Bargaining Report #34: Frontier Communications

The Union and the Company met today.

The Company provided more detail on the cost of contracting in response to the Union’s information request. The Bargaining Committee spent Monday and this afternoon preparing counter proposals.

From the beginning, it has been communicated that this would be a long process. Even before bargaining officially began, District Vice-President Ed Mooney spoke at many Local Union meetings and predicted this round of bargaining would be difficult and that an agreement would not be reached quickly.

Frontier did not bring an agenda of modifying just a few items to our collective bargaining agreement to these negotiations. They have worked to rewrite most of the contract. This creates voluminous amounts of work as the Bargaining Committee must review the Company’s proposed language, the current contract language, and previous contracts as we prepare a response. The Bargaining Committee is dedicated to the agenda that our members indicated most important to them.

Each member needs to continue to show Frontier they are committed to getting a good contract. Everyone should continue to wear their solidarity bracelets and work with their Local in its mobilization efforts. In the end it will be the actions of our members that get us a good contract, not solely the work of the Bargaining Committee!

BE INFORMED! BE INVOLVED! IT’S YOUR FIGHT! IT’S YOUR CONTRACT!