August 21, 2000
Verizon Reaches Tentative Agreement
With Two of Three Bargaining Units
By LESLIE CAULEY
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Verizon Communications Inc. and striking unions representing 52,000 workers tentatively agreed on a three-year contract, potentially ending a 15-day walkout for most striking workers.
But as of Sunday night the company was still trying to work out terms with a division of the Communications Workers of America representing 35,000 workers in the mid-Atlantic region. Talks were continuing into the evening, and it was unclear what would happen should the two sides fail to reach agreement by morning. "It's a slightly confusing situation for people," a CWA spokeswoman noted.
Later, the same CWA spokeswoman said it appeared that the talks with CWA-South, as the unit is referred to, had "hit a snag." But she said the union was still hopeful that things would be worked out by midnight.
But even if final terms weren't worked out, she said the other 52,000 workers, which include 15,000 members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, "are going back to work."
Negotiators Cite Progress in Talks to Settle Verizon Strike; Outage Hits (Aug. 18)
Verizon Touts New Proposal; Striking Unions Rebuff Offer (Aug. 14)
Forced Overtime Is Sticking Point in Verizon Negotiations With Unions (Aug. 8)
CWA-South is headed by longtime labor leaders Vince Maisano and Pete Catucci. Messrs. Maisano and Catucci represent the mid-Atlantic states of the original Bell Atlantic Corp., now part of Verizon.
The agreement that was reached Sunday evening with the 52,000 striking workers followed round-the-clock negotiating sessions, which have marked the talks since they began.
Verizon agreed to a 12% increase in wages and 14% increase in pension benefits over the life of the contract. Both increases are in keeping with the levels agreed to by other big phone companies and their unions.
The company also agreed to issue union workers, for the first time, stock options. Under the new contract, Verizon will issue 100 stock options to each union employee by the end of 2000.
Verizon, a combination of the former Bell Atlantic, Nynex Corp. and GTE Corp., had been saying for some time that it planned to give union workers stock options in the new telecom giant.
The issue of "forced overtime" was still under discussion late Sunday night.
Under the current arrangement, union employees can be asked to work a maximum of 10 hours a week of forced overtime seven months of the year, and 15 hours a week for the other five months of the year. Forced overtime occurs when managers aren't able to find volunteers and simply assign employees to do the extra work.
CWA has asked for a maximum of eight hours of forced overtime year round. It was unclear as of Sunday night how the issue, which has emerged as a big one for CWA-South, would turn out.
Verizon says the bulk of overtime worked by employees is voluntary. Workers are paid overtime wages regardless of whether the overtime they log is voluntary or not.
Both sides gave a little on the critical issue of how future installations of new digital subscriber line technology would be handled.
Verizon, like other big telecommunications companies, is pushing hard to install DSL lines for high-speed Internet connections. DSL, which is considered the future of the phone business, uses copper phone lines to handle all sorts of new digital and interactive services.
The unions didn't want Verizon using nonunion workers to install DSL, and Verizon didn't want to get saddled with old-fashioned union work rules for the fast-growing business.
Under the new contract, Verizon agreed to use union workers -- but it will get to pick the individual installers it uses and set work quality standards. That means the choice work, which includes additional training in the red-hot technology, won't automatically go to union installers with the most seniority.
On the issue of "stress," another sticking point in the talks, Verizon agreed to give representatives in call centers guaranteed "close time." This refers to the time that reps are permitted to actually close off their stations to incoming callers.
The unions also agreed to let Verizon, for the first time, offer incentive awards to customer-service-center representatives. This seemingly small point marks a big step in assigning financial rewards to union workers based on merit and quality of work.
Such team-based awards are commonplace in business today. But unions have historically rejected that approach, and still set wages as they have for decades -- based solely on seniority. This is one reason some employees have come to reject unions.
The unions had pushed hard to have Verizon adopt full "neutrality," union-speak for remaining mum on the sidelines as union heads lobby workers to unionize. But Verizon flatly rejected that approach, saying it wanted the freedom to speak its piece to workers, as well.
Under the new contract, Verizon retained that right. "There is no gag rule," a Verizon spokesman noted.
The new contract, like the old one, guarantees no layoffs, effectively preserving workers' jobs. The latter is always a big concern in any contract negotiation, and this one proved no different.
But the union did agree to let Verizon move around jobs within the company as needed. Under the new contract, Verizon is permitted to move as many as 2.1% of jobs, an improvement over the 0.5% allowed under the recently expired contract. |
