Act Now for FiOS TV in New York City

Verizon’s proposed cable-franchise agreement with the City of New York is very close to approval at City Hall – a step that would let you start delivering FiOS TV to your friends and neighbors. But we must act now. The City’s Franchise and Concession Review Committee (FCRC) is expected to hold a public hearing on our franchise on May 20.  A vote on the Verizon franchise is expected on May 27.  The city’s five borough presidents are on this committee, and together they count as one collective vote.  The city comptroller also serves on this committee.

 

Your borough president and the city comptroller need to hear from you.  Please visit www.nytvchoice.com and follow the instructions to send them an e-mail today.  Make sure they know this franchise is important to you – and to their constituents.  Tell your borough president and the comptroller you are ready to begin serving our New York City customers with FiOS TV, and that cable TV choice and competition will create good union jobs and opportunity for New York City workers.  

 

        The Verizon cable-franchise agreement is the product of 18 months of good-faith negotiations between our company and the City, with the full support of your Union, the Communications Workers of America.  It is an historic agreement that’s great for New York:

 

• The franchise calls on our members to deploy thousands of miles of fiber-optic cable in all five boroughs.
• We plan to get that job done within six years.  And no company possesses more skill and knowledge than Verizon.
• We’ll reach more than 3 million households, including Multiple Dwelling Units – MDUs — in that time period.
• FIOS TV is a tremendous growth opportunity for our business and for us.         

     FiOS TV also is a terrific opportunity to take share from the competition.  And we expect a tough fight from Cablevision and Time Warner.  More than 10,000 employees living in New York City can be powerful advocates in our efforts to dispel cable’s rumors in the coming days and give our customers what they demand - a long-awaited choice for their TV service in New York City.  Now is the time to stand up for your future, for Verizon, and for competition and choice.  Please visit www.nytvchoice.com today and let your voice be heard at City Hall.

Verizon Shareholders Meeting

Workers delivered thousands of shareholder votes of “no confidence” in Verizon’s top management and protested Verizon’s divisive approach to managing employees at the company’s annual shareholder meeting in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Prior to the meeting, union members and community supporters leafleted shareholders and top executives with a message of concern about the divisive direction that CEO Ivan Seidenberg is taking the company.

Verizon’s top executives have created an artificial wall separating its wireless and large business operations from wireline, which includes FiOS, too often resulting in dissatisfied or confused customers.

Verizon workers are especially concerned about how management is aggressively interfering in the freedom of workers in the Verizon Wireless and Verizon Business segments to unite in the IBEW and CWA for the good jobs our communities need.

Memorial Week Events Put Spotlight on Worker Safety

Fighting for the safety and health of all workers and honoring those who have died on the job, CWA locals across the country held a variety of ceremonies and other events April 28 to mark Workers Memorial Day.

In many areas, locals joined with other unions and labor councils for community remembrances. At the National Labor College in Silver Spring, Md., just outside Washington, D.C., CWA and other unions were on hand for a ceremony to break ground on a permanent workers’ memorial.

Workers Memorial Day, first held 19 years ago, falls on the anniversary of the day the Occupational Safety and Health Act was passed in 1970.

“It is not a well publicized day like all the other national holidays or observances, and it isn’t a paid day off, but it should be a very important day to working people nonetheless,” said CWA Local 9431 President Rick Delao in a letter to his members.

Delao listed four members of other California locals, all telecom technicians, who died as a result of their work between 2003 and 2005. Two were electrocuted, one died of heat stroke and one contracted cancer as a result of exposure to asbestos.

Among the many CWA locals participating in ceremonies nationwide were California Locals 9431, 9421 and 9410, Local 7804 In Tacoma, Wash., Local 7901 in Portland, Ore., Local 1168 in Buffalo, Local 4900 in South Bend, Ind., and Locals 7201 and 7200 in Minneapolis-St. Paul. CWA-represented state workers in New Jersey also took part in a gathering in Trenton.

Members of Local 2004 in West Virginia gathered with other unions in Wheeling, at the memorial site honoring the late UAW president Walter Reuther. Their ceremony specifically remembered the 51 construction worker who plunged to their deaths 30 years ago when a cooling tower collapsed, known as the Willow Island disaster.

A story in the Charleston Gazette noted that OSHA staffing in West Virginia today is one-third less than it was when the disaster happened in 1978. Then there were 17 full-time inspectors; today there are 12. According to OSHA’s own figures, the paper said non-mining workplace deaths in the state nearly doubled between Oct. 1, 2006 and Sept. 30, 2007.

In Massachusetts, unions marked Workers Memorial Day with a ceremony at the statehouse. But members of IUE-CWA Local 81201 who were out of town at an OSHA conference made sure that everyone there – including management and non-union workers – marked the day, too.

“We asked for time to explain what Workers Memorial Day is and to have a moment of silence,” said Ted Comick, the local’s elected safety and health director. “We’re trying, whenever we can, wherever we are, to recognize it and put it into people’s consciousness.”

