Tape Release 7/23/25

Membership and Retiree Updates:

Frontier Bargaining Update
Last week the Union and the Company met and exchanged package proposals with the hopes of moving closer to a settlement.  The parties are still far apart on Wages, Medical Insurance and the Company’s proposal on Retiree Health Insurance, which is to Eliminate post 65 subsidies for active employees, not those already retired, and phases out our $221 and $371 month subsidy by the end of the next agreement.

The Union’s request for prevailing wage for Broadband tech work, which is based on the Verizon tech wage table, was characterized as absurd and ridiculous by the Company’s chief negotiator.  We will be part of Verizon in five months and Verizon just reported earnings of 5.1 Billion dollars for the three months ended June 30th.  To date Verizon has reported earnings of over 10 billion dollars for this year.  

We will continue our fight for good wages and benefits on your behalf.  The two sides are scheduled to meet August 5th, 6th, and 7th.  Our brothers and sisters in Connecticut are meeting with the Company this week and we’ll be interested to see if there is any progress at their bargaining table.

Retiree Updates
The turnout for the retiree picnic was excellent and it was good to see everyone. With that being said I’m saddened to announce the passing of Retirees John Steinwachs and Richard Enslow.

John passed away on June 26th at the age of 79.  He retired in August of 1998 with 31 years with the Company and was a frame tech at the time of his retirement.

It was called in that Richard Enslow has also passed at the age of 83.   Dick retired in 1996 with 31 years of service.  He was an Installation repair tech out of suburban at the time of his retirement.

On behalf of the Union I want to extend our condolences to John and Dick’s family and friends.

Dental Plan Update
Excellus plans to mail new dental cards next week out to all members, and retirees who participate in the Direct Bill plan. These cards will be permanent and not temporary as reported in the letter mailed to everyone.  We are still having issues of bounced checks being reported and participants waiting on checks that were supposedly mailed from Health Economics.  We will have some work to make sure everyone has received their proper payments and remain committed to that. We appreciate your patience as those who have experienced these problems are greatly frustrated, as are we.

This is your President John Pusloskie thanking you for calling your Union tape.