After three days of voting that concluded on Sunday, IBEW and CWA members in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont have ratified tentative agreements with FairPoint Communications. According to a statement issued by the unions, the new agreements protect good jobs and ensure quality telecommunications service for New England communities.
“This is great news for our members, their families, and our communities,” said Peter McLaughlin, chair of the union bargaining committee and Business Manager of IBEW Local 2327 in Maine. “Our members remained united and committed to this fight for more than four months and today we have a fair deal that will bring them back to work and good service back to our communities.”
RELATED:FairPoint, unions reach tentative deal to end strike
"We are glad that the unions have ratified these agreements that provide excellent pay and benefits while allowing FairPoint to rationalize its employee costs to position the company to compete and serve the customers and communities of northern New England," saidPaul Sunu, Chief Executive Officer of FairPoint."These agreements also allow our 1,700 union-represented employees to return to work and focus on our collective goal of serving our customers with excellence. While the negotiations were often challenging, congratulations are in order for both negotiating teams for forging what appears to be win-win agreements. I would also like to thank the numerous public officials for their guidance and support, publicly and privately, that helped lead to these agreements."
Highlights of the collective bargaining agreements are as follows:
- The defined benefit pension plan will be closed to new employees. For existing employees, past accruals have been frozen and future defined benefit accruals will be at 50% of prior rates and capped after 30 years of total credited service.
- No change to the 401(k) plan with a dollar-for-dollar match up to 5% of eligible pay.
- Retiree medical for active employees will be eliminated, except for a transitional monthly stipend for eligible employees who elect to retire in the first 30 months of the contract period. To be eligible for the stipend an employee must, among other criteria, have been granted a pension under the defined benefit pension plan. The monthly stipend shall not exceed$800per retiree, plus an additional$400for a retiree's spouse, and shall only be for reimbursement of medical insurance premiums. The stipend will be available only until the retiree reaches age 65, or dies, among other limitations.
- Employees will participate in the NECA/IBEW multi-employer medical plan. For 2015, the company's contribution is approximately equal to 79% of the cost had these employees been on the company's management health plan. Further, annual increases in the company's costs are capped at 4% per year.
- For existing employees there will be a delayed ratification payment of$400, with general wage increases of 1% inAugust 2016and 2% inAugust 2017.
- New hire wage rate increases will occur at 12-month intervals versus 6-month intervals under the expired agreements.
- Paid sick days will be limited to 6 per year versus unlimited paid sick days under the expired agreements.
- Short term disability will be limited to 6 months with a 60% of normal salary benefit versus 12 months and a 100% of normal salary benefit under the expired agreements.
- Prohibitions on layoffs included in the expired agreements were eliminated.
- Subcontracting rules were liberalized to permit subcontracting in a variety of circumstances including weather emergencies, spikes in service workloads and where management determines that due to evolving technological needs, different skills are necessary.
- Other operational rules such as call-outs, standby and transfers among locations were liberalized.
- The term of the collective bargaining agreements are fromFebruary 22, 2015throughAugust 4, 2018.
"With this contract in hand, and the flexibility to manage our workforce more effectively, we are better positioned to provide the telecommunications services northern New England wants and needs," Sunu continued."We know that our unionized workforce shares FairPoint's core goal of providing great customer service and competitive prices for communications products and services.Achieving this goal allows our company to continue to invest in the region's telecommunications infrastructure, provide good jobs and help grow the regional economy."
"I would like to personally thank our management team for their extraordinary efforts during the strike, but we understand that this dispute, combined with historic winter weather, has caused service disruption for some of our valued customers, and we appreciate the public's patience during this time.Our near-term plan is to utilize our returning unionized workforce in conjunction with the contractors we have in the region to quickly address any remaining service and installation issues and resume normal operations as soon as possible."
"We are committed to the region and are proud to continue our involvement with community causes that help make northern New England a great place to work and live.As a small part of that commitment, I am pleased to announce the company is making a$10,000contribution in the name of our entire workforce to the United Way ofMaine,New HampshireandVermont," Sunu concluded.
FairPoint estimates of the impact of the agreements on the company's financial statements will be provided when the company releases 2014 fourth quarter and full year earnings in early March.
The union stated that after initially demanding $700 million in concessions from workers, FairPoint implemented the terms of its proposals on August 28 saying the parties had reached an impasse in bargaining. The implemented terms included a dramatic increase in health care costs, a two-tier wage structure that would have paid new hires as much as 20 percent less to do the same jobs as current workers, and a greatly increased ability to outsource union members’ work to low-wage contractors from outside our region.
“This agreement is a win for our members and for future FairPoint employees,” said Don Trementozzi, President of CWA Local 1400. “We went on strike last October because we are committed to keeping good, middle-class jobs in New England. Our members walked the lines for more than four months, not just for themselves, but for future generations. Our success will benefit FairPoint workers—and New England’s working families—for years to come.”
The unions also successfully negotiated to protect jobs from outsourcing. During the strike, FairPoint brought in replacement contract workers to do the jobs of experienced, union workers. Complaints skyrocketed in all three states as customers experienced inadequate service, delays for repairs and installations, and increased wait times when calling customer service.
“Our communities have seen the results of outsourcing these last four months, and it has not been pretty,” said Glenn Brackett, Business Manager of IBEW Local 2320 in New Hampshire. “There’s no replacement for well-trained, skilled workers. Our members are eager to get back to work and get our network functioning the way it should.”
Approximately 1,800 FairPoint workers in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont launched their strike on October 17. The longest strike in the United States in 2014, workers picketed for 18 weeks.
“Our members are incredible. They walked the picket lines in blizzards and sub-zero temperatures. They stayed strong and they stayed together,” said Mike Spillane, Business Manager of IBEW Local 2326 in Vermont.
The unions said thatstrikers enjoyed widespread support from their communities and from thousands of allies around the world. Lawmakers in all three states walked the picket lines with members; individuals delivered hot beverages and snacks to picketers; and people and organizations contributed more than $350,000 to the Solidarity Fund to provide financial aid for striking workers to pay for everything from prescription medicine to heating oil.
“The support we’ve received over the past four months has been overwhelming,” said McLaughlin. “Union brothers and sisters from all over the country sent financial help and messages of support. And our friends and neighbors right here in New England showed us their appreciation for our sacrifice every day. They knew that our members were not just striking to protect their own jobs, but that they were fighting for good jobs and quality service for all of New England.”
The new contracts will be in effect until August 4, 2018.
Sources: www.FairnessAtFairpoint.com.www.FairPoint.com2.22.2015
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) System Council T-9 includes local unions in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont and represents nearly 1,500 employees at FairPoint Communications. The Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 1400 represents nearly 300 FairPoint employees in the three states.
FairPoint Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: FRP) provides advanced data, voice and video technologies to single and multi-site businesses, public and private institutions, consumers, wireless companies and wholesale re-sellers in 17 states. Leveraging an owned, fiber-core Ethernet network - including more than 16,000 route miles of fiber in northern New England - FairPoint has the network coverage, scalable bandwidth and transport capacity to support enhanced applications, including the next generation of mobile and cloud-based communications, such as small cell wireless backhaul technology, voice over IP, data center colocation services, managed services and disaster recovery. For more information, visitwww.FairPoint.com.