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Requiem For A Heavyweight, Telephone Labor Division

Twenty years ago this December, the large Dorchester, Massachusetts, clan of Jerry "Judgie" Leary was, like many other telephone worker families in the Northeast, not exactly flush with cash for Christmas presents.

Jerry and 60,000 other members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) and the Communications Workers (CWA) had just spent four grueling, impoverishing months on the picket line battling NYNEX, the regional telecom giant now known as Verizon.

Memories of that strike include first-time-ever visits to food banks, the loss of job-based medical benefits because NYNEX cut them off, and the dismissal, suspension, or arrest of hundreds of union activists in New York and New England. In Westchester County, New York, a CWA picket captain with several young children was hit by a car driven by a scab and died of brain injuries; in New Hampshire, an IBEW striker was killed in an industrial accident while trying to do an unfamiliar factory job to feed his family...
Read the full article here

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Coming to terms with the FairPoint bankruptcy:

What can we do? What have we learned?

Pictures from the meeting are here: picasaweb

CWA and IBEW members gathered for an open discussion on the FairPoint bankruptcy on Dec 5, 2009 at the University of Vermont's Davis Center in Burlington. It featured a presentation by CWA Local 1400 President Don Trementozzi. Unfortunately, IBEW Local 2325 Business Manager Mike Spillane was sick and could not attend.

FairPoint has finally declared bankruptcy. Its problems were caused primarily by its crushing debt and an organizational chaos that adversely affected revenues and operations. With the bankruptcy, union members reported on the many problems they are facing while attempting to maintain FairPoint's financial stability and service to customers.

Don Trementozzi reported on negotiations with FairPoint and its creditors in response to their demands for $30 million a year in contract concessions. It was widely acknowledged that cuts in labor costs from employees (who aren't in any way to blame for the company's woes) are not going to solve anything. In fact, concessions could be counter-productive to any attempt to improve operations and the quality of service for customers. Trementozzi was hopeful that something could be worked out that minimized the impact on members.

There was a good discussion about holding regulators and elected officials accountable for making very bad decisions in the face of strong evidence that bankruptcy would be the likely result of FairPoint's shaky finances after the sale. Members vowed to mobilize their elected officials and the public to defend quality service and not let the interests of Wall Street take precedence over the interests of Vermont's communities and customers.

Rand Wilson made a brief report on the Verizon - Frontier stop the sale campaign in West Virginia and 13 other states. (More info at www.bad4wv.com)

The meeting was followed by the Vermont Workers' Center Conference: "Turning Crisis Into Opportunity." (More info at http://workerscenter.org)

In addition to Trementozzi, the meeting was also attended by Local 1400 officers and stewards Anita Rodrigue, Keri Evinson, Lisa Heisler, Mike O'Day and Sumner Delaney along with about 20 CWA members and CWA's Ralph Montefusco, organizer Darlene Stone and former Rep. Steve Early. Two IBEW Local 2326 members also attended along with special guest Matt Vinci from the Vermont Professional Firefighters.

Rand Wilson, Communications Coordinator
Center for Strategic Research, AFL-CIO Organizing Dept.
c/o CWA, 900 Lee Street, Charleston, WV 25301
(304) 342-2023