Federal mediators step in on FairPoint talks as strike hits 11th week

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Bangor Daily News

By Darren Fishell

PORTLAND, Maine — A team of federal mediators has been assigned to help FairPoint and two unions settle the contract dispute that’s led to an 11-week strike through the holiday season in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.

The U.S. Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service announced Friday that representatives from the company and the two unions will meet for a second time at the behest of federal mediators.

“FMCS has assigned a team of experienced mediators to assist the parties in reaching mutually acceptable agreements to resolve the work stoppage,” Allison Beck, acting director of the federal agency, said in a news release Friday.

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and Communications Workers of America — representing about 1,700 workers on strike — said the meeting will take place on Sunday in Washington, D.C.

FULL story at link.



Linda Coan O'Kresik
John Curtis (left) and Sheila O'Neill as Mother Christmas (center), members of the Community Union of Ellsworth and Hancock County, join the striking FairPoint Communications workers at the corner of Harlow and State Street in Bangor on Dec. 15. The elf delegation, calling themselves United Elves Local #1, presented a contribution check to the strikers' Solidarity Fund and announced that they came to Bangor "not only praise these folks," said Curtis, "but to urge FairPoint to negotiate."


Read more: http://bangordailynews.com/2015/01/02/business/federal-mediators-step-in-on-fairpoint-talks-as-strike-hits-11th-week/

[davidthegnome]

1. About damn time.

I live up in Aroostook County Maine. I don't know how true this is - but someone told me a few weeks ago that if we lose power in my little neck of the woods (fairly rural, small towns, etc.) it could take up to three days to get it back because of how many workers have been moved to the southern part of the state. On top of that, we've got the strike....

Whatever they want, Fairpoint, frigging give it to them. I don't like the idea of freezing to death when a big storm knocks out our power. We need our electric workers up here. Seriously.

[eggplant]

2. I'm confused.

What do electric workers and telephone workers have to do with one another? (This is a genuine question.)

[Omaha Steve]

3. It is not unusual for more than one union to represent workers in the same plant etc

It depends on how the original organizational drive happened. Lets us a fictitious GM plant as an example. As assembly production starts the car/truck goes through several different processes or areas. A specialized area like the paint shop may not have any other workers from that UAW LOCAL in the same plant, but there may be several other locals that are represented on the line.

It takes a little to get used to it from the outside.

OS

[eggplant]

4. No, I get that

but it sounded like you were concerned about losing power, not losing phone service. How are the two related? Fairpoint doesn't run the local electric company, too, do they?

Here we have Fairpoint for phone and DSL, but we get our electricity from NYSEG -- the two crews have nothing to do with each other. We were the start of Fairpoint here, when Taconic Telephone merged with a few other tiny companies, and then they just started slurping up small places up and down the east coast, with quality of service dropping rapidly and steadily. It used to be that if I had an issue with my net connection, I had the phone number of the actual person who would be fixing it, and I could get the issue resolved quickly and with a minimum of fuss. Now it's an endless pain in the ass dealing with DSL or phone issues.

As for power, we are out in the middle of nowhere too (although compared to you, I think we would be a metropolis), and it seems like our power pole is the last one on the line. We lose power before anyone else. We ended up buying a whole-house LP generator, piped into our existing buried propane tank. It can power nearly the whole house, and kicks on and off automatically. During the crazy ice storm in 2008, we ran it for 80 hours straight. It was very odd having light, heat, satellite tv, and DSL when everything around us for a hundred miles was dark. It was like living on a moon base. We invited our neighbors to join us, but they declined, except for popping over to recharge their cell phones. (Photos here: http://photos.muskovitz.org/josh-and-marley-s-albums/december-2008-ice-storm/)

I used to think about generators as a luxury, but I'll never go back as long as I live in the country. They are worth every cent for the peace of mind. And they really aren't that expensive, either.

[Omaha Steve]

5. I'm in Nebraska, but I'm asking a DUer that lives there to help on the answer

Just because a union is affiliated with the IBEW doesn't mean they do only electrical work. It didn't used to be that way. But as union membership declined, unions started raiding workers in other fields.

The CWA represents many airline workers that have nothing to do with communications like flight attendants etc.

So when little companies get bought up they have had different parent unions and kept them through the merging into the new larger company.

OS

[eggplant]

9. Ok, but I'm still confused. :-)

I get that both sets of linemen are members of the same union, but the electric workers aren't striking, are they? It was just that one comment that confused me.

[Omaha Steve]

10. IBEW line workers are on strike too

I hope that helps?

[eggplant]

11. Not really.

The CWA and IBEW brethren who are working for companies *other* than Fairpoint are still working, right?

http://bangordailynews.com/2014/11/12/news/state/fairpoint-complaints-tick-upward-as-strike-storm-effects-linger-2/

So I still don't understand the concern about electric service outages in the midst of the Fairpoint strike. This was just one line in davidthegnome's post, and isn't really relevant to the Fairpoint strike itself, so I feel I'm being excessively pedantic here.

As for the rest of it, I do have a decent understanding of how unions work. My dad continued to carry his pipefitter's card after he went to law school and later represented all of the local trades until he retired (insert lawyer joke here).

And as for Fairpoint, I hope the strikers win. Management are being complete assholes.

[Omaha Steve]

12. Correct

Only those that work for Fairpoint are on strike.

[NHLabor]

7. Your right

Power is provided by different companies throughout New England. Fairpoint is only phone and Internet.
The phone company uses linemen from the IBEW that is why both are involved in this dispute.

[NHLabor]

6. Who are Fairpoint's strikers

To answer your question Fairpoint's is a telephone and Internet service provider. The IBEW are the linemen who work the exterior lines, just like the power company linemen. The CWA represents additional Fairpoint workers including customer service agents and some office personnel.

They are all working off the same contract. And therefor they are on strike together.

Hope that answers your question.

[Gormy Cuss]

8. Fairpoint workers were encouraged by the non-union protest for Market Basket.

Fairpoint execs are taking a hard line and I hope that it blows up in their faces.


(aside: I have family and friends on the picket lines there, mostly CWA members.)