We have received information from District #7 concerning the USWest Pension Plan and what effect the Q-West merger will have. As reviewed by C.W.A.’s pension attorney the plan is in compliance with employee retirement income security act (ERISA). Additionally there are provisions in the plan which leave little incentive for any company to attempt to take over the plan in order to get at excess assets. For a complete copy of this information contact the Union hall.
Well, we should not be surprised but USWest has already changed the numbers to qualify for ECP payout. This is exactly why the union has always been against pay for performance.
If you are having trouble with the upgrade and transfer plan or feel that you have been bypassed, contact your steward. Be prepared to give exact details so that we can resolve your issues.
This is a notice and/or reminder for the procedure surrounding transfers. The Upgrade and Transfer Plan, which can be found in Company Instructions RPP1200, can be accessed by telephone using EZTouch or via the company internet site.
The phone number for EZTouch is 1.800.879.3788. You can input your job skills, job titles you are seeking, and update your personal profile. If you have access to the company internet site, the address for Global Village is http://www.gv.uswest.com/. You can also find the same information there. The RPP1200 has job descriptions for each title and also has Star Guides, which tell you what the tests will be like. It is NOT your supervisor’s responsibility to prepare you for any testing. This is your responsibility! There are also copies of the RPP1200 available in the Union Hall.
The corporate number for Occupations Staffing for WA, OR, or ID is 1.800.956.4473.
October 1999
By Morton Bahr
CWA
President
This past July, IBM Corp. changed its traditional pension benefit plan to a cash balance account plan in a manner that slashed the expected benefits of tens of thousands of mid-career employees by 20 percent to as much as 50 percent.
The action sparked an eruption of outrage throughout IBM's ranks. In the face of a union movement suddenly taking hold among IBM employees, along with charges of age discrimination and rumblings in Congress for new pension protections, IBM backed down in mid- September and allowed many more workers the opportunity to stay with the old pension plan.
But the employees' anger was not diffused. Longtime IBMers who had always felt they were part of a corporate family felt shocked and betrayed that management would even consider sacrificing their retirement security to fatten an already healthy bottom line.
"They broke a bond of trust with the workforce, and that can't be undone," an IBM employee from Raleigh, N.C., said following a recent Senate hearing in Washington that was prompted by IBM's pension shift. "We've lost our innocence now, and we can see there is no sense of loyalty anymore from executives at the top."
And far from blunting the workers' drive to organize, IBM's reversal on the pension issue merely affirmed the power of collective action. "IBM only reacted because we raised hell, and it was clear they did it reluctantly," said another worker who drove down from Endicott, N.Y., for the hearing.
Without union representation and collective bargaining rights, many thousands of workers are losing the retirement security they had counted on as employers restructure or eliminate traditional pension plans.
AT&T workers fortunately had a union when that company first sought to convert to a cash balance account plan in 1992, as I testified at the Senate pension hearing. AT&T had to bargain with CWA, and when we examined the company's proposal, we saw that such a plan would benefit newer workers, giving them cash portability if they left the company, but would penalize longer-term employees. So we rejected the proposal that year.
The cash balance concept changes the basis of the pension benefit from average earnings at the end of a career to average pay over the life of a career. Conversion helps younger workers by front loading the contribution in a cash account, but it takes away the expected bump in pension earnings for older workers nearing retirement eligibility. Mid-career workers can discover that they would have to work longer than they planned in order to receive the old benefit level if they are forced into a new cash balance system.
After negotiations with AT&T in two more rounds of bargaining, CWA finally was able to reach agreement last year on a formula to phase in a cash balance plan in a way that provides the desirable portability feature and yields only pension improvements - with no benefit reductions - for the entire union-represented workforce. Workers with 15 years or more of service as of July 30, 1998, may choose to receive benefits either under the traditional defined benefit plan or the cash balance account - and they can make the choice at the time of retirement so that it is completely clear which is best for them at that stage of life.
CWA also negotiated the conversion of the traditional pension to a cash balance plan at Bell South in a way that only improved, and did not diminish, benefits for all workers. On the other hand, we rejected a cash balance proposal from Bell Atlantic last year because it did not meet our standards for protecting all employees.
Legislation is needed to provide protections for all workers such as CWA has negotiated, and there are several bills being proposed that would help. The reality, however, is that they have slim chance of passage with the present makeup of the House and Senate.
The best guarantee of retirement security, as IBM employees and others are realizing, is the power of union representation and a collective bargaining contract.
