Unions Get Tentative Contract Agreement With Verizon

Following on the heels of the CTU strike comes word that the Communication Workers of America, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and Verizon have agreed to new contracts:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Verizon Communications and two unions have reached tentative agreements for labor contracts covering about 43,000 technical and customer service workers in its wireline telephone business after more than a year of negotiations and a strike.

Verizon was looking to slash its wireline telephone costs to bring them into line with declining revenue at the business, which has faced a steady stream of customer disconnections in recent years as consumers favor cellphones over home phones.

But the unions had fought back, saying that it asked for too many concessions in areas such as job security, pensions and healthcare contributions for the workers, which represent about half of Verizon's wireline workforce.

Under the new agreement, Verizon failed in its effort to freeze pension plans and change some job security provisions, but it prevailed in making the workers contribute for healthcare benefits, according to a union communication with its members.

...

Guggenheim Securities analyst Shing Yin said it seemed "at first glance that Verizon had probably made more concessions than the union."

But Yin described the news as a "mild negative" and said he expects Verizon shares to hold steady because investors were not "expecting the contract to be very positive for Verizon" after the long drawn-out negotiations.

The new contracts with the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers would run through August 1, 2015, if they are approved by the workers.

Current employees maintain their pensions, but employees hired after ratification will receive 401(k) plans.

Job security language from the old contract is kept as is, according to Reuters (itself a union-busting organization.)

Agreeing to a 401(k) for new employees seems like a really big concession to me.

Bloomberg Gave Verizon $175 Million Contract 9 Days Before Company Was Cited For Helping Contractor With Fraud

The outrages from the Mayor of Outside Consultant Corruption continue:

The city awarded a $175 million contract to Verizon, just nine days before the communications giant was cited by special schools investigator Richard Condon for "facilitating" a $3.6 million fraud by a technology consultant.

City officials insist the timing was coincidental, noting the two-year deal for phone and data services approved on April 19 was actually retroactive to Jan. 1.

On April 28, Condon issued a scathing report that accused both Verizon and IBM of playing roles in an alleged six-year swindle by consultant Willard Lanham, who was accused of shielding his thievery through layers of contractors and subcontractors in a project to wire public schools for the Internet.

Condon charged that Lanham was able to pull off his scheme by hiding the consultants as workers for Verizon and IBM, which billed the Education Department for their services at marked-up rates.

Nick Sbordone, spokesman for the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, defended the deal with Verizon.

"We will evaluate Verizon proposals in the future with knowledge that it was mentioned in the special investigator's report, but not implicated in the criminal case," he said.

Verizon claims they were duped in the Lanham case, but Condon found otherwise.

As for the mayor, it seems there is no wrongdoing a private entity can do that would make him want to cancel a contract or criticize a company.

He still maintains the $770 million CityTime boondoggle is working great now despite going $700 million and years over budget, most likely due to contractors extending out the work as part of a kickback scheme.

And he maintains that Verizon helping a DOE consultant steal $3,5 million is not a big deal because they weren't actually charged with a crime.

But if these entities had been unionized teachers, the mayor would be screaming up in Albany and on every TV channel that he needs new powers to deal with the "bad actors".

Business guys can do no wrong, unionized teachers do no right.

The $550 Million Bloomberg Plans To Spend On Tech At The DOE Must Be Frozen

Given the news yesterday that an outside consultant hired to provide Internet access to NYC schools by the NYCDOE was stealing millions from the city from 2002-2008 and that two major DOE vendors - I.B.M. and Verizon - were involved in helping the consultant to defraud the city, Bloomberg CANNOT be allowed to spend $550 million on technology upgrades to schools this year even as he lays off 4,666 teachers and lets another 1,500 teaching jobs go by attrition in order to save $300 million.

The technology upgrade contracts MUST be frozen until an outside independent auditor is allowed to see just who is being paid to do what in these contracts.

Not ONE teacher can be laid off while these financial shenanagins by Bloomberg, the DOE, the outside consultants and the DOE vendors go on without investigation.

After CityTime, after the questions raised by Daily News columnist Juan Gonzalez about other outside consultants hired by the DOE and now this arrest and revealed fraud involving I.B.M. and Verizon, the time has come to take away the mayor's dictatorial power over the school system and contracting.

It is very apparent that the mayor cannot be trusted with either.

The seriousness of these charges and the companies involved in the scheme to defraud the city cannot be overstated.

As Comptroller John Liu said in a statement yesterday:

“Federal charges once again, that a consultant has stolen millions from the taxpayers are infuriating enough. Even more disconcerting, however, are indications that corporations with billions of dollars in City business have aided and abetted and profited from the scam. As with the CityTime scandal, oversight of subcontracting is acutely needed right now.”

That is especially so when Bloomberg is laying off all these teachers even as the subcontractors and vendors rob the city blind of millions.