CWA Local 1170

Frontier has declared the following surplus. Volunteers to substitute have until the close of business on Wednesday May 12th to notify the company of your intentions. Bumping interviews will take place after that and the last day will be May 21st for those who will be involuntarily forced from the payroll.
The following classifications are affected.

Network Tech 1
Sales and service tech (coin) 3
Sales and service techs 3
Line/Splicer 1
Cable Splicer 4
Communications Coordinator 1

Telephone workers win amendment to state economic development bill to secure jobs of the future

State will retain its ability to regulate new Voice Over Internet communications technologies

Boston – When the Commonwealth of Massachusetts put forward a new Economic Development bill, Verizon and Comcast inserted a little known provision to deregulate “Voice Over Internet Protocol” technology, often called VOIP.

VOIP is the communication technology of the future.  Soon nearly every telephone call will be made using an internet protocol instead of the traditional wireline network.

Verizon and Comcast’s bid to deregulate the technology would leave their telephone customers without recourse to ensure quality services while threatening the jobs of thousands of telecom workers throughout Massachusetts.

“We need to partner with our customers for quality services and good jobs,” said IBEW Local 2222 Business Manager Myles Calvey, who also chairs the telephone workers T6 Council that covers all of Massachusetts and Rhode Island.  “Verizon must understand that the installation and maintenance of VOIP services is union work from start to finish.”

Verizon has been doing the VOIP work with low-paid, out-of-state contractors while laying off thousands of local, well trained and experienced local telephone workers.

“Hundreds of concerned citizens and telephone workers made calls to their elected representatives to resist the attempt to de-regulate this new industry,” said Senator Steven Tolman, who championed the cause in the Senate chamber.  “I was proud to stand with working families today in an effort to keep jobs in Massachusetts and available to hardworking men and women.”

Rand Wilson
Center for Strategic Research, AFL-CIO
c/o IBEW Local 2222, 1137 Washington Street, Dorchester, MA 02124
w) 617 929-6000, f) 617-929-6099, c) 617 803-0799

Can unions set the agenda, rather than just reacting?  Check out this network with some good ideas for organizing, workplace democracy, internationalism and union creativity. www.newunionism.net

Apr 8, 2010

In an outrageous tactic, Windstream is suing dozens of retirees who objected to the company’s plans to cut back or eliminate their promised health care benefits. CWA represents more than 1,300 employees and 3,000 retirees at the company.

It was a set up. Windstream solicited retirees for comments about the cutbacks in a survey it mailed or distributed to them. Retirees were asked specifically whether they believed Windstream had the right to change, reduce, or eliminate promised benefits. Retirees who said “No” later were stunned to learn that they were named as defendants in a class action lawsuit that Windstream filed in U.S. District Court.

“This is one of the most ruthless actions I can ever recall a company taking against retirees or employees,” said Telecommunications Vice President Jimmy Gurganus. “Imagine the shock each retiree experienced after receiving a summons with a warning that a lawsuit has been filed against them,” he said.

CWA Local 6171, which represents more than 500 Windstream workers in New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas, plus hundreds of retirees, did not receive advance notification about the cuts from Windstream. The local’s contract with Windstream requires prior notification of and negotiation over any proposed changes to retiree health care.

“We first heard about it from retirees and they were devastated,” said Local 6171 President Allen Whitaker. “It was adding insult to injury when they discovered they had been sued for stating that they didn’t think the company had the right to back out of providing long-promised benefits,” he said.

CWA District 6 received a notice about the cuts after the company informed retirees represented by Local 6171. CWA also represents Windstream employees who worked for the company in Kentucky, North and South Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, Florida, and New York, but it is not known yet how many of these retirees were contacted by the company.

Windstream has asked the court to uphold its right to change retiree benefits. Incredibly, the company’s class action also asks the court to require retirees to pay for the cost of its lawsuit.

Rally Alert!

Make Wall Street Pay to Restore Jobs!

Where is our bailout?  Where are the bailouts for America’s workers losing jobs, homes, and healthcare?  We demand good jobs now!  It’s time Wall Street paid their fair share to restore the jobs they destroyed, and to stop using our tax dollars to fight financial reform, healthcare reform, and labor rights reform.

What:  Rally in conjunction with 200 national actions demanding Wall Street Pay to Restore jobs!

When:  Tuesday, March 23, 2010  4-5pm

Where:  On the sidewalk in front of Bank of America, 1 East Avenue, Rochester, NY 14604

For more information, please contact (585) 263-2650

Good Jobs Now: Make Wall Street Pay events call on the big Wall Street banks to pay for a major jobs plan to rebuild crumbling infrastructure and invest in green technology; increase aid to state and local governments to save critical services and jobs; increase funding for neglected communities to match people who need jobs with work that needs to be done; and use TARP money to get credit flowing to small businesses for job creation.

Information on the activities is available at www.aflcio.org/createjobs – the AFL-CIO’s online organizing hub for the jobs campaign.  From the site, people can find events to attend, write letters to banks and read and submit job stories and photos.

In addition to these efforts, Working America, the 3 million-member community affiliate of the AFL-CIO, has kicked off a campaign called “I am not your ATM.”   People across the country are submitting photos of themselves in front of ATM’s, asking “where’s my bailout?” and delivering the message to Wall Street:  “I am not your ATM.”  To see some of the photos collected so far, go to www.notyouratm.com.  Working America speaks to 25,000 people across the country every week about the creation of good jobs and holding Wall Street accountable.

Union sponsors W.Va. rally against proposed Frontier purchase of Verizon’s wire line business

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