Last Updated

March 28th, 2010

BARGAINING UPDATE #1

Verizon/CWA 2010 Negotiations opened at 10 am on January 7. The Company will have 4 members on their committee including their note taker. The Union committee consists of 7 members which includes our note taker and our Staff Rep, Hetty Scofield.

This week’s bargaining sessions will be held at the Local Offices of CWA Local 4371 in Marion, Ohio.

The chair for the Company Committee, Mike Kruger, opened the talks with remarks about the difficult economic times we’re in but said that he is confident that a new agreement can be reached in a timely manner and that the agreement would be satisfactory to both the company and the union within the economic parameters as the company sees it. To that end he said the Company is prepared to submit a total of 14 proposals for the Core Contract and few additional ones for the Buried Service Wire (BSW) contract.

For our part our Chair said we we’re prepared to do whatever is necessary to get a fair contract and to achieve that the Union has 48 initial proposals to present and some additional ones at a later date with regards to the BSW contract.

In the sessions that followed, Thursday and Friday, the Company passed 6 proposals across the bargaining table.

The Company proposes:

Length of Agreement: 3 years

Vacation Accruement: (change) vacations would be “earned” annually at a rate of 10% per month (January through October) of your total annual entitlement, as opposed to the current method of full entitlement after working one day in the new year. This would effectively end the practice/ability to retire/separate from the Company in January and receive all your unused vacation entitlement for the year. You would only get 10% for each month you had already worked.

Business Attire: The Company wants the ability to force whatever job titles they choose, whenever they want into wearing company uniforms (shirts). They are not proposing to increase the dollar amount they currently contribute annually to the program. They merely want the right to force more employees into it.

Medical Insurance: The Company is proposing to make minor modifications/improvements in the current benefit as it relates to mental health and alcohol/drug treatment programs. This change was dictated by a change in the law that said that the same health insurance benefit must be applied to all health categories including mental health and alcohol/drug health issues. The Company would merely be conforming to the law as it is presently written.

Reclassification of BZT I Employees: The Company wants the ability to reclassify some BZT I employees, of their choosing, to CZT II job titles. They would continue to do the same work. However, their wage rates would be frozen until the wage rates of the CZT II job title caught up to them. They are proposing this for Indiana and Ohio only.

LTD Insurance Coverage: The Company proposes a minor improvement in Section 4 of the MOA that would change 12 months to 18 months.

The Union has proposed these changes:

New Contract start date to be: 2/14/2010

Non Discrimination Article: modify to include sexual orientation and engaging in union activities

Article 19 Probationary Employees: modify to include mutual consent

Article 9.18.2:  delete

Article 9.17.1:  delete

Article 12.3.1:  add language to protect income earned from outside the company from arbitration awards

Article 13.10.5:  improve minimum call out to (4) hours

Article 13.10.10.1:  change to excuse (without loss of pay) employees from their next shift in entirety

Article 14.1: improve to provide notification of the slate of candidates to the appropriate Local President

Article 14.1.3.2:  delete

Article 14.3.1:  delete a portion of the language

Article 14.3.2:  delete a portion of the language

Article 15.2.1.3:  improve amount paid for Per Diem

Article 15.2.1.4:  improve amount paid for meal allowance

Article 15.2.1.5:  improve amount paid

Article 15.3.1.1:  improve amount paid

Article 15.3.1.2:  improve amount paid

Article 15.4.1:  change to abide by IRS standards

Article 17.3.2:  delete

Article 17.3.3.1:  delete

Article 20:  change Floating Holidays to Personal Days

Article 20.1.2:  add 8th Personal Day

Article 20.1.2.2:  change to add the ability to use all Personal Days in 2, 4 and 8 hour increments

Article 20.2.1.3:  modify to improve

Article 9.11.1:  modify to eliminate company misuse of this article

Article 21.5.1.6:  modify to allow carryover of unused day at a time vacation days

Article 22.4.1.1:  change to include clinical therapist and psychologist

Article 24.2.1:  modify to include domestic partner

Article 29.4.1:  modify to increase amount paid

Article 29.6.1:  modify to include all Sunday time worked in the computation of overtime

MOA/Standby:  modify to increase amounts paid

MOA: extend 36 other MOA’s for the life of the agreement

Bargaining will resume Monday, January 11, 2010. Both sides intend to continue presenting additional proposals.

CWA/VERIZON - NORTHCENTRAL BARGAINING REPORT NO. 2

JANUARY 22, 2010

Bargaining continued this week with discussions on several proposals, including health care, vision plan, vacations, and transfer rights.

The Company continues to push to erode seniority on several issues, including Compensated Availability. Your committee is standing strong!!

Be prepared to mobilize your work group if you are contacted by your Local President. Support your bargaining team - Wear RED on Thursdays!!!

