Today's Top Stories Verizon (NYSE: VZ) has reached tentative three-year contract agreements with its two primary wireline unions--the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) and the Communications Workers of America (CWA)--ending months of acrimony, saber rattling and the intervention of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS).  | | CWA union members at an August rally in Albany, N.Y. (Image source: CWA) | More than 40,000 East Coast employees are impacted by the two deals which members must still ratify. If approved, the agreement will run through Aug. 1, 2015. "We believe this is a fair and balanced agreement that is good for our employees as well as for the future of the Wireline business," Marc Reed, Verizon's chief administrative officer, said in a Verizon news release. "It provides competitive wages, valuable benefits and affordable quality health care while giving the company the new flexibility to better serve customers and become more efficient." IBEW, in its release, was less effusive about the end result, but clearly pleased that a settlement had been reached. "We don't agree with everything in it, but it allows us to move forward and continue to fight for good middle-class jobs at Verizon in the years to come," IBEW International President Edwin Hill said in the union's news release. About 6,500 IBEW members in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and upstate New York will be impacted by the new contract, which, Hill said, is a direct result of the "strong unity of the members at the bargaining table and in the workplace--along with the impartial hand of [FMCS] Director [George] Cohen and his staff." These two factors, he said, "forced the company to back off its original proposal which would have gutted nearly all the gains won by previous generations of telecommunications workers." For the CWA, the new contract was a hard-won victory over the "most sweeping and intensive attack on our standard of living and bargaining rights in the history of the telecommunications industry," according to Chris Shelton, vice president for CWA District One. "The unity and determination of 34,000 CWA members since bargaining began in June, 2011 has produced a new agreement that preserves intact our members' pension and job security, provides for a substantial wage increase, and preserves a high-quality health plan." "Verizon workers will keep their standard of living and the benefits and working conditions we've fought for over the years," added Ed Mooney, vice president of CWA District 2-13. Shelton lauded the assistance of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo who, he said in a CWA news release, "intervened on several occasions to break logjams in the negotiations." He also pointed to FMCS director Cohen "who determinedly worked with the company and the unions for seven weeks to bridge the gaps that separated the parties and to find a path to the contract." The negotiations with both unions were acrimonious. At times workers for both unions left their jobs to protest what they believed were unfair offers that would cut benefits. For more:
- Verizon issued this news release
- IBEW issued this news release
- and CWA issued this news release Related articles:
Verizon unions threaten walkout
Verizon walkout looms if mediation fails; mediator says 'significant key issues' remain
Verizon rejects unions' request for federal mediation in protracted labor talks Read more about: Verizon
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Consumer advocate groups descended on Columbus, Ohio Wednesday to make it clear to state legislators that they don't like a proposal to end guaranteed landline telephone service in the state. The Ohio Senate approved the legislation 30-3 in February and the debate moved on to the House, where it will likely resume after the November elections. The state is proposing legislation, backed by the telecommunications industry, that says it is a "waste of resources to continue maintaining archaic landline equipment at a time when more and more consumers are walking away from the service," a story on NBC4i.com said. The coalition of consumer advocate groups disagreed, pointing out that not everyone can get mobile service everywhere in the state. "Thirty-five years ago that was not a problem because all we had was two little copper wires coming into the house and that was our phone service and it worked," said Mike Turner, executive director of the United Seniors of Athens. "And without those two little copper wires coming into my house I would have no communication with the outside world and there'd be nothing I could do about it." According to a survey conducted and released by the Citizens to Protect Ohio Consumer Federation, there is "widespread public opposition to the proposal." "Common sense dictates that ending the guarantee of basic landline service is bad for consumers," said the group's president and David Kelley, the group's president who also happens to be the Adams County prosecutor. "The polling results showing that nearly 75 percent of Ohioans oppose the law show that Ohioans well know good policy from bad policy." According to Jack Kleinhentz, a representative for a phone company coalition called Technology for Ohio's Tomorrow, investing in existing landline equipment would mean cutting back on investments in broadband. "The important thing is… where we are going to put the investment and how to maintain it," Kleinhentz said. For more:
- see this NBC4i report Related articles:
States mull eliminating landline voice mandates
Ohio loosens up wireline regulations Read more about: ohio
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The fight for control of the Internet goes on with the United States taking a stance against what appears to be much of the rest of the world. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is now on record as unanimously opposing a proposal to give the United Nations' International Telecommunication Union (ITU) more control over governance of the Internet. The issue is expected to come up at a conference in Dubai in December, and the committee wanted to be ahead of it with its resolution and potentially the support of the full Senate. The committee resolution is another step in wide-scale U.S. opposition to a proposal that is reportedly being backed by China, Russia and other U.N. members to give the ITU more control over cybersecurity, data privacy, technical standards and the Web's address system. Those features are currently governed via a "multi-stakeholder" approach that gives power to a plethora of nonprofits and keeps governments out of Internet regulation, according to a story in The Hill, which said further that the resolution was intended to "promote a global Internet free from government control and preserve and advance the successful multi-stakeholder model that governs the Internet today." The Obama administration has already stated it