August 10, 2008   

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A new tentative three-year contract settlement with Verizon

achieves union employees’ major goals of promoting union jobs and expanding

bargaining rights, providing good health care for both active and retired workers, and

increasing wages and pensions for 65,000 workers from Virginia to Maine, the

Communications Workers of America and International Brotherhood of Electrical

Workers reported.

In a breakthrough agreement, Verizon will extend union recognition to 600 former MCI

technicians at Verizon Business who have been seeking representation for nearly two

years. These workers, who perform the same jobs as the union workforce, have received

strong support from CWA and IBEW members in a campaign to “tear down the wall”

between union and non-union sectors at Verizon. The agreement also includes new

opportunities for union workers to provide customer support and service at Verizon

Business.

The tentative settlement also eliminates subcontracting of work in a number of job areas,

converts many temporary jobs to permanent and brings additional jobs associated with

Verizon’s cutting edge FiOS technology into the union bargaining units. Overall, the

settlement should create 2,500 new union jobs.

Verizon and the unions have agreed to meet regularly during the course of the new

agreement to review technological and business developments affecting employment,

which will allow the company to stay current with business opportunities while also

insuring that the unions are able to continue to represent employees as the business

environment changes.

The issue of health costs and benefits was a major focus of the talks, as it has been in

contract negotiations in virtually every industry. The settlement preserves fully-paid

health care premiums for all active and retired employees. Future hires will have a

defined contribution formula for retirement health care with the amount of Verizon’s

contributions subject to negotiation in each subsequent contract.

In addition, Verizon agreed to work with the unions in a joint effort to achieve

meaningful health care reform. The company will provide funding of $2 million per year

to the project.

The settlement calls for wage increases totaling 10.87 percent compounded over the

three-year contract term. COLA (cost of living adjustment) language remains in the

contract.

Pension bands also will be increased by 10.87 percent compounded over the term of the

agreement.

The settlement also provides for a streamlined grievance dispute resolution system which

will speed up a process that has been taking as long as three years to complete.

“This is a breakthrough agreement in many ways,” said CWA President Larry Cohen. “It

creates new union jobs including major growth areas like FiOS, it takes a big step

forward on health care and it brings hundreds of Verizon Business employees the union

rights they deserve. We applaud management for agreeing to keep the best health

coverage in America and for their commitment to work with us for real health care

reform. This settlement provides a framework for growth at Verizon and a good standard

of living with careers for our members.”

“This agreement is a tribute to the solidarity and activism of IBEW and CWA members

working at Verizon,” said IBEW President Ed Hill. “Our members mobilized strong and

negotiated hard for a good contract that will benefit workers and their families now and

in the future. We congratulate union and company negotiators for finding solid common

ground upon which we can build a better Verizon. With this agreement we have met our

goals to protect the retirees who helped build this company and have negotiated

important provisions that will ensure future jobs for union members.”

CWA represents 50,000 workers at Verizon and IBEW represents another 15,000 in the

northeast.