STRIKING FairPoint workers and their supporters from across the Northeast of America held a major rally in Portland, Maine, on Saturday, November 8.
Negotiators from striking union workers and from FairPoint Communications management will return to the bargaining table on November 18 under the auspices of a federal mediator.
The nearly 2,000 members of the Electrical Workers (IBEW) and Communications Workers of America (CWA) in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont went on strike at FairPoint on October 17 over what the unions say is the company’s unwillingness to bargain in good faith.
IBEW Local 2327 business manager Peter McLaughlin said: ‘We’ve always been committed to reaching an agreement that ensures good jobs and quality service for northern New England.
‘We’ll be in Boston ready to find common ground, and we urge the company to return to the table in the same spirit.’
FairPoint officials walked away from the bargaining table in August and imposed conditions of its last contract offer that:
• Froze the pensions of nearly 2,000 employees who build, maintain and service vital telecommunications infrastructure throughout Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.
• Stopped providing retiree health care and support for child- and elder care.
• Implemented a new health care plan that will cost hundreds of dollars more per month and provide less coverage for workers and their families.
FairPoint, a North Carolina-based company largely owned by Wall Street hedge funds, also implemented a controversial measure that lets it outsource work to contractors outside New England and overseas.
In the week beginning 29 October, FairPoint cut off health insurance for the workers and their families.
According to the unions, the company has been struggling with service disruptions and failing to keep up with customer complaints since the strike began.
Don Trementozzi, president of CWA Local 1400, said: ‘FairPoint provoked this strike without any thought of the consequences for our customers.
‘They have consistently put the desires of their Wall Street investors over the needs of working families in New England.
‘It’s a shame that it took back-to-back weather emergencies to bring home the reality that inexperienced replacements from out of state just can’t maintain our network.
‘It’s time for FairPoint to put the needs of its New England customers first.’
• Federal employee union representatives on Wednesday conveyed significant concern with the major Republican gains made in Tuesday’s mid-term election, but vowed to continue to work with both parties to pursue the interests of the federal workforce.
Unions representing federal workers expressed their resignation toward a ‘tough two years’ coming up for their members, and conceded the election results were not their preferred results.
Union leaders promised to fight any efforts to cut pay, benefits or agency budgets.
J David Cox, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said: ‘Last night certainly didn’t go the way we had hoped. But we are not mourning here at AFGE today.’
First and foremost on the agenda for union leaders is boosting funding for federal agencies.
Cox vowed to end sequestration, while National Treasury Employees Union National President Colleen Kelley said her members will push for budget increases during the lame duck session of Congress.
Kelley said: ‘Severe budget cuts have resulted in staffing shortages, insufficient training and a reduction in services to the public.’
Cox added public backlash against federal employees is often misguided. He said: ‘When people get mad at government employees, they’re really mad the government programmes aren’t properly funded.’
The current resolution keeping agencies open is set to expire on December 11. With frozen pay or historically small raises, furloughs and slashed budgets from sequestration, pension contribution hikes, a government shutdown, legislative proposals to cut benefits and loosen job security and countless examples of disparaging rhetoric, federal employees have faced repeated attacks from Congress since Republicans took control of the House in 2010.
Their unions lamented things will not likely get better now that the party typically behind those attacks controls both chambers of Congress.
National Treasury Employees Union National President Kelley said: ‘The last few years have been challenging ones for the federal workforce and I expect they will remain so.’
However, she said electoral disappointments will not stop her members from advancing their causes.
The unions vowed to work with lawmakers of all stripes to pursue those interests.
In addition to agency funding, union representatives said they will fight against the budget proposal put forward in the last two sessions of Congress by Republican Paul Ryan, R-Wis, which would, among other things, once again make federal employees pay more for their retirement pensions and shrink the overall size of the federal workforce.
The concerns about changes to the Federal Employees Retirement System were compounded by a recent letter from Ryan and Representative Darrell Issa, R-Calif, asking the Congressional Budget Office to evaluate a series of proposals to overhaul the benefit programme.
Union leaders said the shift in Senate power will not affect their advocacy, noting they have friends on both sides of the aisle.
National Federation of Federal Employees President Bill Dougan said: ‘It’s not about what political party the lawmakers belong to. It’s about passing legislation important to our members.’
Cox said that while the deck may be stacked against him and his members, the situation is nothing new. He said: ‘We’re union folks. We’re used to always being in the fight.’
• Capital Bikeshare employees who want to unionise are seeking support ahead of a hearing with the National Labour Relations Board this week.
In a petition on Coworker.org, Ursula Sandstrom, a Capital Bikeshare bike checker, asks for Alta Bicycle Share, the company that operates Washington DC’s bikeshare and was recently sold, and its new owner, REQX, to support the union voluntarily formed with Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 100.
She says: ‘Right now, we don’t have a seat at the table when decisions are made about how the system should run and how our jobs are done.
‘We just got bought out by a huge investment company based in New York.
‘This is a great sign that bikeshare is here to stay. But we need to ensure that those of us whose labour keeps the system running aren’t dropped from the picture and benefit from the hard work we have put in.
‘Things are okay for us right now but unionising will ensure that we are safe down the line. Our being unionised will allow us to keep delivering a great system and advocate for ways to make it even better.’
Nichole Procopenko, a Capital Bikeshare bike checker involved in the movement, said: ‘Over 85 per cent of our workforce has signed cards to unionise with TWU Local 100.
‘We asked management to voluntarily recognise the union and they refused. Alta has hired Jackson Lewis, which is an absolutely notorious union-busting law firm.’
Procopenko added that REQX attempted to negotiate terms with TWU without workers involved, which the transit union refused, and is contesting ‘several of the union cards, effectively shutting out our co-workers from joining the union and joining the collective bargaining unit’.
The National Labour Relations Board is tasked with certifying unions through a process that involves checking employee names against the cards submitted.
A hearing on the contested cards will take place on November 10th at 9am.
Procopenko said: ‘After this, the NLRB will hold an election where workers are allowed to vote. ‘However, we seek to have the union voluntarily recognised before that. If the cards are successfully contested we will have a smaller bargaining unit and less solidarity across the board with our fellow workers.’