is strongly opposed to any changes, and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), the committee's sponsor, said he is "hopeful" that a full Senate resolution will be passed as well--he just can't say when that would happen. "I just want to be clear that America is on record as being in favor or Internet freedom and that we don't want to see any internationally recognized right for government interference on the Internet and the free flow of information on the Internet," Rubio said, according to The Hill. Missouri Democrat Sen. Claire McCaskill, a legislation co-sponsor, tied the Senate action to support for business growth and development unfettered by government interference. "I'll continue to fight to ensure our bipartisan bill gets a vote on the Senate floor and that we continue to work across the aisle to encourage business growth and development, and that we're not giving oppressive regimes more tools to silence democratic dissent by their people," a McCaskill statement said. The vote was backed by cable's NCTA trade organization which said it sends a "strong message that the flow of information free from government control is vital to democracy, commerce, education and much more across the globe." The Software & Information Industry Association, also in favor of the vote, added "[w]e must put the full weight of the United States behind efforts to maintain a global Internet free from unnecessary international governmental control." For more:
- The Hill has this story Industry Voices: Walking the walk on Internet regulation Related articles:
FCC's Genachowski praises House resolution against U.N. Internet governance
Int'l proposals for U.N. Internet regulations draws bipartisan rebuke
High-level U.N. meeting targets broadband access Read more about: Itu
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For the second time, a Loudoun County, Va., board of supervisors has denied a franchise agreement between the county and Dulles-based broadband telecommunications provider OpenBand. A previous board rejected an earlier version of the proposed agreement in November only to have it resubmitted to--and rejected by--the current board in a 5-3-1 vote this week. "One of the things that we as a board have to look at is, is it in the best interest of our citizens?" said Supervisor Ralph Buona in a Washington Post story. Since OpenBand is embroiled in two lawsuits with county homeowners' associations, "I just can't reconcile that being in the interest of our constituents," he said. The situation with OpenBand, which provides triple play services in several county communities including Lansdowne and Southern Walk, has gone litigious in the past year. Homeowners' associations representing Southern Walk at Broadlands and Lansdowne on the Potomac filed federal complaints stating that "exclusive property easements established in contracts between OpenBand and the communities' developers had effectively resulted in a monopoly" and that competing cable service providers Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) and Verizon (NYSE: VZ) were unable to access the neighborhoods. The U.S. District Court dismissed the Southern Walk complaint with prejudice in February; Lansdowne got a July ruling that the terms of OpenBand's agreement were "in violation of the Federal Communication Commission's exclusivity order," the Post story said. Both cases will be reviewed by the 4th Circuit Appeals Court in the coming months, the newspaper said. Buona and Supervisor Shawn Williams have held meetings with OpenBand in the past to try to hash out a new agreement, but apparently things didn't work out since they both voted against a new deal, the Loudoun Times reported. Supervisor Matt Letourneau, who voted to approve the franchise, said his decision was based on a belief that the county board should not interfere in a dispute between two private entities (the homeowners' associations and OpenBand), further adding he believed rejection would lead to more litigation. OpenBand, which did not provide comment for either story, has been providing triple play services under a transition period outlined in a previous franchise agreement that expired in June 2009. For more:
- the Washington Post has this story
- the Loudoun Times has this story Related articles:
Philadelphia claims Verizon hasn't lived up to its FiOS agreement
Supreme Court decline to review Texas franchise dispute Read more about: Virginia, OpenBand
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A technical issue with its connecting company, AT&T (NYSE: T), is to blame for a series of sporadic phone outages that have dogged CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) customers in Mentone and Valley Head, Ala. this week. Business owners, school administrators and Mentone Mayor Rob Hammond told the DeKalb County Times Journal that service went down Sunday morning and that there were sporadic outages of prefixes 634 and 635 since then. It's not the first time this has happened, said Mentone Market owner Tom Emory who said "it happens a couple times a year." Emory said his service was restored Monday but went down again overnight. He said he could call other numbers with a 634 prefix but nowhere else. The sporadic outages also made it difficult for businesses to run credit cards, Emory added. Hammond said the outage didn't cause "any major problems" but was "inconvenient" and that he had trouble rousing up help from CenturyLink. "I may have to ride to Valley Head to see if I can find them," he told the newspaper. "This is way too long for a town to be out." The city tested its e-911 system and found it worked but Mentone callers were using cell phones to contact police. "We have the officers' cell phone numbers posted on our website and most people know the officers' cell phone numbers. But this is going on way too long," Hammond said in a story published late Wednesday. The problems first struck Valley Head Tuesday, said school principal Bill Monroe, noting, "our internal system is working, but nobody can call in or send a fax. We're having a major problem with it. Nobody has told us anything." CenturyLink spokeswoman Carmen Butler told the newspaper that the carrier's service is working properly "because people could call in the immediate area, but not out of the calling area" and this pointed to a technical issue with the connecting company, AT&T. She said she couldn't offer a timeframe when the issue would be repaired but "hoped to have the situation resolved soon," the newspaper said. For more:
- see this story in the DeKalb Times-Journal Related articles:
Mattress fire leaves thousands of Verizon customers without Internet and phone service
Comcast, Verizon, Frontier hustle to repair storm outages Read more about: AT&T
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Boosting business services: How the FCC's CLEC decision affects competition
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