Communications Workers of America
Local 7201
Bargaining 2012
St. Paul & Winona Minnesota
Winona
Notice
This page is NOT password protected , information posted on this page is available to the public.
For release July 30, 2013
Denver, Colo. -- Following is a statement by Communications Workers of America District 7 on the tentative agreement reached with CenturyLink.
The CWA CenturyLink bargaining team has reached a five-year tentative agreement with the company that provides employment security for 11,000 CWA-represented workers in 13 states.
The proposed agreement provides lump sum increases and wage increases. It also provides new limitations on CenturyLink’s ability to contract out and move call center work outside the footprint, and includes a commitment to return jobs that have been outsourced and offshored.
Details are being provided to CWA District 7 members and locals, and a ratification vote will be scheduled.
This proposed agreement covers Legacy Qwest CenturyLink members in these states: Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Iowa. CenturyLink workers in Montana are represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
8-29-12
Last night all of the locals were on a conference call where we discussed a proposed Letter of Agreement
that the company provided to the District.
The topic was a Enhanced ZIPP VSPP that the company wanted to offer CWA represented employees.
This proposal provides the following:
1. The employee has the option of either VSPP or ISPP, whichever is higher, based on their TOE.
2. Those employees within 2 years of retirement can choose to take STLA with 50% of the VSPP payment (based on TOE) that they would qualify for, capped at no more than $13,200.00
3. Those employees choosing to voluntarily leave would receive an additional 6 months of company-subsidized COBRA coverage
4. Those employees who opt to voluntarily leave would also receive a buyout of their 2013 entitlement (based on their current TOE) time prior to accrual.
5. Those employees who elected to leave are anticipated by the company to be off payroll by 12-21-12.
6. For those who leave prior to 10-6-12 and who are covered under the CenturyLink/CWA/ IBEW merger LoA (those in Centers and eligible for the twenty percent (20%) severance enhancements) must elect either this current offer or the other merger LoA enhanced offer; they cannot participate in both offers.
Our objections to this letter are as follows:
1. If signed in its current proposed form, any organization can make an offer or offer(s) at any time subject only to individual corporate approval.
2. If signed in its current form, the company’s only obligation to the Union is written notice immediately before any such offers are made.
In terms of this offer, currently only Network Services has secured corporate approval. The Company indicated that RMG is “pending approval”.
The Company made this proposal to the Union the day after the bargaining committee proposed limits on the company’s ability to make voluntary offers solely to replace regular employees with contractors. In our discussions with the company regarding this LoA, they made it clear that their goal is to induce current employees to leave so that their work can be transferred to contractors. SEE SPECIAL NOTE BELOW
This LoA as written, is overly broad and would allow the employer total control over when, where, who and how. Their only obligation to us would be to provide ongoing, separate notices by each organization when/if they decided to make an offer.
The company told us that they anticipate having a final list of the organizations that would make the offer by mid-September.
In light of all of this, we do not believe that we should sign this proposal in its current form.
We believe it would be a mistake to give them this sort of control - particularly in the absence of specifics. It has become clear that they can’t surplus these people out without triggering the subcontracting provisions of Article 19. Additionally, there is the broader question of what happens to those who can’t jump. It is one thing to get a little extra when you were planning to leave anyway. It is quite another to burn the ground out from under those who can’t.
All Locals voted to reject the LOA unanimously for the following reasons.
Bargaining updates are available on the District 7 website
User name and password can be obtained by contacting your AVP, Steward or by calling the Local at 651 774-7201
St. Paul Supports Opening Day of 2012 Bargaining in Style!
10/11/13 2:00 PM UPDATE:
The CWA Bargaining Committee will have a call to
discuss the meeting that took place with
CenturyLink on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. The call will be this evening at 7:00 pm CDT.
Members are welcome to be on the call.
Location: 81 E. Little Canada Road
Enter on the East side lower level of building
Attention !!
The November 21st membership meeting
has been changed to
WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 13TH
Due to the amount of questions around the
Health Care options we will take this
opportunity to cover the PPO and CDHP plans
and answer questions prior to the close of
open enrollment.
The meeting on WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 13TH
will be held in the usual location
Laborers District Council Building
81 E. Little Canada Road
(please remember to park in the lot, enter on east side
lower level of building)
All Members and Retirees are Welcome
September 27th 6:45 PM
The results of the ratification vote for Tentative Agreement between the Communications Workers of America and Qwest/Centurylink are:
No - 54%
Yes - 46
_________________________________________
- 10-14-13
Members to cast 2nd Ratification Vote
Members will vote on whether to accept the previous tentative agreement amended with the language regarding the
Premise Technician title and the change to the 401(k) plan
A YES vote means the member accepts this as a contract.
A NO vote means that the member rejects the agreement
and is prepared to strike.
Ballot's will be mailed on Tuesday 10/15.
Ballot's must have a return postmark no later than
midnight on Tuesday 10/22/13.
* If you DO NOT VOTE it will NOT COUNT
(will not be counted as a yes or a no in the final vote)
* All Members must re-cast your ballot,
a vote previously cast does not count
10/25/13 3:00 PM
Results of Local 7201 2nd Ratification Vote
79% - Yes
21% - No
6:00 PM
District 7 Results
60% Yes
40% No
