FairPoint Communications: Straightening out the Facts

The company won't negotiate.

This is simply not true.  By August, we had negotiated over four months and when the Unions did not provide any meaningful counter-proposals, the company declared an impasse.  Since then, the unions still have not offered any counterproposals that meaningfully address our core goals.  When they do, we will be able to sit with them and negotiate new contracts. We have been and will be flexible, but "flexibility" cannot mean abandoning changes that are critical to serving our customers and pricing products competitively in the 21^st century telecommunications marketplace.

The unions have offered significant concessions that they value at $200 million.  That should be "good enough."

We have never framed these negotiations with one number as the unions have suggested.  Rather, we have spoken about our core issues that are critical to better serving our customers and pricing products competitively in the 21^st century telecommunications marketplace.

While the numbers publicized by the Unions are certainly large, the core issues of these negotiations are much more complex than one number and impact expenses, cash flow and future liabilities.

We believe the details of our negotiations should remain private, but a wide gulf remains.  To date, the unions have not offered counterproposals that meaningfully and substantially address the entirety of our core issues. 

FairPoint wants to outsource jobs or eliminate good paying jobs in northern New England.  The company wants to move jobs overseas.

It is not the intent of our subcontracting proposal to cause the layoff of people. Rather, our proposal will give the Company the ability, among other things, to contract services as necessary in situations such as the annual summer storm season or when facing other emergency conditions. This will also allow FairPoint to respond more quickly and with greater flexibility to customer needs for new products and advanced services while maintaining jobs in northern New England now and in the future.

FairPoint's 2-tier wage proposal means it wants to pay new employees minimum wage.

First there are no strikers earning minimum wage.  The average striker took home $82,500 in W2 income in 2013, nearly twice the median income for the region.   

Second, to bring our wages closer to economic reality, we will pay future employees on a new wage scale that is like what most people in northern New England get paid.  Not only will the starting pay be above minimum wage but it will also be increased at six month intervals with an average annual base pay of nearly $58,000 within four years, plus overtime and bonus opportunities.  

And, these new hire wage rates come with the same benefits offered to all other bargaining unit employees.

FairPoint has taken health insurance away from striking union members.

When employees exercise their right to strike, they lose their right to compensation from their employer.  In America, employers are not required to pay employees who refuse to work.  So strikers:

1.       can return to work, and FairPoint will contribute towards medical coverage premiums.  We would welcome them back.

2.       can enroll in COBRA which is what federal law has designed to ensure strikers medical coverage if they pay for it.

3.       can explore other options such as the federal healthcare exchange.