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IBEW and Verizon Launch Contract Talks June 18, 2003 IBEW negotiations with Verizon kicked off yesterday with a rally supporting union efforts for a fair contract attended by six members of Congress in downtown Boston. Bargaining follows months of mobilization activities by IBEW members employed in Verizons traditional phone service business in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic. Both sides are gearing up for difficult talks; in 2000, members were on strike for more than two weeks until they reached an agreement. Negotiators face several daunting issues, including health care, layoffs, working conditions, job security and retirement security. Verizon, a profitable company occupying a slot in Fortunes top 10, is seeking more flexibility in work scheduling, overtime requirements and the grievance process. "The IBEW is ready to talk, to listen and to be creative," said IBEW System Council T-6 Chairman Myles Calvey in his opening statement Monday in Marlborough, Massachusetts. "We are willing to cooperate but not to capitulate. We are also determined to retain what we have worked many years for as well as to attain our fair share of recent company profits." Calvey, who is business manager of Local 2222 in Boston, said the union is not willing to concede diminishments in health care for workers and retirees or provide concessions on flexibility. Verizon has laid off hundreds of members in the past two years, but the company made $1.8 billion in the last quarter. Its top six executives have netted $396 million over the last four years. "The IBEW has always been reasonable at the bargaining table," Calvey said in his statement. "The IBEW certainly prefers sincere and honest negotiations over destructive confrontations. But we are ready for both." If a strike occurs, it would be the sixth involving telephone workers in the Northeast since 1983. In 20 years, union members have battled the company in each of its corporate incarnations: New England Tel, NYNEX, Bell Atlantic and now Verizon. The three-year contract expires at midnight August 2. Approximately 27,000 IBEW members at Verizon are covered by the agreement now being negotiated, working in New England, New Jersey, upstate New York and Pennsylvania.
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More Verizon Layoffs Likely as Workers Mobilize for Negotiations...
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