ON October 9th and 10th, 2000, I attended the Qwest-C.W.A. Presidents’ meeting in Denver. Representing District 7 were Vice President John Thompson, Assistants to the V.P., Annie Hill and Leroy Christianson, and all local Qwest presidents. Representing the company were Senior Vice President, Tom Matthews, Senior Vice President, John Kelly, Joe Fox and Ginger Dereus. This was a quarterly planned meeting between the Company and the Union to discuss pertinent issues old and some new.
Most of the morning was spent as a question and answer session with Mr. Matthews and Mr. Kelly. Many of you know by now the hot topic was the Company’s desire to open contract extension discussions with the Union. Mr. Matthews made it very clear that Qwest wants to extend the current agreement, that they believe it is in the best interests of both parties to do so. He made it clear that he understood the acrimony that existed between the former management team from U.S. West and C.W.A. He stated that he did not want to take the Company through a potentially crippling strike that would not accomplish anything positive.
Mr. Matthews will be the bargaining agent for the company and will take an active roll at the table, he will be empowered to make decisions which should greatly improve and hasten the process. The local presidents have voted overwhelmingly to open negotiations with the Company and this will take place beginning the week of October 23, in Denver. As this will be an attempt to extend the current agreement the topics will be limited to economic issues. The positives to this are that there are no take-backs anticipated; the negative side is that some of the language in the contract that we have had difficulty with will also remain in force for the life of the extension. I have concerns about that language, and the ability of some management to try and manipulate it for another two years. .
I had the opportunity to discuss this issue with Mr. Matthews. I wanted to explain the difficulty we have had with some local management and their refusal to live up to the spirit or intent and sometimes in total disregard for the body of the agreement itself. He was receptive to my comments and assured me that his was not acceptable to his plans in running the company, but he either could not or would not commit to resolving the problem immediately. His answer was that there was a great deal of change that would take place to correct the ideals of local management. I guess that time will tell if that is true. My answer to him was that the labor peace that he was seeking with the contract extension was only attainable when local management was brought back into line with his own thinking, that being to bargain in good faith and to live up to what you bargained
The subject of layoffs or surplus was also a large part of our discussion. The company is now saying that approximately 1,000 occupational employees will leave the payroll, most of these will be in non-customer interacting positions. They have also determined that some 1,800 contract employees will also be terminated and that all contractors who leave the service of the company will count toward the announced total of 11,000, expected to be completed early in 2001. Mr. Kelley made the statement that he would like to discontinue the use of subcontractors altogether, but he also said that at this time it was not practical to do so. As time goes by he does anticipate that there will be less and less subcontracting and more of the work done in-house. When pressed on the change in position he stated that they had looked at the cost and the quality of the work done by contractors and they are of the opinion that it is not good business to continue that use of subcontractors. I must admit that I wanted to gloat that the union had been saying this for years. My other thought is that if this comes to pass there will be certain managers who will need to explain the reasons for all of the contractors that they have handed off work to over the past few years in order to pad their own numbers in an attempt to look like a hero.
Lastly I want to announce that the company and District 7 have agreed to add a letter of agreement to the contract which broadens current surplus employees’ termination payment options and additionally provides a lump sum option for all existing Qwest employees. In essence the company has agreed to extending the pension band increase that would take place on 1-1-01 to surplus employees who will leave the payroll prior to that date. This is an unexpected but positive improvement to the contract and hopefully a sign of good things to come. The full text of the letter of agreement is available through the local office.
In closing I want to caution you that this is not a done deal that as we have seen before anything can happen. Most of us were of the opinion that there would be an extension last spring and we were wrong them, so don’t stop your preparations for a strike just yet. The monthly meeting is October 24th, plan to attend out what is new with the talks at that time.
Dear Member: It is always difficult to make recommendations to you as to how you should vote in the upcoming elections. I know that many of you hold different views than some of our A.F.L.-C.I.O. endorsed candidates. Usually these differences are not on issues that are economic in nature but are on issues that are commonly referred to as hot button issues. Among these would be abortion rights, gun control, and school prayer. These are issues that have more than once divided our rank and file as well as other labor unions.