January 29, 2010

STATUS OF NEGOTIATIONS 2/1/2010

VERIZON - CWA

Many minor issues have been resolved and tentatively agreed to between Verizon and your CWA Union Bargaining Committee. In addition a few issues larger in scope have been tentatively agreed to. However, several very important issues remain on the bargaining table and unresolved at this point with the company showing little meaningful movement on them to bring them to conclusion.

To highlight just a few.

Our NATIONAL MEMORANDUMS OF AGREEMENT (the blue pages in the back of the Contract). These expire on July 31, 2010. These MOAs are the bedrock foundation of many of our benefits and have not been agreed on or even agreed to live beyond their expiration date of 7/31/2010. Some of the things at risk in these MOAs are, the 401k savings plan and matching contribution, vacation banking, service and seniority recognition just to name a few.

COMPENSATED AVAILABILITY or as it is commonly referred to, “standby”. The company is still seeking changes that would mandate and force participation and rotation of this duty. Additionally, whomever is on it will be the first and only one called out for each trouble. In effect making it a 24X7 assignment, void of any seniority considerations.

DOWN GRADE OF THE BZT I job title (Indiana and Ohio) and downgrade of the work known as “circuits” to the CZT II wage rate.

VACATION ACCRUMENT, the company still wants a major change in the way that we earn and get paid for, vacation time. It is currently an entitlement and they wish to make us “earn it” each and every year.

WAGES, the company has still not shown us a wage package.

COMPANY UNIFORMS, the company is seeking mandatory participation of those job titles of their choosing.

LUMP SUM PENSIONS. Although the Union Bargaining Committee is confident that the final package will preserve our LUMP SUM, it is not a done deal as of yet. And remember, nothing is a “done deal” until it gets voted on by our 5 state membership.

At the bargaining table the company has shown very little interest in our concerns relating to the proposed sale to Frontier. Such as, who, what, when and where, will the health care benefits of Verizon retirees be negotiated and safeguarded in future years. That is a really huge issue and the company is only offering lip service to it.

Negotiations are scheduled to continue at this time up to Contract expiration (2/13/2010) and your Bargaining Committee remains dedicated to the task of getting a good contract. Please continue to show your support in whatever ways you can.

February 11th, 2010

GENERAL OVERVIEW OF THE CHANGES IN THE VERIZON

TENTATIVE  AGREEMENT 2010

3 year agreement,  2/14/2010 through 2/9/2013.

Wage increases;  2.75% per year, across the board, effective on the contract anniversary date  each year, retroactive back to 2/14/2010 if contract ratification is  accomplished by 3/27/2010.

Changes in benefits will be effective 1/1/2011 unless otherwise specifically  stated.

Article 15.2.1.5 meal allowance increased to 34$ per day.

Article 9.11.3   changes in the definition of what constitutes a probationary  employee.

Change Floating  Holiday to Personal Day.

Increase from 1 to 2, the number of Personal Days that can be used in increments of 2 hours.

Article 21.4.2.2,  improvement in vacation carryover language.

Article 24.2.1,  Bereavement Time; improve by adding son in law and daughter in law of the employee.

MOA/Business Attire; add more job classifications. 

MOA/Standby; change to allow for the required sharing of the duty under certain circumstances. 

Reclassification;  15 BZT I employees (in Indiana and Ohio only) to reclassified to CZT II on  1/1/2011. The wage rates for the 15 affected employees will be grandfathered.

Retiree Health Care; for new hires (hired after 2/14/2010) the company contribution towards retiree health care will be 345$ for each year of accredited service, with an  annual benefit capped at 10,350$. Additionally the benefit will terminate with  the death of the employee.

Vision Plan;  the benefit provider will change to  EYEMED on 1/1/2011 and there will be a minor improvement in the  coverage.

Voluntary  Termination Bonus (new) for those employees who are offered and accept an ISP  during the life of the agreement, an additional 10,000$ will be payable upon  separation.

BURIED SERVICE WIRE (BSW) 

Bereavement Leave; added son in law and daughter in law of the  employee. 

Paid Holidays; added the day after Thanksgiving 

Personal days; increased from (3) to (4) effective 2011

Vacation Accruement; improved the rate of accruement. 

Wages  2.75% across the board, each year of the (3) year agreement, on the contract anniversary date. Retroactive back to 2/14/2010 if ratification is achieved by 3/27/2010.

This posting is  only meant to be a general overview and is not intended to represent the actual language of the Contract.

March 26, 2010

This morning, beginning at 10:00 am, with the assistance of Local 4371, the Verizon contract ratification ballots were counted. The count was completed at 2:00 pm The vote was a 7 to 1 margin in favor of ratification. Congratulations!!

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