Telecom Talks Down to Wire

CWA negotiators are addressing forced overtime and other workplace issues as well as the need for strengthening job security and improving wages and benefits in talks at five major telecommunications companies.

Union contracts with Bell Atlantic (North and South), BellSouth and the Southern New England Telephone Co. expire on Aug. 8. A week later, on Aug. 15, contracts with U S West and GTE of the Southwest expire.

At Bell Atlantic, CWA negotiators are focusing on the shifting of work to a variety of non-union subsidiaries, including a new customer center, Bell Atlantic Plus in Norfolk, Va.

In a letter jointly signed by President Morton Bahr, Vice Presidents Larry Mancino of District 1, Peter Catucci of District 2 and Vincent Maisano of District 13, union leaders warn local presidents of the need to establish an overall "wall-to-wall" policy with Bell Atlantic in this round of bargaining.

While the letter focuses attention on Bell Atlantic Plus, "a marketing and telemarketing center and a union avoidance facility" based in Norfolk, Va., the officers point out that "a similar strategy has already been developed for plant work, i.e., BAFIS and BANI (two other Bell Atlantic subsidiaries)."

Further, they say, a management bent on union avoidance can develop a strategy "for virtually any job, whether done electronically or not, by creating a new non-union subsidiary."

Bell Atlantic Plus now has approximately 700 workers on its payroll and is using another non-union, outside contractor to add an additional 1,400 staff to the facility, said Carol Summerlyn, executive vice president of CWA Local 2202 in Norfolk. Faneuil Group has run help wanted ads in the Virginian-Pilot.

Victoria Kintzer, secretary-treasurer of CWA Local 13500 in Pennsylvania, said Bell Atlantic Plus is sucking work out of both her state and New Jersey.

Other key issues in these negotiations center on excessive forced overtime and job pressures, as well as fair wage and benefit packages.

Bargaining efforts are being backed up by enthusiastic mobilization activities aimed at reminding management that union members have a big stake in the bargaining process.

In other talks:

• BellSouth members are holding rallies, sending letters of support to the bargaining committees and getting in management's face to move their issues, said Noah Savant, assistant to District 3 Vice President Jimmy Smith. Pensions, job freezes and retiree health care are all key, as well as subcontracting and forced overtime, along with cardcheck and neutrality at all non-union subsidiaries. Savant said operators, service reps and outside technicians have been forced to work six days a week, more than eight hours a day for over two years. A strike authorization vote was being tabulated as the CWA News went to press.
  
  "The company has so far refused to make any movement on our demand for cardcheck and neutrality at any of their non-union subsidiaries," said Smith. "Movement must be made in all these areas if we are to reach an agreement."
  o U S West members have also taken a strike vote, said Bill Thornburg, assistant to District 7 Vice President Sue Pisha. Members are wearing blue shirts one day, red another, conducting practice pickets at lunch time and telling managers they want no part of a pay-for-performance plan that would put 20 percent of their salary at risk. Excessive overtime and respect issues overshadow intense daily negotiations headed by Administrative Assistants to the Vice President John Thompson and Annie Hill. Pisha is meeting weekly with U S West Labor Relations Vice President Joe Fox.
  
  "If U S West is to succeed into the future, then the workers whose skill, knowledge and expertise created that business must be treated with dignity and respect," Pisha said.
  
  
• GTE of the Southwest negotiations are progressing quietly, says T.O. Moses, CWA's vice president for telecommunicatons, with no strike vote planned unless things get sticky. Forced overtime is a problem in some of the larger cities, but winning fair wages, neutrality and cardcheck, with no retrogressions, is Moses' goal. GTE of the Southwest will set the tone for several other GTE contracts that expire later in the year. Negotiations with Alltel's eight locations have been stalled for 15 months in some areas over health care cost-shifting and seniority. Moses said, "Recent events have taken a turn for the worse.
  CWA has authorized the locals involved to take a strike vote."
  
  
• CUTW/CWA Local 1298 is "Taking a Stand for Justice" at Southern New England Telephone. The newly affiliated Connecticut Union of Telephone Workers is fighting for job security and title upgrades and to eliminate two-tier medical and other inequitable benefits they've had since 1995. Dennis Trainor, assistant to the president of Local 1101, presently detailed to District 1, said 200 CUTW/CWA members attended a workshop at the North Haven Holiday Inn, July 18, preparing for a range of mobilization activities. CWA Representative Rick Martini is working with the bargaining committee.