In non-union sectors, traditional defined benefit plans are disappearing fast. Coverage under such plans has declined from 38 percent of the private sector workforce down to 23 percent since 1980.
Largely, they are being replaced by 401(k) retirement savings plans to which the employee must contribute, and which are subject to the ups and downs of the financial markets.
The beneficiaries of this trend, of course, are the corporations that are shifting retirement costs to their workers, and Wall Street, which has enjoyed an infusion of $1 trillion in 401(k) stock market investments over the past 15 years.
Now watch carefully to see what these same interests have in mind for "fixing" your Social Security system.
The agreement with USWest and the CWA will expire in August of 2001. While there is no reason to believe there will be a strike, history should certainly be our teacher in understanding the future.
While the mention of a strike is unsettling, it is certainly a possibility. To avoid discomfort and anxiety later, it would be prudent to begin to save now. If you began saving now, it would be almost painless to put away enough to hold you through a month or longer.
There will be many changes confronting us in the coming years. Planning will help us meet them unafraid.
Vice President Al Gore brought coffee and donuts to striking Teamsters on the picket line in Londonerry, N.H., last month, highlighting their struggle for a contract with Overnite Transportation Co. Gore characterized Overnite as "one of the most relentless anti-union companies in history."
Vice President Al Gore has pledged that if elected President he will "take major new steps to make private pensions stronger, more secure and more widely available." Speaking in Manchester, N.H., Gore outlined a "secure workers’ right" proposal that would allow substantial fines against companies that fail to inform employees about pension plan changes, according to the Bureau of National Affairs’ Daily Labor report
The class is sponsored by the Pierce County Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO and the United Way of Pierce County. The topics include United Way Helpline; substance abuse and treatment; workplace violence; consumer credit; workers’ compensation; disabled and senior services; child and spousal abuse; contemporary labor issues; plant closings, layoffs and strike assistance.
There will be two classes, one Monday, March 20 to May 8, 2000 at 6p.m. in the United Way office at 1501 Pacific Avenue. The other class will be offered Thursday, 9am to 11:30 am, March 23 to May 11 at the Carpenters’ Hall at 1322 Fawcett Avenue. The registration fee is $100.00 for each class. This fee also includes the price of a jacket. For registration form please call the Union office.
From the WSLC legislative update, 1/28/2000:
The Unemployment Insurance Retraining bill, SHB3077, passed the House Commerce and Labor Committee by an 8-0 vote Thursday, and the House by a 96-1 vote Friday (1/28/00). This is a major victory for dislocated workers, assuring passage in 2000 for a measure that was one of many killed last year in the political stalemate of the evenly-split house.
SHB3077 establishes an extension of unemployment benefits for all dislocated workers unlikely to return to previous employment because of diminishing demand for their skills, and who are enrolled in commissioner-approved training.
Participants will receive up to 52 weeks, inclusive of their normal UI benefits. However, dislocated aerospace, timber and finfish workers will receive up to 74 weeks of benefits until June 30, 2002.
Now, the bad news.
The bill makes it harder to regain unemployment benefit eligibility once a worker has lost it because of a voluntary quit, misconduct, or refusal to accept suitable work.
Under current law, if you quite your job voluntarily, you are not again eligible for unemployment benefits until you’ve returned to work for at least five weeks and earned at least five times what your weekly UI benefit would be. SHB3077 raise those hurdles to seven weeks and seven times earnings, respectively.
The Patients’ Bill of Rights passed the Senate by a 48-1 vote. We look forward to seeing it pass with similar strength in the House. Our government must respond to public demands that patients have choice when managed care companies make decisions based on economics, not medicine. The insurance industry continues to raise the specter of dramatically inflated costs but the public remains resolute that strict accountability is necessary from insurer, and we’re tired of waiting.
Seattle has been named the third location for the new bargained-for sales channel dedicated to selling USWest’s Dex’s full product line to non-advertisers that is being launched this year. This internal channel brings back to the sales organization responsibility for 70% of the non-advertiser "convert" revenue and 50% of the non-advertiser accounts in contiguous, competitive, or large metro markets.
Staffing for the Seattle call center is now underway. Interested internal employees should submit a transfer as soon as possible. For purposes of submitting a transfer, please use the title of Prospector Sales. These positions will be posted on the USWest Dex external job site (http://jobs.uswestdex.com) and advertised locally. If you have questions about staffing, call Human Resources.
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