Re-open Voluntary Relocation Opportunity

May 5, 2021

Brothers and Sisters,

Last month the company offered voluntary permanent transfers to installers in base locations where everyone has been on temporary transfer for a long period of time.  This offer was not made to all the installers in every base location.  After posting a news article on April 12th, 2021, some of our members brought up issues/concerns about this offer not being made to all installers.  Through utilizing the chain of command for the local theses issues/concerns were brought to the attention of the CWA T&T Office which in turn were disscused with the company at the national level.  Because of this the company opened up the offer to every installer in every base location and an email was sent out to us all from Jerry Delany last Monday May 3rd.  Of course this is dependent on the skill set as well as the work volumes in both the originating and receiving locations.  Please see the attached spread sheet for more information.

The local also received questions and concerns abouth the company offering installers the opportuinity to take a leave of absence or extended leave of absence until the company has work for us all, this way the installer could possibly find short time employment elsewhere.  These questions/concerns were also brought to the attention of the CWA T&T Office and were discussed at the nationa level has well and my understanding is that the company would not consider it because it might possibly violate the agreement of accruing vacation days while not working any hours on payroll as well as create possible conflicts of interest. And the CWA T&T Office thinks that this could have a detrimental impact since you could not claim unemployment if you are on a voluntary leave of absence.

I was also informed that the company has a couple of contracts lined up for some different customers (other than Nokia) and if they get them, work is expected to pick up later this month.

In Unity,

R.K. Ferdinandsen

President

CWA Local 7590