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Sprint's Local Phone Workers Deserve More than Talk

CWA Vice President Jimmy Gurganus called on Sprint Corp. to put some positive action behind the nice but empty words it has for the local telephone employees who helped produce that division’s increased revenues and strong profit performance for the third quarter of 2002.

In a letter to Sprint associates on the company’s financial outlook, Sprint’s Chief Executive Officer William Esrey had strong praise for the productivity and reliability of workers in the local telephone division. Unfortunately, the company’s actions – demanding cuts in workers’ health care and pressing for “temporary layoffs” for workers who wouldn’t even receive severance pay, convey a very different attitude toward its employees, Gurganus said.

Esrey wrote that “our local telephone division continues its remarkable performance” and he further praised the significant improvements in customer service over the course of the year. “I remain convinced that for Sprint, the best is yet to come,” he said.

But that’s not the experience of workers at Sprint Corp.’s local telephone operations, represented by the Communications Workers of America, who have been bargaining for new contracts, some since the beginning of the year. In nearly every set of negotiations, Sprint is seeking to shift more health care costs to workers and wants to eliminate workers’ choices in medical care coverage by forcing them into a company controlled plan.

Other company demands include elimination of seniority for some workers and more company flexibility, which means less job security for workers, Gurganus said.

The local division revenues represent about 41 percent of revenues for the overall FON group (not including Sprint’s PCS wireless operation.) In the third quarter, “local service revenues offset decreases in long distance revenues and equipment sales,” the company reported.

Bargaining is continuing at Sprint units in North Carolina, Tennessee, Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania. CWA represents about 4,000 Sprint workers.

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