Regional Bargaining Report #16

CWA District 1/IBEW Local 2213 and IBEW New England Regional Committees met with the Company today at the Rye Town Hilton in Rye, NY. The Union received answers to their questions on one of the company’s proposals. Unfortunately, the charts and presentations that they brought to the table to answers those questions were incorrect and the company needed to recess in order to correct those charts. The Union had received this proposal one month ago and had asked many questions to better understand the proposal. One month later, they returned with incorrect information. The company has told the Union that they will have this information tomorrow.  The Union has to wonder when the company will begin to negotiate. Marc Reed, Executive Vice President in Verizon wrote to our members on Tuesday and he stated, “We are committed to productive discussions with union leaders regarding these issues.” Someone needs to tell Marc Reed that they have not engaged in any productive discussions and there is only 9 days left to the expiration of our contract. When do they plan to begin to have these productive discussions?   

The members in District 1 overwhelming voted to authorize the Executive Board of CWA to call a strike if a fair contract cannot be reached.   

Every member should tell their managers to stop sending them part of “What You Should Know” – How about telling us that Ivan Seidenberg makes $55,000 a day , that’s a day ,that their top five executives were paid $258 million in compensation over the last 4 years, that Verizon made $19 Billion (that is with a “B”) in Profits over the last 4 years. Tell your managers that with facts like this, Verizon should not be trying to: Eliminate Compensation: 

  • Wages – both annual and progression increases will be tied to your yearly evaluation.  If you receive a “Does Not Meet Position Requirements” you will not receive an increase.
  • Eliminate Night and Saturday Differential
  • Eliminate Sunday premium pay.
  • Eliminate Double Time for hours worked past 49 in a week
  • Eliminate all Overtime Caps.
  • Eliminate city allowances
  • Create new job titles for the consumer and business call centers that would work on a commission based wage schedule.