 

 

 

 

Verizon, New York City Agree On Proposed Terms Of TV Service

By Roger Cheng
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) and New York City agreed to proposed terms that would enable the telephone company to begin offering television service in the city.

While a step in the right direction for the New York telco, it still needs to gain approval from the city’s Franchise and Concession Review Committee, which has scheduled a hearing on May 20, before it can offer TV.

Verizon is spending $18 billion to upgrade its network nationwide with faster fiber-optic lines directly to many of its customers’ homes. The faster lines allow for the delivery of a faster Internet connection and TV service. In order to provide TV service, however, the carrier needs to get permission from individual cities.

 

Verizon’s entrance would give New Yorkers another TV option beyond cable and satellite TV.

“With the introduction of direct competition among cable companies, prices and service levels would reflect real market forces, and New York City customers would be the beneficiaries,” Deputy Mayor Robert C. Lieber said in a statement.

Verizon has said it plans to market its television service, which falls under the FiOS brand, to parts of New York later this year. FiOS Internet is already available in select neighborhoods.

The agreement calls for the installation of a fiber-optic system in every street within six years, although options for an extension are included. The company would be required to cover 30% of the city by the end of the year, and half by the end of 2010.

The presence of another option will pressure Time Warner Cable Inc. (TWC) and Cablevision Systems Corp. (CVC), which are current cable providers in New York.

Shares of Verizon were recently trading at $38.19, up 24 cents, or 0.6%.

 

 

CWA Local 1101 is offering a Special Needs Planning Workshop

 CWA Local 1101 is offering a Special Needs Planning Workshop to all Members who are parents of children with disabilities.

 
This Seminar will take place on Thursday, May 29th at 6PM in the Union’s Conference Room at 275 7th Ave.

 
Please call and let us know if you will be attending so we can reserve the seat in your name.  The Speakers will discuss how to best provide for your child through Government benefits, guardianships, wills and supplemental needs and trusts.

 

For information about the speakers or resources for families of special needs, contact Heather Forster at 631-592-2062.

VZ to File for FiOS Video in NYC

 On April 15, after months of negotiations, Verizon announced it would file an application with the city’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications to offer video service throughout the city. Follow the link for the whole story:  Vz Files for Video in NYC

CWA and IBEW Reach Deal With Fairpoint

Tentative contract
gives raises for next five years

By KATE DAVIDSON, Concord Monitor

Two unions that represent more than 2,500 Verizon employees in New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont have reached a tentative contract with FairPoint Communications, the North Carolina-based company that will take over Verizon’s landline operations in the three states March 31.

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Communications Workers of America released a joint statement with FairPoint yesterday announcing the agreement. The two groups came to terms on wage and pension increases for active employees, health care benefits for employees and
retirees, and 401(k) improvements.

There were few changes from the previous contract with Verizon, according to Glenn Brackett, the business manager for IBEW Local 2320 in New Hampshire. He said the agreement effectively extends the contract five years and provides 3 percent raises for all workers each year until 2013.

The agreements must be ratified by union members.

“We’re happy with our contract,” Brackett said. “Again, we’re still concerned about the financial viability of FairPoint, but we’re going to do everything we can to make them a successful company.”

The New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission approved the $2.4 billion sale of Verizon’s traditional telephone service to FairPoint last month. The collective bargaining agreements reached between the unions and Verizon in 2003 were set to expire in August, but FairPoint bumped up negotiations when the sale was endorsed by regulators in the three states. If approved by union members, the contracts will take effect at midnight April 1.

Having the agreements in place when the merger is completed eliminates anxiety for hundreds of workers and will help the company move forward, said Walter Leach, FairPoint’s vice president of corporate development.

“We have so much that we want to get done over the next six months that having the union negotiations behind us - all of the employees on the same page, not worrying about posturing or negotiations - frees everyone up to spend all their time doing their jobs, taking care of customers (and) taking care of the broadband build out,” Leach said.

The company approached the two unions shortly before state utility regulators approved the deal Feb. 26, Brackett said.

The two unions had opposed the sale for months, questioning whether FairPoint had the financial resources to take over a company more than five times its size.

One of the sticking points for the unions was over health care benefits for retirees.

Verizon agreed to continue paying for benefits for retired workers, but FairPoint would not guarantee to fund the benefits for future retirees.

In its order last month, however, the Public Utilities Commission told FairPoint to set up a trust fund to pay for the benefits, a provision that was incorporated into the contracts, Brackett said.

“FairPoint understood our issue for retiree health care, and (with) this contract here at least, they’ve stepped up,” he said.

Chris Shelton, the District 1 vice president for the Communications Workers of America, said the union was also pleased with its agreement.

“We know that the members that we represent are the best in the world at what they do,” Shelton said in a prepared statement.

“With their experience and expertise and FairPoint’s commitment to improving service to Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, the future looks bright for telecommunication in northern New England.”