I want to start off this month’s report with a follow-up to the surplus and bumping that was completed last month. As everyone should know, Verizon is no longer in the payphone business and the 6 that were remaining in that group went to their new classifications in the beginning of March. Within 2 weeks, we started receiving calls here at the hall that FNFT’s were being canvassed to perform pay station work, mainly removing pay phones within our operating area, for approximately 5 weeks. I contacted Labor Relations and stated that the Pubcom employees were just force adjusted and or downgraded and that is their work and they needed to be recalled to their former position if they so desire. Initially, I was told that they were not going to recall those employees and just use the FNFTt’s. I then contacted Tim Smith, our regional Vice-President and informed him of the situation. The first meeting that we had with Tim, back in July of 2009, we informed him and the rest of the Company representatives present, that we were willing to work with the Company, but we have to work within the language of the contract. About an hour later, I was informed that the Pubcom employees would be recalled to their former position. 4 out of the 6 volunteered to return and the other 2 did not want to go back. For abiding by the language of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, I say thank you. We should not have to fight to uphold the language that both sides agreed to abide by, and in this instance, we didn’t have to.
A little update on the Verizon sale to Frontier – West Virginia and Illinois are the 2 states that have not agreed to the sale at this point. In Illinois, an Administrative Law judge has recommended to the State’s Commerce Secretary to deny the sale. As I said last month, if 1 out of the 14 states does not approve the sale, then the whole sale falls through. In addition, I posted information about this on the website last week, but the loophole in the law, known as the Reverse Morris Trust, was closed by a bill that was passed in the House last week. This loophole is expected to save Verizon millions and millions in tax-savings. We will report more as this issue progresses.
We have had members asking us if there are union recommendations for the Verizon stock proxies and hopefully we will have that information to provide next week. The TCC II will come up with the recommendations and we will email that information to the members.
As reported on our website, Verizon has redesigned the paystubs again, but this time for the better. We will now be able to see how many hours you worked with a breakdown if it is within the regular 40 hours and also how many hours worked on holidays and overtime. If you have direct deposit, you will be able to download a copy of your stub, or you can contact payroll services to have a paper copy mailed to you as you have now.
Now, to report on grievances and arbitrations – I reported last month that we were reviewing terminations from the 1st half of 2009. We have several that will be arbitrated and we will be doing one of the alleged Sell One More violations. We had an outstanding termination grievance from 2006 that we thought would be a good case and that member came in finally for a pre-arb during the last month. This will be the next arb, after the termination set for April 25th and the language issue scheduled for April 21st. The target date for the SOM termination is June, which would be 1 year from the date of discharge. Based on how many terminations we have in 2010, it looks like we can make our goal of 12 months or less from time of termination to the actual hearing. This will be a BIG change for our local and something we haven’t done for quite a while. We continue to hold 3rd step grievance meetings, and with Labor Relations hiring another person, this has helped get more scheduled. Due to the very high volume of outstanding grievances, it will still take quite a while to get our heads above water in this department.
I have an update on the 2 Unfair Labor Practices we filed against Verizon, one for the Christmas Eve 4 hours and one for violation of Weingarten Rights. We were informed that the Regional Director of the NLRB has found no violations by Verizon and we are waiting for that in writing. Once we get the answer, we will evaluate our next step.
As we have been discussing Safety with the Company for months, Southern Division held a 3-day Safety rodeo in the Sarasota North work center. The Union and the Company worked together to ensure employees had the correct safety equipment and I want to thank all the stewards and Chiefs who were a part of this process. Overall, I think it went very well. We are now looking to have another Safety rodeo for the members in Upper Suncoast and will report when this gets scheduled.
The Overtime Committee met several times over the last month, and even though the rosters are getting better in a lot of locations, there is still some work to do. In a couple of areas, there is a union member that is working with the clerks to ensure the refused overtime is correctly entered. Refused overtime being properly recorded is still the biggest issue we are finding. I want to address a quick item here related to overtime in outside plant. If you are one of the ones taking it upon yourself to secure overtime when you have not been asked by the roster, your supervisor will be calling you in for a discussion. We have a member that is close to being disciplined for unauthorized overtime. If you have a buddy that is a supervisor or a dispatcher, and you are securing overtime like this, it will be addressed. We cannot continue to allow this to happen. By circumventing the roster, overtime will never get close to be equalized.
The Tampa CSSC has created a Facebook page. I have had several members tell me that they will not join or ask me if they should join. What I will say to this is even though I have a Facebook account, I do not know much about it, but I do know there are ways for people to see what you write even if they are not your friends. This means that you don’t post anything that you do not want the Company to know on your page. I’m not aware of a member being disciplined because of a Facebook entry, but I think it is possible.
I mentioned last month that the CWA and the IBEW in the Northeast were meeting with Verizon to discuss the opportunity to bargain an enhanced incentive for members to be able to retire with some extra cash and also to assist in reducing the need for force reductions and or layoffs. I believe they met 3 or 4 times and the final result was nothing happened. The unions were looking for assurance that if they could agree on an enhancement, the Company would not turn around and declare a surplus and lay off members anyway. The Company would not agree, so there was no movement. I have spoken with the leaders of the CWA in Texas and California and we have requested to meet with the purpose of bargaining an enhancement for the Verizon West employees. If or when that happens, we will advise the membership.
On March 23rd, President Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. On the same day, an email was sent to all Verizon employees stating numerous issues, but mainly how costs for the Company, active employees and retirees may increase. Regardless of how you may feel personally about this new law, the email that was sent contains nothing more than scare tactics to all employees and retirees. I am not 100% up-to-date on the entire law, and from what I hear on the radio and see on television, there aren’t very many people out there who are. A few days ago, CEO’s of 4 corporations, including Verizon, were requested to appear before a Congressional committee on April 21st to explain how they come up with the information they put out to their employees. This will be a very informative meeting and the TCC II, with our local involved, will be there to hear firsthand the explanations given by Ivan Seidenberg. A report will follow that hearing on our website.
Our Solidarity Committee met again last month with several items discussed. One was to get involved in the Paint Your Heart Out Tampa Bay event, which will be on Saturday, April 17th, starting at 8 am. Each team requires 10 volunteers and I am happy to report that we do have a full team. It is not to late to volunteer if you would like to. You can email any of us here at the hall. Another item that looks like will come to fruition is to adopt a highway in several locations throughout our operating area. This requires a minimum of 5 volunteers to keep our designated portion of a roadway litter-free four times per year. The Committee is in the process of locating the different roads to begin asking for volunteers. More information will be forthcoming. Another item is an IBEW 824 night at the Trop. Information is being gathered now, and will be posted on bulletin boards and on our website in the near future. In the 3rd quarter, we will be seeking volunteers to walk at an event for Breast Cancer. If any of these items interest you, please email your Rep.
We have had several Bargaining sub-committee meetings during the last month and will continue in April. We are still in the process of collecting information from the Company to review so we can begin writing proposals by early May. We will be meeting with the Company in a couple of weeks to discuss possible items for bargaining and also a possible start date for Negotiations.
Finally, I want to let you know that Laura Beck, one of our secretary’s’ here at the hall was involved in a motorcycle accident last weekend. She is sore, but doing better now. I expect her to be out for another week and I would like you to keep her in your thoughts.
In Solidarity,
Robert
