It seems like I have started off every meeting with a report on a surplus or bumping. Fortunately, we did not have an announced 2nd quarter surplus as of tonight; However, I do want to report that in addition to the Company recalling the Pubcom employees last month, we had another recall last week. A member that was force adjusted from the Cut Section to the APC was put back as a Cut Assignor.
I know everyone is aware of the enhanced incentive bargained between Verizon East and the Unions in the Northeast a couple of weeks ago. In the Northeast, Verizon is looking to reduce headcount by 12,000 employees. In several of those states, Verizon cannot lay off many more members due to a Job Security Agreement; therefore there was a big incentive for the Company to reach an agreement with those unions. The proposed numbers for Verizon West are tremendously lower, and I’m glad about that. I started talking to the Company locally in the latter part of January, specifically to talk about a possible incentive for employees in Florida. The answer at that time was, they were going to wait to see if an agreement could be reached in the Northeast first. Several months went by, and I continued to pursue a meeting regarding an incentive. If you didn’t keep up with the bargaining in the Northeast, it was reported earlier in April that an agreement could not be reached and the Company would move forward with the reductions. With the help of the IBEW Telecommunications department, we started having conversations with Labor Relations up north to begin discussing the possibility of an incentive in Florida. We had an initial meeting a week and a half ago and as it stands right now, we will not be discussing an incentive until the end of May or beginning of June. Even though we have heard numerous rumors that an agreement between us and the Company had already been reached AND rumors that I had actually rejected an offer from the Company, the positive side of this is, the 2nd quarter surplus for Florida has been delayed until we do meet and discuss options for an incentive. I want to remind everyone, that whatever happens when we have these discussions, the information will be relayed to the Chiefs and posted on the website as soon as possible. If you hear a rumor, please check the site – if it is not there, then it hasn’t happened.
I had several members ask about transferring to other areas of Verizon over the last 6 weeks or so. I spoke with the Company and told them that if some members wanted to transfer, it could reduce the need for a surplus in Florida. Over the last 3 weeks, we have come to an agreement to provide a $10,000 relocation payment to transfer to another state. Every employee should have received this email from the Company, either last night or sometime today. At first, this relocation payment was only going to apply to employees who were in Florida and in a classification that the Company deemed surplus. I wanted ANY employee who desires to transfer, whether their classification here was surplus or not and that’s what is going to happen. So for example, if you are a Cable Splicer in Florida and you want to transfer to Idaho as a Cable Splicer, you will get the $10,000 payment. Now, if you are an Admin Clerk or an EVRC Rep and wish to transfer to Idaho as a Cable Splicer, you can get the $10,000 payment as well. Of course, in this scenario, you will have to test for that position before you transfer. In both cases, if you decide to transfer and either don’t like where you are OR if you fail out of training upon arrival, you will NOT come back to Florida unless there is an opening. I want everyone to know this up front before they decide whether or not to transfer. We had members that wanted to transfer and we were able to get a relocation payment, which is a huge benefit for those interested. Of course, the $10,000 is before taxes.
As for the only work group that we know may possibly leave Florida this year, the APC, management in that department is providing some training that may assist those members in the future. We have had several discussions about the APC and we’re hopeful that if the Company continues their plans to move this work, that we will have jobs that these members can move to without a lot of turmoil or stress for those members.
This may be my next to last report on the possible sale of Verizon properties to Frontier. Illinois was one of 2 states left to approve the sale, and they did so 2 weeks ago. West Virginia is the last hurdle and it looks like that will happen in the very near future. The Company is counting on and planning for July 1st to be the cutover of the 14 states to Frontier. I will report more on this next month if there is more news.
I put a brief report on the website yesterday afternoon after the Shareholders Meeting was concluded. Every proposal the Company put forth was accepted and every proposal that the Shareholders put forth was rejected. The most interesting thing was when Ivan Seidenberg was questioned about possible future sales of states after the Frontier sale is complete; he responded that there are no plans to sell anymore wire-line states. This includes Florida. I have been reporting for several months about the Reverse Morris Trust, and I believe that with this reform it will make it much more difficult for one company to sell off lower revenue assets to companies that can not afford them in the first place. This should lower the rumors that continue here about Florida being sold.
As for the arbitrations that were scheduled last month, one was a termination and the Company made a financial offer and the grievant accepted the offer. The other arbitration was regarding the FNFT’s and Buried Wire. That hearing went very well and we should have the answer in approximately 90 days. The next 2 arbitrations are both for terminations and it looks like they will both be done in June.
Our International Vice-President Joe Davis asked me to choose a member from our local to represent the 5th District in a new AFL-CIO Youth Outreach Program that will begin next month. I want to introduce Sherry Isley, who is a member that works in the Tampa CSSC. As this new program progresses, I’m sure we will be getting updates from Sherry.
I want to thank the Chiefs and stewards that are keeping up with the overtime rosters in their areas. There are still some issues with correcting the refused overtime being reported or NOT reported, but we are making a lot of progress. We have members that are being allowed the time to review and correct the rosters before they are being posted. Some of the other issues that were causing the rosters to be incorrect, like supervisors not following the process, are being corrected as we are notified. Our hope continues to be that 2010 will be the first year that the rosters are within 75% and within the language of our Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Our community service event, planned by the Solidarity Committee, Paint Your Heart out took place on April 17th. We had 17 members volunteer and 15 actually participated where we painted a house over a period of about 6 hours. There is a picture of the volunteers on the website. The Solidarity Committee is also moving forward with the “Adopt a Highway” and fliers are being circulated and posted now. The areas right now are in Hillsborough County and we are getting information for our other counties as well.
Information for the Solidarity Day at the Trop, which is scheduled for Sunday, June 27th, should be emailed shortly to those that have responded already and we will also put that info on the website in the next few days. We had over 220 requests for tickets last week.
We have reached agreement with the Company on a start date for Negotiations and that will be Monday, June 28th. We have continued to have sub-committee meetings during the last month and will begin writing proposals shortly. Our full committee will be working full-time here at the hall beginning on June 14th. As bargaining begins, there will be updates, daily if needed, to keep the entire membership informed and to keep the rumors, hopefully, to a minimum.
In Solidarity,
Robert
