The IBEW New England and CWA District 1/IBEW Local 2213 Regional Bargaining Committees met with the CWA District 2-13 / IBEWMid-Atlantic Regional Bargaining Committees today at the Rye Town Hilton in Rye, New York.

 

Both committees recognize we are fighting the same greedy corporation. We were able to share our thoughts and concerns over common issues. Both committees agreed this type of meeting is beneficial and committed to continuing meeting jointly over common interests throughout the bargaining process.

 

The New York/New England Bargaining committee continued to discuss and work on the Union’s proposals with most of the day spent working on the Union’s job proposal. We will continue to work with our committee on developing a comprehensive proposal and will not meet with the company until next week.

 

The Regional Bargaining Committee also spent the last two days arguing with the company about not working our members overtime to address the work load. For the past few days, as the cable companies were announcing for everyone to hear that their workforce would be working 24/7 to handle the troubles caused by Hurricane Irene, the executives in Verizon were intent on denying our members overtime as punishment for going on strike. The company continues to make statements in the media that they care about the customers. This is far from the truth. There are thousands of trouble tickets and missed orders but our members are not working. They feel that punishing the members is more important than caring about their customers. If anyone knows of a friend or family member who is still out of service, have them call the DTC. The complaint number is 1-800-392-6066.