CWA has filed a lawsuit charging Verizon Communications with denying workers the rights and protections of the Family and Medical Leave Act. The class action lawsuit covers Verizon workers in Districts 1, 2 and 13. (Local 1400 is District 1)
CWA and individual workers have laid out extensive complaints against Verizon. “Verizon has created a number of arbitrary administrative procedures that it requires workers to follow if they want to be certified for FMLA, but these procedures are not a part of the FMLA law. They shouldn’t be used to deny workers their rightful FMLA benefits, but that’s exactly what Verizon is doing,” said CWA General Counsel Mary O’Melveny.
FMLA provides workers at companies with 50 or more employees with up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave per year for the birth or adoption of a child; care of a spouse, parent or a child under 18 for a serious health condition; care of a child over 18 with mental or physical disabilities, and an employee’s own illness.
Verizon’s policies are a real Catch-22:
If a worker followed verbal instructions from the company’s absence reporting center, and those instructions were wrong, though the worker didn’t know it, the claim is denied.

If a worker couldn’t file the full report on time, because her doctor was on vacation or unavailable, the claim is denied. If another physician in the same office completed the report, but didn’t spell out the relationship between the two medical providers, the claim is denied.

If information was missing from the claim, for example, the doctor’s office didn’t complete an item, the claim is denied.

If a supervisor makes an error in reporting a workers’ claim, it’s denied.
At Verizon, as far as FMLA is concerned, once a claim is denied twice, a worker loses her FMLA rights.

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Local 1400 Verizon Members,
Verizon has announced another surplus in our Local and many other locals in New York and New England. CWA National and Local Leaders don't agree that we have a surplus. Our work is being moved around the country and vendors are doing our work in violation of our contract. Verizon has laid off CWA members in NY and IBEW members in NE, in violation of our contracts. Make no mistake Verizon is declaring war on us and we will be fighting back! CWA National Union Dist-1 is coordinating an all out attack. We have filed National Labor Relation Board charges and law suits and grievances. We need volunteers to help leaflet Verizon Wireless customers and other planned actions. Please call the local union office 603-436-4388 or email at clocal1400@aol.com to volunteer. Thank you for your support.

Don Trementozzi
CWA Local 1400
President

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A Day in the Life of a Telephone Man Click the video to play it

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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Hell No!  Zero Givebacks!

Yesterday and today over 700 members showed up for a joint IBEW / CWA meeting in Bangor and Portland Maine. The message to FairPoint members is we did not cause this problem. The overwhelming 2.5 billion dollar debt and organizational chaos is the reason. The members response to the $30 million annual concessions is "Hell no! Tell them "0" givebacks.  We have given and continue to give them our blood, sweat and tears!"

The U.S. Senate is threatening to pass a health care reform plan that would
tax our health care benefi ts! This plan would force Verizon to cut benefi ts
and shift costs to workers and retirees to avoid this tax.
Average ANNUAL TAX on Verizon East Health Plans:
$5,500 for workers with families
$2,000 for single workers
$3,200 for early retirees with families
$ 500 for single early retirees
President Obama promised health care reform that lets us keep our health care
benefi ts. CWA supports that plan, and the Senate should too.
There’s a better way. All employers should cover their workers and the wealthy
should pay their fair share too.
Call your Senators today! 1-888-580-0792
Tell them: Taxing health benefits is not health care reform

Verizon is trying to save money by not sending the books describing the benefit plans that they are offering this year.  EVERY MEMBER should be calling to request these books due to the plan changes!!!  1-877-489-2367 Verizon Benefit Center