Brothers and Sisters:
October was a busy month for outside plant. We had technicians from both the FNFT and Cable Splicer classification offered temporary work assignments in West Virginia. This was due the fact that a large amount of employees in the West Virginia area decided to retire due to the pending sale with Frontier Communications. So far, most of the technicians are reporting that the assignment is going well.
EVRC is combing the offline work group with the online group. Management has informed the Union that they will be doing some training with the employees who are interested in working some of the "offline work".
Members at Temple Terrace were notified on Oct. 23, 2009 that the property had been "officially" sold, but leased back for approx. 13 months. Hearing rumors that the some departments could be moving as early as December 4th. Some departments are hearing that the will be moved over to Telecom Park.
We planned to have an Inside Plant Joint Safety meeting on October 21, 2009, but Kevin Cantero, Verizon’s Safety Director, was ill so we had to cancel. Looks like it will be rescheduled for January.
BZT I’s throughout the company are being offered temporary assignments in the Central Office. Central Office technicians are being told this is due to BZT I not having enough work…NOT TRUE!!! We have plenty of work for the BZT's. The problem is that the company continues to give their work to the Customer Engineers and VSSI techs.
I attended an IBEW Safety Caucus in Orlando on October 22, 2009. Most Unions are reporting the same issues…work is slow. Hopefully the New Year will be brighter than this year was. The good news was that OSHA is planning on hiring up to 1,000 new field inspectors. They are also promising to really crack down on corporations who violate the OSHA laws.
In Solidarity,
John Glye Jr.
