The following is excerpted from a letter sent to our brothers and sisters in CWA Locals 1301 & 1302 from the following people:

Dennis G. Trainor
Assistant to the Vice President
CWA District 1

Pat Telesco
Staff Representative
CWA District 1

George Alcott
President
CWA Local 1301

Lynda Nordyke
President
CWA Local 1302

November 13, 2007

On Wednesday, November 7th you received an e-mail message from Georgia Scaife, VP of Idearc Human Resources letting you know the company is implementing their most recent proposal from September 18, 2007.

The CWA feels it is important for our members to understand what the company has actually proposed and what the Union has proposed as counters to Idearc's demands for huge give backs on everything in the existing Collective Bargaining Agreements with CWA Locals 1301 and 1302 and IBEW Local 2213. Over the past few months of bargaining the Union has exchanged multiple proposals with Idearc in an attempt to get a fair contract.

At an August 29th bargaining session, the Union gave Idearc a proposal which is available to you on this website. It is a comprehensive proposal for addressing the main issues for wage increases for non-commission employees, a sales compensation plan, health and other benefits, pensions, job security language.

After 3 weeks, Idearc, on September 18th, sent their counter-proposal via e-mail to Dennis Trainor, CWA Bargaining Chairperson. Idearc's proposal did not meet any of our needs with the exception of the sales proposal, which was still missing key items that the company had told us verbally that we could have. We met with the company again on October 10th and 11th. On October 30th, CWA met with Idearc in Washington, D.C. to discuss pension issues. We are also posting Idearc's September 18th proposal to us along with the Job Security draft language that they gave to Dennis October 30th.

We reconvened bargaining in Middleton, MA on November 5th in hopes of reaching an agreement. A session was held on job security where we asked the Company bargainers several questions on the job security document Idearc Chairperson Peter Konrad gave to Dennis on October 30th. At that meeting the company said they understood our concerns and said they would work on language to address our issues and get back to us. That same day we passed the company a proposal on health care (it is also posted here); which the company failed to respond to and we also met with the Sales Bargaining team to discuss the proposal in relation to what the company has been implementing over the past few weeks.

Clearly we were still bargaining when the company declared impasse.

Here are a few of the important points:

Healthcare:
Idearc proposed to cut the current benefit plans and have employees start paying towards the insurance premium costs. The plan you would be paying for would be a lesser plan than you currently have. The company would also offer an HMO in addition to the sponsored plan, but only guarantee they would do that for 1 year. Idearc's proposal has language that says they will not diminish the plan; but can not tell us exactly what "will not diminish"; means. If they were to make changes in the plan, the Union could go to an arbitrator if we felt they diminished the plan; but that arbitrator would only have the authority to send us back to Idearc and would not have any authority to remedy our issue.

CWA and IBEW have made movement in our proposals to accept our members contributing to their health plan and asking for some choices and some guarantees that during the contract the plan won't be changed.

Pension:
Idearc does not want you to have a pension. Idearc proposed freezing the current pension plan effective December 31, 2008. They would make no further contributions to employees pensions and future employees would have no pension. The lump sum option would also go away. In place of the pension, the company is proposing an enhanced 401k plan.

CWA and IBEW have made proposals and explored options with Idearc to protect the employees who have a lot of time invested and are close to retirement by proposing adding years to age and service in order to qualify for their pension sooner. We have also explored with the company the feasibility of phasing in an enhanced 401k plan with more junior employees and new employees in combination with a plan that would have the company making a contribution to the new 401k in order to help those members who find it impossible to contribute due to the cost of living.

Job Security:
Idearc wants to take all job security language out of the contract. Their September 18th proposal does not include job security provisions. They did give a proposal that is marked draft, but it falls short of addressing our concerns and leaves too much open to interpretation by Idearc. CWA and IBEW have worked with the company by proposing job security language that is tied to group productivity. What we need is input in setting the productivity benchmarks and the ability to challenge any surplus or movement of work in arbitration if we need to. Historically the Union representatives in these groups have always worked jointly with the company in these types of things, but the company wants all the control now.

Sales Compensation and Standards Plan:
Idearc and the CWA have agreed that there is much in the current plans that does not work for the company or the employees anymore and the Union is willing to change the way the compensation and assignment plans work and also worked on a new Performance Improvement Plan that would replace the Minimum Standards Plan. Although Idearc has indicated that there are things in our proposal that they could agree to, they did not include these things in there September 18th proposal. The CWA has agreed that many of these changes make sense as long as the health care and pension and other things were acceptable for our members. Our proposal gives them flexibility in assignments and commission rates that they need, while keeping our ability to address changes in a Joint Steering Committee.

Attached are some of the recent proposals that have been made:

1.Union Proposal-August 29, 2007

2.Union Sales Proposal-part of the Aug 29th proposal

3.Company Proposal-September 18, 2007

4.Draft Company Proposal-October 30, 2007

5.Union Proposal-November 5, 2007

Brothers & Sisters,

As you know, the Union has been bargaining with Idearc since April. Throughout these several months the Company has engaged in a pattern of bad faith bargaining insisting on severely diminishing the terms and conditions of employment. Throughout, the Union has resisted coming back with creative attempts to meet the Company's needs and maintain decent standards for our members. Unfortunately, the Company has never really moved away from its original regressive positions.

Today, the Company advised us that they believe that the parties are at impasse and that they will be implementing their last offer. We think that they are wrong and that their actions are illegal. We have filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board and will be filing additional charges.

However, the Company's declaration of impasse has real consequences for you. The Company will be sending out its open enrollment package almost immediately. You will see that the plans they are offering are inferior to your current benefits package. Also, although this will not be obvious from the open enrollment package you will get, the Company is not agreeing to include all of the offerings in the collective bargaining agreement or to allow the Union to bargain over the details of the plans. This means that the Company will be free to cancel many of the plans if it so decides. Unfortunately, you will need to select a benefits option from these inferior offerings, however, the issue is not over. The Union will keep fighting to get better plan offerings and to get them into the contract.

Shortly, the Company will begin implementing other aspects of their last offer and you will understand why the Union would not agree to the Company's proposals. We believe all the other implementations are violations of the law. We will attempt to advise you of the Company's plans and their implications as they develop.

We strongly believe that the Company's actions are illegal and we are pursuing legal remedies at the Labor Board. We know that you have all stood united over the last several months. That unity will become even more important in the next several months. Our fight for a fair contract is not over, in fact, in some ways it has just begun. We have a better understanding of how low the Company is willing to go and it is only strengthening our resolve. Soon we will be meeting with everyone and will roll out our next steps.

Stay Strong! Stay United!