Jan. 14, 2013, Newswire

The union representing 5,000 New Jersey workers in the telecommunications industry today filed a petition calling on the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities to hold an expedited public hearing and issue a stay order on Verizon’s plan to lay off 201 Facilities Technicians and Outside Plant Technicians whose jobs are needed for Hurricane Sandy relief efforts.

Bill Huber , President and Business Manager of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 827, noted that Verizon’s lay off, scheduled for February 9, 2013, would make it even harder for New Jersey consumers to count on having reliable telephone service.

“IBEW Local 827 is filing this petition for an expedited hearing before the Board of Public Utilities because we are the only ones looking out for the needs of New Jersey consumers,” said Huber. “Verizon is more interested in reducing labor costs than they are at providing reliable dial tone and data service to their customers and, as a result of this bad management decision, consumers are being neglected in favor of Verizon’s singular focus on quarterly reports for stockholders.”

Read the full story here, Newswire.

Verizon notifies the Union of a lay-off…

On Tuesday, January 8, Verizon Labor Relations in an e-mail notified the Union they would lay-off 201 Facilities Technicians and Outside Plant Technicians. The notification letter states we are in a 30 day window as per our collective bargaining agreement, under Article VII. The 30 day clock starts Wednesday January 9 through Wednesday February 9, 2013. The Union has requested bargaining dates to continue discussions. We are scheduled to meet next week.

Source: IBEW Local 827