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Local Bargaining Report #1

Local Bargaining Report #1
Thursday June 30, 2011

The Potomac Local Bargaining team met with Verizon today. Discussions centered on proposals Verizon passed across the table in an earlier session. The Union team provided the Company with several data requests concerning their proposals.

After yesterdays company proposals at the Common Issues table, we reiterated once more that we are in this for the long haul. This is not a sprint, it’s a marathon and we let them know that with the strength of our members standing behind us we will be here for as long as it takes to reach a fair agreement.

Verizon has also made it clear at the Local table they are going after our protections as they had at the Regional table yesterday. Here are just a few of their demands on the Local table:

Change the Scope of Work Letter of Understanding to allow VCSI technicians to perform the expanded copper duties in the non FiOS Deployed Areas.

Significantly weaken the grievance procedure.

Change the language concerning termination allowance payments.

Drastically modify the language in Article 28 concerning temporary assignments.

Weaken the arbitration provision of the contract.

These are just a few of the issues we are dealing with at the Potomac Bargaining table. Of course, we have our own agenda and passed a number of the Union bargaining proposals across the table today. We will meet again tomorrow to continue our work toward reaching an agreement that allows the Company to be competitive and protects and improves the contract for our members. After tomorrow’s meeting the Regional and Local tables will be recessed until Monday, July 18th.

Again, Verizon is not a Company facing a financial crisis. They are extremely profitable. This is not a Company coming to its union employees seeking ways to work together to face the challenges of the future. Their proposals seek to destroy our future.

We need to send a very clear message that this is not acceptable, that we will not be passive as they seek to gut our contract. Your Potomac Bargaining Team as well as the bargaining teams from CWA Districts 1 and 13, the IBEW in New York, New England, New Jersey and Pennsylvania stands unified and ready to fight.

We stand unified and ready to fight for your Wages, Benefits and Working Conditions.

We stand unified and ready to fight for the middle class standard of living that you have earned and rightfully deserve to keep.

Preparations are being made for strike votes to be held in all locals. Plans are also being made for a Rally at Verizon Headquarters in New York City at 140 West Street on July 30, 2011. We will supply more details next week but it is time to set aside this date and make plans to attend this Rally. Members from all three Districts from New England to Virginia as well as IBEW members from NY, NE, NJ and Pennsylvania will be attending.

Now more than ever we need to mobilize!

Mobilize! Mobilize! Mobilize!

Local Bargaining Report #2

Local Bargaining Report #2
Friday July 1, 2011

The Potomac Local Bargaining team met with Verizon today. CWA passed several information requests concerning the company’s proposals. We then had some frank discussions about several of the proposals placed on the table earlier this week. The company bargaining team provided some clarification about the meaning and reasoning for those proposals. The Union team acknowledged we will have further discussion on their proposals after CWA receives the information from the data requests. CWA also passed an additional proposal today concerning forced overtime.

The Local Bargaining table has recessed until the week of July 17th due to the CWA Convention. We will reconvene that week with both Common Issues and Local Issues bargaining.

Once again your Potomac Bargaining Team cannot stress enough the only way we are going to win this fight and obtain the contract we can all be proud of is with the support of you, our members.

We stand unified and ready to fight for your Wages, Benefits and Working Conditions.

We stand unified and ready to fight for the fair contract we deserve. With your help we will get there.

Reminder to save Saturday July 30, 2011 for the Rally in New York City.

In Solidarity, we will last one day longer than Verizon. Stay Together. Stand Strong.

Now more than ever we need to mobilize!

Mobilize! Mobilize! Mobilize!

Local Bargaining Report #3

Thursday July 21, 2011

The Potomac Local Bargaining team spent the morning going over the information management provided from several of our information data requests. We then met with the management bargaining team and continued pushing forward with our members agenda.

Just like at the Common Issues Bargaining Table, every proposal management has put forward at our local table is retrogressive. They continually tell us that they are in a death spiral as a company and we need to accept their package of demands if we are going to save the company. Yet when we try to talk to them about some of the problems we have with their treatment of our members they tell us they don’t have time for that, they have a business to run.

The only way we are going to beat this company and move forward with a fair contract is if every one of our members gets pissed off. This company is out to gut your contract and take food off your families table. If someone was attacking your family you wouldn’t stand for it. This is the same thing. Now is the time to get angry. Now is the time to get creative. Don’t wait for someone else. We only win when everyone gets involved.

We still have room on the buses going to New York for the rally on July 30th. Everyone needs to be on the bus. Bring family, bring friends, bring people you haven’t met yet and make some new friends but be there!

Now more than ever we need to mobilize!

MOBILIZE! - MOBILIZE! - MOBILIZE!

Local Bargaining Report #4

Local Bargaining Report #4
Friday July 22, 2011

Negotiations continued at the Local Bargaining table today with management rejecting most of the proposals made by the Union. The Union committee continued to push forward with our members proposals. Some of the proposals the Union has passed across the table include the following:

 Limits on management’s ability to freeze laterals and downgrades
 Job Posting and Bidding
 Elimination of the Workplace Attire Guidelines
 Reducing the number of assigned weekends
 Stronger Safety Language
 Restrictions on temporary assignments and limitations on forced transfers
 Stronger layoff language
 Improvements to the grievance procedure
 Greater flexibility for time off for doctors appointments
 Area upgrades
 Improvements in the absence for death in the family
 Stronger ISP Language

We have also discussed the possibility for those members who are scheduled to leave the payroll at the end of the year to be able to voluntarily extend their time.

In the meantime, management continues to push their list of retrogressive demands with the reasoning that we need to accept them in order to save the company. Following years of mismanagement and treating our customers like dirt, they now expect the people who made this company run to lay down and let them drive right over us.

Their retrogressive demands are across the board. Not including the issues at the regional bargaining table such as healthcare and benefits, the local retrogressive demands include items such as the gutting of the Scope Agreement protections we gained three years ago. They are also coming after our protections concerning temporary assignments, term employees, the grievance procedure, termination allowances, travel allowances; you name it and they want it back.

The fight is joined sisters and brothers. This company believes they can jump on the same bandwagon of attacking union represented workers and gutting their wages and working conditions as what we’ve seen in the public workers sector this year. They are coming after us and they will win this fight unless every one of our members gets involved.

We still have room on the buses going to New York for the rally on July 30th. Everyone needs to be on the bus. Bring your family and let Verizon management know we are bringing the fight to them and they better be ready for the fight of their lives.

Mobilize! Mobilize! Mobilize!

Local Bargaining Report #5

Saturday July 23, 2011

Negotiations continued at the Local Bargaining table today. Following yesterday’s session where management rejected almost all of our proposals, today we placed a modified list of proposals back on the table. The response from management was simply to reiterate that their full list of retrogressive demands remain on the table. They made no movement on any of their proposals. We are ready to talk when they are ready to negotiate.

It seems clear they don’t believe our members are up to the fight. They believe they can push us right into going backwards. They are coming after us and they will win this fight unless every one of our members gets involved.

Now more than ever we need to mobilize!

MOBILIZE! - MOBILIZE! - MOBILIZE!