BARGAINING REPORT

By Executive VP Angel Feliciano 

At the outset, I want to emphasize that, as we have done for the last 10 contracts, it was our intent to hold a Membership Meeting at the end of the month after we had met with the company and had a list of their demands to go over with you. However, because of a petition we received, we had to move that up to today, the first day that a suitable location was available. So although we will have a full report for you, it will not include the company’s demands since we will not meet with them until the 22nd, a little over a week from now.

On a side note, it was our intent to use the High School of Fashion Industries, which has the same seating capacity as this hall, but that was not available until the end of this month. Unfortunately, that takes us from a cost of $600.00 for the night to $20,000.00 for tonight! 

Now, as you know, bargaining is not a single dimensional process. It’s not just a union team sitting across from a company team trying to hash out a contract. There are many other factors that come into play and in my report I will cover most of those factors.

As you know, labor and unionized workers are under attack throughout the country resulting in a difficult atmosphere for bargaining. We stand today at the brink of an all out war. Those that initiated this war chose to forget labor’s great accomplishments such as public education, the 8 hour work day, child labor laws, social security, Medicare, health and safety on the job.

In areas such as health care, we have faced many struggles and made many sacrifices. In fact, when we first proposed it to AT&T and New York Telephone, they refused outright, saying that they would never agree to socialized medicine. Does that sound familiar?

Although the faces have changed the buzz words remain the same.

Today, we have built the best health care package in this or any other industry. It’s no wonder that as congress seeks to tax the so-called ‘Cadillac plans’, they use OUR plan as an example!

The Supreme Court recently ruled that corporations are no longer limited in what they spend to influence politics and politicians, while unions are still severely restricted. As a result, the Republican right wing and many anti-union forces have unlimited resources to press their attacks!

• Ohio is seeking to stop union dues;
• Utah is seeking to do away with seniority, and allowing the administrators to institute merit pay;
• Wyoming, where the first public union came into being in 1932, workers have been stripped of their collective bargaining rights;
• Sacramento, California wants to strip workers of the right to bargain on pensions;
• Missouri is trying to become a right-to-work state;
• Maine has been considering right-to-work laws;
• Michigan’s pensions, seniority, bargaining rights, and arbitration rights are under attack.  In fact, in Pontiac, Michigan, an administrator simply voided an entire contract; and
• As close to home as New Jersey, a battle is being waged to take away the right to bargain on health care!

While unions are under attack for being greedy and demanding too much, we don’t hear a word about executive compensation. In 1965 CEO’s were making 24 times what their workers made. By 2005 it was up to 262 times and is even higher today…yet we’re greedy!

Ivan Seidenberg made $24.31 million last year alone, his five year total is $70.28 million…
NOW THAT’S GREED!

What this means at bargaining is simple; these boards of directors are all inter-locked. They all sit at the business roundtable and encourage and offer to support each other in their battles. Can you imagine Seidenberg going to the roundtable and saying he’s broke us? He would be a hero!

While business has the money, we have the one thing they shouldn’t be able to buy – the people, and that’s where mobilization comes in.

In Mobilization, we have initiated a robust and highly focused campaign. To date, we have trained over 400 Local 1101 members, stewards and chief stewards in a CWA unified campaign. Some may argue that we have not given enough notice or time, but that IS the purpose of mobilization, to get our people mobilized and into activities in as short an amount of time as possible.  If an issue arises, we must be prepared to react quickly and effectively!

Some of you may recall that, six years ago we had an issue with the company on movement of work out of state. When we raised the issue, the company took the position that it could not be a serious issue because we didn’t have a lot of grievances on the issue. A call went out from the bargaining team and the next day our stewards had filed over 1,000 grievances – suddenly the company wanted to talk!

The next contract, we faced a company determined to break our medical benefits. We called our mobilizers and asked that practice picked lines be set up around the Local. By the next morning, we had picket lines in front of EVERY location – suddenly the company wanted to talk!

And, of course, who can forget the Flying Circus, which hit and run all over the city. That is a language Verizon understands.

This time around, we have proposed many activities:

• We have proposed picketing sites outside contractors who are doing our work;
• We have planned for “Leave your Brain at Home Days”;
• We have proposed targeted slow-downs;
• We have proposed picketing both the contractors and Verizon Wireless stores; and
• We have proposed public outreach programs.

This will not be easy, we know that. We are going to ask members to give up some time when they are not on the company clock, such as vacation days, ewd days, n-days.

Company – As far as this set of negotiations is concerned, we have not yet met formally.  We are scheduled for our first sessions starting next week, on the 22nd. But we clearly know some of their agenda.

In informal discussions, the chairperson has told our chairperson that we will “BE SHOCKED” at their proposals. They say they can’t compete with our current contract.  We have heard rumors that the company has made contingency plans for a lockout if we try to stop the clock at midnight and try to work without a contract – they are prepared to lock us out!  Their reason is that they do not want to deal with mobilization activities, which could cripple them after the deadline.

We also hear rumors that they’ve made contingency plans to hire replacement workers and replace strikers.  In the past, that would have been unheard of – but that was when we were 80,000 strong in New York. Today we have 16,500 unionized workers in Verizon in New York – it is not so far-fetched. The plus side of that is that if they hire replacement workers, unemployment benefits kick-in right away, but that is clearly not a saving grace!

We have also heard that they are prepared to impose a contract.  For those of you not familiar, when you reach a point where you can no longer bargain, the company has a legal right to impose their last best offer. That is why we can never just reject their proposals out of hand and why we must always have information requests pending.

And what do they want at the bargaining table? We have more than a clear indication.

They want:

• The Job Security Language – they say they can’t live with that language, which is too restrictive for them. Can you imagine where we would be today without that language.  At least half the people in this hall would be gone!
• Medical – after numerous fights, after building the best package in the country, they say they can’t afford it. This from a corporation that is making $1.44 billion.  We’ve already paid for our benefits through the years. We have made it clear to them that we are prepared to discuss ways to cut costs, but not by shifting the costs to workers!
• ACP – The Company claims that even the modified ACP is not helping with their absence problem – they now want to control absence by striking at the pocket book.  They want to limit what they pay for and for how long. This would strike at our sickest people just when they need it the most.

At the Local table they are looking for major concessions – including:

• Article 8, seniority on transfers. They say that those rules are too archaic and tie their hands too much. Well guess what, they are designed to tie their hands! We who have been around for any length of time know the abuses that led to this language. Those of us who were here in the late 80’s remember them transferring all our effective stewards after the ’86 and ’89 strikes. Thank god for that language, because they could only transfer them temporarily.
• DTA – they don’t want to pay for inconveniencing us with their transfers because they can’t manage the business.
• Work Schedules – again, they are looking for flexibility so they can schedule us whenever and wherever they want.
•  Work Rules – another flexibility issue. Well, they don’t need more flexibility, they need less!

Before we go into the next item, which is new business, I just want to say that we have our political differences in this hall. That is and will be evident. But let us all remember that for the next 6 weeks at least; we all have ONE COMMON ENEMY – VERIZON!  Regardless of debate, regardless of our differences, when we leave this room tonight we must do as we have always done  –  we will be UNITED to face the struggles ahead, because the company must know that 1101 is ONE!