February 6, 2006

NY VIS Strike Ends Today; Contract Ratified by Over 2-1 Margin!

By a margin of over 2-1, striking VIS workers have ratified a new collective bargaining agreement that will bring their 14-week strike to an end.

“I congratulate the New York State Yellow Pages strikers for their outstanding solidarity and determination over the last three months,” said Chris Shelton, Vice President, CWA District One.  “They’ve won an excellent contract with major improvements that will set the pattern for Yellow Pages workers throughout the mid-Atlantic region.”

Buffalo strikers and supporters at the "Dump the Book" rally

“These 300 workers, despite their relative inexperience in the union, accomplished something that VIS never imagined possible:  they stood strong for 14 long weeks and never gave in until they achieved their most critical bargaining goals,” Shelton said.  “They are an inspiration to CWA members across the country.”

Shelton also thanked the leadership of Locals 1118, 1122 and 1105 for their inexhaustible efforts to support the strike and organize mobilization activities. Shelton congratulated Dennis Trainor, Assistant to the Vice President, and Staff Representative Pat Telesco, for leading the VIS bargaining team.

Shelton also thanked Bob Master, District One Director of Legislative/Political and Mobilization, for coordinating strike activities during the final two months of the strike, as well as District One attorney Gay Semel, who put in countless hours to hold the company accountable for its unfair labor practices and move negotiations ahead. And he thanked the other VIS locals and core Verizon locals across the northeast for their financial assistance and solidarity activities in support of the strike.

The highlights of the new agreement include:

• Greatly improved pay plan for sales personnel, with improved earnings assurances. Specific changes include:
• Change to a sales plan with discrete payouts for Renewal, Increase, New/Non and Strategic Product monthly revenue.
• Sales mix of base pay to incentive percentages to remain same with new pay plan. 
• Minimum percentage of targeted incentive allocated to each revenue measure.
• Multiple commission rates for Renewal and Increase multi-product revenue.
• Commission rates will be determined prior to the canvass and will not be lowered.
• Average Day Paid for qualified non-sales time.
• Annual Total Targeted Compensation Review that will lead to company payouts if 50% of workforce is below Total Targeted Compensation
• Non-sales people will receive annual raises of 3.5%, 3% and 3% beginning in April 2006.
• Flat rate capped increases in employee contributions for medical and dental benefits.
• No cuts in pension, 401(k), health care and dental benefits over life of contract.
• Improved time off language
• Improved grievance and arbitration language

Nearly 300 strikers returned to work in Manhattan, Westchester, East Meadow, Fishkill, Vestal, Syracuse, Albany and Buffalo today.

Strikers and Allies Mobilize to
Dump Hundreds of Books at VIS Offices

As part of the mobilization campaign, VIS locals held "Dump the Book" rallies in Albany and Buffalo. Another rally planned for Manhattan was cancelled when pressure from the upstate rallies brought the company back to the bargaining table.

Albany

8:00 a.m.	Day starts with the sun shining down on 50 picketers at 16 Corporate Woods Blvd. Breakfast is served with the arrival of 8 Fishkill strikers.
9:30a.m.	EVP Diane Stangle along with other 1118 Board members start piling 3 pickup trucks full of phone books at 4 Wembley Court (Local Office).
9:45a.m.	EVP Stangle is informed 250 more books need to be picked up on Railroad Avenue.
10:15a.m.	Trucks leave 4 Wembley Court and proceed back to Corporate Woods.
10:45a.m.	Arrive at Corporate Woods to find strikers keeping scabs from entering the driveway.
11:00a.m.	Pictures are taken, people load into their cars, blowing horns and screaming Yellow Pages pays slave wages.
11:15a.m.	An 11-car caravan heads to 158 State Street.
11:45a.m.	Caravan arrives at State Street to be greeted by 6 Verizon Corporate Security people along with Albany Police, 4 on horseback and 2 in cars, as well as 200 Verizon Core members and other affiliated members. The media was also anxiously awaiting our arrival.
12:00p.m.	The fun begins. The crowd goes wild as VIS Business Agent Brian Neary slams the first book into the side of the Verizon Building followed by the rest of the Capital District Labor Community.
12:11p.m.	Things get ugly. EVP Diane Stangle was informed by the local police that if the trucks left before the books were picked up the drivers would be arrested. The pile of books continues to get higher and higher.
12:12p.m.	EVP Stangle replies "The books are staying. We're only returning Verizon property."
12:17p.m.	Verizon security is outraged at our lack of compliance to the City Police Department. Tension mounts and the books continue to fly.
12:30p.m.	The situation was diffused with negotiations between EVP Stangle and the Commander of the Albany Police Department.
12:45p.m.	It's a wrap and a good time was had by all except by Verizon Security and the cleanup crew.

Buffalo

We began setting up the picket line and getting ready for the rally at 3:00 in the afternoon.

The crowd of supporters had begun to assemble at the light post on the corner of Niagara Falls Blvd. and Creekside Dr. The phone books were piled high already when another pickup truck pulled up and delivered another seventy-five books. We also had two more trucks on the way.

The rat was being inflated and the sound equipment was up and working. The media was on site.

By now it was almost 4:00, and Sen. Maziarz, Assemblyman Schroder and Bill Jacobi (Niagara County labor liaison to the United Way), Mark Kirsch President of Operating Engineers L. 17, and Nick Paolini, president of CSEA  Amherst Town employees union, were present. The politicians and the Union leaders were wonderful in their outpouring of support for our strikers and disgust at the arrogance and greed of Verizon.

It wasn't long after the rat became visible to the passing traffic that the Amherst Police arrived in force, we were visited by four patrol cars and several of Verizon's (minimum wage) security guards.

At this point the crowd had grown to more three hundred supporters and probably twice as many books.

The police demanded that we remove the books from the property.

We explained that we were returning the books to Verizon and they of course tried to deny us access to the property.

We weren't hearing any of that.

We gathered the troops, children included, and picked up as many books as we could and marched past the police and security and the property manager, across the lawn and heaved the books at the front door of Verizon Info Services, chanting as they did in Albany, "Look, look, here's your book!" This went on for a while as we had many many books to return.

At some point after the first two or three salvoes we were informed by the Police that the property mgr. was no longer allowing access to the property.

He stood like a statue at the access point with the police behind him, several of the supporters simply dropped the books at his feet. There was much chanting and shouting along with the whistles and noise makers, we were having a lot of fun at this point and the crowd was wild.

The property manager was telling the police to arrest somebody; however I don't think they really wanted to, and they didn't

While all this was going on, the other two pickup trucks arrived and, knowing that we could not walk onto the property, we informed the people that they could drive through the picket line, which they did and drop the books at the door, which they did.

I don't know the total number of books but the property owner called in two dump trucks to haul the books away. They were of no use to Verizon as they were all in a state of disarray and marked up with slogans such as "No Justice, No Peace," "No Contract, No Work," etc.

I would like to include a note of thanks to the IBEW 2213, CWA Locals 1115, 1117, 1133, and 1168 the UAW retirees and the active members of Locals 774, 686, and the Operating Engineers Local 17.

John Mudie, Area Vice President East
CWA Local 1122
Buffalo, N.Y. 

Web links in this issue:

• UAW Local 2110/Graduate Student Organizing Committee: http://www.2110uaw.org/gsoc
• Union discount on Cingular Wireless: http://cwa-union.org/cingular/discount.asp
• Mobilization photos: http://www.cwa-union.org/verizon/photos

Visit Unity@Verizon on the web for more:

• Mobilization photos
• Bargaining updates
• Contract expiration list
• Past Unity@Verizon e-mail updates

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