government workers are expanding while organized labor has been shedding private sector members over the past half-century.

A majority of union members today now have ties to a government entity, at the federal, state or local levels.

Roughly 1-in-3 public sector workers is a union member, compared with about 1-in-15 for the private sector workforce, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Overall, 11.3 percent of wage and salary workers in the United States are unionized, down from a peak of 35 percent during the mid-1950s in the strong post-World War II recovery.

The typical union worker now is more likely to be an educator, office worker or food or service industry employee rather than a construction worker, autoworker, electrician or mechanic. Far more women than men are among the union-label ranks.

In a blow to public sector unions, the Supreme Court ruled this week that thousands of health care workers in Illinois who are paid by the state cannot be required to pay fees that help cover a union’s cost of collective bargaining.

The justices said the practice violates the First Amendment rights of nonmembers who disagree with stances taken by unions.

The ruling was narrowly drawn, but it could reverberate through the universe of unions that represent government workers. The case involved home-care workers for disabled people who are paid with Medicaid funds administered by the state.

Also in June, a California judge declared unconstitutional the state’s teacher tenure, dismissal and layoff laws. The judge ordered a stay of the decision, pending an appeal by the state and teachers union.

“The basic structure of the labor union movement has changed, reflecting changes in the economy,” said Ross Baker, a political science professor at Rutgers University. “Manufacturing is a diminishing segment of the economy. Also, a lot of the manufacturing that’s being done today is being done nonunion.”

Union members continue to be a powerful political force in politics, and Baker said he didn’t see the role of unions diminishing. “I just think the colors of the collars are changing,” Baker said.

In 2013, 14.5 million workers belonged to a union, about the same as the year before. In 1983, the first year for which comparable figures are available, there were 17.7 million union workers.

The largest union is the National Education Association, with 3.2 million members. It represents public school teachers, administrators and students preparing to become teachers.

Next is the 2.1-million Service Employees International Union. About half its members work in the public sector.

The American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees has 1.6 million, followed by the American Federation of Teachers with 1.5 million and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters with 1.4 million.

There are 1.3 million members in the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union.

Until four years ago, the unionization rate was far higher in the private sector than in the public sector. Now the roles are reversed.

But it’s been a bumpy road for public unions in some Republican-governed states.

In 2011, Gov. Scott Walker, R-Wis., took on public sector unions forcefully soon after he was swept into office. He got enacted a bill effectively ending collective bargaining for most public workers in the state. He withstood huge labor demonstrations at the state Capitol and then became the first governor in U.S. history to defeat a recall attempt. The law has been challenged in court, and continues to be. But its main thrust so far has been upheld.

A sign of the decline of traditional labor unions came in May when the United Automobile Workers raised its membership dues for the first time in 27 years to help offset declining membership. Also, the defeat in February of the UAW’s effort to unionize workers at Volkswagen’s Chattanooga, Tennessee, plant was a setback to labor.

A 2013 Gallup poll showed that 54 percent of Americans said they approved of labor unions, down from the all-time high of 75 percent in both 1953 and 1957.

“Labor unions play a diminishing role in the private sector, but they still claim a large share of the public sector workforce,” says Chris Edwards, director of tax studies at the libertarian, free-market Cato Institute.

“Public sector unions are important to examine because they have a major influence on government policies through their vigorous lobbying efforts. … They are particularly influential in states that allow monopoly unionization through collective bargaining.”

Since 2000, factories have shed more than 5 million jobs. Five states – Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina Georgia and Texas – ban collective bargaining in the public sector.

Verizon has declared a surplus in FAAs 1-6.  This surplus  has been determined by the Company to be due to a process change, not an external event. The provisions of FAP Articles 8(b) and 10 will not apply. CWA Local 1101 titles affected by the surplus appear in column marked FAA 1.