Bargaining Update

Frontier Communications (California)

Bargaining opened on Tuesday for over 2,000 CWA-represented workers at Frontier Communications in California.

In his opening statement, CWA District 9 Vice President Frank Arce said that he was proud of the service CWA members have provided even as the COVID-19 pandemic raged and Frontier went through a bankruptcy and leadership change.

“This is the time for Frontier to recommit to its customers and its employees,” Arce said. “It’s time to get serious about providing high quality, reliable internet service to every household in the areas that it serves. It is time to recognize that workers aren’t a liability on a spreadsheet that needs to be optimized and minimized, but the very lifeblood of this company.”

CWA members and allies, including Scabby the Rat, rallied outside of the Frontier office in Long Beach, Calif., where contract negotiations opened this week.

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Consolidated Communications

New England telecom workers who are members of CWA Local 1400 and IBEW Locals 2320, 2326, and 2327 have voted to authorize a strike against Consolidated Communications. The workers say the company is hiring too many outside contractors and bargaining in bad faith in negotiations that have been ongoing since March. A three-year contract with Consolidated is set to expire on August 7.

Consolidated purchased FairPoint Communications in 2017. FairPoint workers struck for four months from October 2014-February 2015 over many of the same issues on the table now.

“CWA and IBEW are in lockstep with each other to continue to fight for good-paying jobs and to maintain those jobs in northern New England,” said CWA Local 1400 President Don Trementozzi as reported in the Portland Press Herald.

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Arnot Health

On July 16, members of CWA Local 1111 held a rally outside Arnot Ogden Medical Center in Elmyra, N.Y., to demand stronger support and better benefits from Arnot Health. Workers are currently in negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement as the current agreement expires at the end of July.

For the past few months, workers have taken to the streets several times to demand dignity and respect on the job after caring for patients throughout the pandemic. They are fighting for higher wages, improved staff-to-patient ratios and affordable health insurance.