On this Martin Luther King Day, I would like to take the time to recognize this great American for his efforts in advancing not only civil rights, but the rights of working people.  His support and fight for labor rights were seen by him as the support and fight for basic human rights.  He is deserving of that recognition, as our country is a better place to live because of him.

I returned home late Thursday night from West Virginia State where I testified in front of the West Virginia State Public Service Commission with the Local’s concerns as well as CWA’s concerns in regards to the Frontier/Verizon merger.  In my testimony I expressed the concerns for service based on our experience with the movement of our repair service calls to Deland, FL and the conversion over to the DPI billing system.

I can tell you that the Verizon and Frontier employees in West VA who attended the hearing have the same concerns we do.  They are concerned for their jobs and the company’s financial stability taking on more debt with the merger.

Those of us who have been here for a long time remember clearly the impact of the Global Crossing bankruptcy.  Frontier had a wireless, long distance, and video conferencing company.  All these divisions of the company were sold as well as the Frontier Ilec division as a result of that bad merger.  If this merger goes through and is approved, I’m the first to say I hope it the most successful merger in telecom history and provides more employment security for everyone.  We have already endured and experienced one of the biggest failures.

This is your President John Pusloskie thanking you for calling your Union tape, the place where we are Union and proud of it.