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Alltel Members Authorize Strike

CWA members have voted 4-1 to authorize a strike against Alltel in Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Ohio and Alabama. Recent bargaining on behalf of 1,200 workers in the Alltel system has failed to yield anything close to the union's demands for affordable health benefits. Some Alltel contracts have been expired as long as 18 months, and the clock is ticking on others with deadlines of Sept. 30 and Oct. 1.



"Alltel unashamedly mischaracterizes company medical proposals as 'not being benefit cuts,' if only by the loose definition that the company wants its union workers to pay the same as its non-union workers," said Telecommu-nications Vice President T.O. Moses. "The company is involved in a crusade to require major increases in medical benefit cost-shifting, which involves substantially higher employee medical premium costs; higher medical deductibles and higher co-pays. No other company in the telecommunications industry requires the level of cost-sharing proposed by Alltel."



"Alltel is holding true to what we've been saying for sometime," said CWA Vice President Jimmy Smith, whose District 3 represents the largest group of workers, 478 in Dalton, Ga. "Alltel's out to bust the union and we've got to mobilize to stop that." The strike vote was counted Aug. 15, one day after Moses, his assistant John Howard, Robbie McNeeley, assistant to Smith, and District 4 CWA Representative Sal LaCause met with top Alltel management.



The company would have employees pay as much as 25 percent or more of the cost of family medical indemnity benefits.



"HMO participants will also experience much higher cost-sharing if Alltel is allowed to have its way," said Howard. "Alltel negotiators are proposing to have employee payments for the HMOs more than double for the next year."



Howard pointed out CWA has worked for 10 months to get the company to switch to a lower-cost indemnity plan through Blue Cross Blue Shield. Blue Cross submitted a proposal, yet Alltel still asked for what amounts to 100-percent increases in out-of-pocket costs from employees. Howard said the lowest-paid Alltel workers would pay as much as 11 percent of salary for family medical indemnity coverage.



In Kentucky, where members have been working without a contract for more than a year, Alltel refuses to apply basic seniority rights to key union issues such as layoffs and promotions.



"Discussions are still ongoing with the company, trying to resolve this short of a strike," said Howard. "We have explored some different avenues which would help protect employees against excessive premium-sharing increases on medical. The company's looking at some of the things we brought up, but the tenor of the company continues to be anti-employee."



Howard said Alltel has been proposing benefits for CWA members based upon those of non-union workers such as those in carpet manufacturing, and that Alltel human resources Vice President John Comparin referred to CWA customer service representatives as "second wage earners who do not need quality benefits."



"For him to even mention that shows just how insensitive to our members' needs the company is," Smith said. "Many of those service representatives are single women with children to support."



Said Moses, "The strike authorization, with the approval of the district vice presidents, and in accordance with CWA's constitution, will now be requested from President Bahr. He will, in turn, poll the executive board, who will decide whether strike action is approved."