C.W.A. Local 7804 is a member of the Pierce County Central Labor Council, Washington State Labor Council, and the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial organizations. While it is true that Local 7804 sometimes differs with these organizations on policies or direction, we usually are closely in alliance. The A.F.L.-C.I.O. and its member organizations are the backbone of the labor movement and have been for most of the century. They set the agenda for almost all of the beneficial legislation that comes out of Washington, D.C. and Olympia. This doesn’t mean that we get everything we want or need, but without their work we would get little if anything from our elected officials.
Last spring CWA, Washington State Council, and its lobbyists were able to shepherd our telecommunications bill through the house and senate so that Governor Locke could sign it into law. This bill was critical to our existence in this industry. It also set the stage for a settlement between CWA and IBEW on a national level. Clarifying who would be allowed to do certain types of work. All of this was beneficial to our members and was not possible without the support of WSLC and the AFL-CIO.
The point is that resolving issues important to us accomplished only with the help of elected official who listen to and understand our position. The influence we gain by being members of these labor organizations is immeasurable. All of these organizations screen candidates to insure that we have people who are interested in our issues. It is the people who are interested in our Democratic Party. The simple fact is that they have traditionally supported our legislation better. They have been with us in preserving the Davis-Bacon Act and little Davis-Bacon which directly affects wages in the State as well as the country, they have supported us on health care, Medicare OSHA WISHA social security unemployment and restraining and so many more that I cannot possibly mention them all. Much of this we take for granted but they are all in jeopardy primarily from the Republican Party. Understand that in a very short period of time we can lose what has taken decades to gain.
Please review the enclosed congressional voting records and the candidate recommendations(image, 90k) that are in this newsletter provided by WSLC Remember this is an economic vote for you and all working people in the State of Washington. Please vote with your paycheck in mind.
Part of Lucent Technologies has been spun off to a new company named Avaya. Locally these members have traditionally been the technicians that perform work on commercial business systems and computers.
This officially took place October 1, 2000. We have four members within this local that were affected by this development. As a result of an Executive Level Grievance Settlement, the settlement allows for the Union to help grow the business, protect the work for the future, and virtually eliminate the need to subcontract and to make Avaya a viable business for our members’ future.
The creation of a one-year trial for supplemental employees-Supplemental Customer Service Engineers (SCSEs) and Supplemental Software Associates (SSAs) that will be offered to those who took the VTP offer. Employees who took the VTP were offered jobs as supplemental employees (SCSEs and SSAs) under the following conditions:
In addition, the existing work force has been guaranteed no layoffs for the life of the trial, an established watermark employment level in the CSE (Customer Systems Engineer) and SA (Software Associate) titles.
As a Union, we not only have a contractual obligation as well to protect good paying Union jobs for the future to create and maintain a standard of living for today and tomorrow.
To review the article in its entirety, we have added the link to our website under “cool links.” The address is www.cwa-comtech.org. This is the official website of Vice President James Irvine who represents Lucent/Avaya and AT&T bargaining units.
Anniversaries: Paul Bentson, 22 years; Rhonda Brooks, 23; Thomas Clark, 30; Denese Dolan, 38; Merle Eickmeyer, 39; Jolyon Freer, 38; Dennis Garrett, 33; Frank Heard, 5; Norman Holt, 21; Tom Latta, 28; Bill McGee, 35; David Moore, 18; Nancy Newmiller, 24; Mark Niehaus, 21; Michael Pierce, 12; Bryan Pope, 21; Robert Wiltshire, 34; Ann Smith, 20; Larry Smith, 33.
Retirees: John Farber; Lee Smith; Ray Newby: Peter Larson; Louis Walny; Pete Larson.
New members and resigned: Paul Vredenburg; Anthony Mannigan; Young Kim; Richard Young; Derek D. Berheim; Edward A. Clark; Richard Ernest Guthery; Amanda K. Schoener; Ben Villaruz; Eric Riemer; William V. Liggett; Gregory L. Sypnicki; Laumea M. Vee; Edwin J. Kropf; John P. Deibel; Jerry K Otto.
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