November 3, 2011
Aloha from your negotiations team,
We got the approval! International President Ed Hill has granted our strike sanction.
However, at this time we are asking members to be patient, and report to work business as usual tomorrow.
There has still been no official response from the company on the Union’s last, best & final offer.
Remember tonight is the support services workshop at the main Union Hall from 5-730pm to discuss Unemployment insurance, Quest, Food assistance & Financial counseling, we will be making arrangements to document or film the session for our members on the neighbor islands.
Thank you for your continued patience, we know it has not been easy in these frustrating times!
In Solidarity,
Negotiations team
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The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local Union 1357 would like to make the following statement:
We would like to share that we have received strike sanction approval from our international office, so at this time a strike could be called at any moment. While a strike is truly the last thing we want, the company has only "surface bargained" with us, basically refusing to engage in meaningful dialogue and exchange, limiting our options. They presented their position of takeaways and have not moved off from that. This is not a company that is on the brink, they themselves have stated they are a viable business. The last two quarters of profit prove that point. With that said it is important to note that the CEO of Hawaiian Telcom, Eric K Yeaman received $6.7 million in compensation for 2010, a 408% increase! (That is more than the CEO of Microsoft), and they have stated our benefits are overly generous.
The membership of Hawaiian Telcom is not asking for any increases of wages or benefits only to keep what we have now. This has been purposeful as we have bargained for the past several years to keep our existing benefits intact, by making concessions in other areas. For example in 2008 when Hawaiian Telcom was under financial duress, the membership made the huge concession to give up retiree medical and defined benefit pension plans for new hires. This allowed the company to limit their liability and save millions of dollars! Although some have criticized the 26 weeks fully paid sick leave per year, this benefit is for veteran employees with 20 or more years of service, in the event of a catastrophic illness or injury. Additionally, the company provided information that only 2 people used their full benefit last year. Also, the company refused to give us medical/dental premium information for the plan year 2012. Members were forced to vote on the company offer without knowing what the cost would be.
In this current bargaining session with the company we have offered to give back our annual bonuses & compensation plans, savings for the company totaling almost 5 million a year and the company has flatly refused us.
For additional information on the status of Hawaiian Telcom, please reference the articles in the Honolulu Star Advertiser on 08/14/2011 by Alan Yonan Jr titled "CEO Salary", & 08/16/2011 by Andrew Gomes titled "Profits surge at Hawaiian Telcom"
In closing, we humbly ask for the communities support, as the members of IBEW 1357 take a stand to keep union jobs in Hawaii and protect our benefits from corporate greed and mishandling.
Kind regards,
Lisa Parran, IBEW 1357 Negotiations Committee, Communications
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STATEMENT FROM HAWAIIAN TELCOM:
Hawaiian Telcom is aware of IBEW 1357’s strike authorization. Based on the Union’s strike threats in the media, the Company is proceeding with its contingency plans and preparations, which is the prudent thing to do at a crucial time for our State and many of our customers with APEC events approaching.
The Union sent the Company a last, best and final offer of its own on November 1st, and that proposal is a two-year status quo extension that still insists on maintaining up to 26 weeks of fully paid sick leave and zero employee contributions toward full-family healthcare insurance. The components of the Union’s proposal were previously discussed in negotiations, and they do not support necessary shifts in the Company’s cost structure that are necessary to effectively compete into the future and to continue serving our customers and our Hawaii community for many years to come.
The Union’s positions ignore challenging economic realities in Hawaii, the United States and worldwide, ignore the benefit packages being offered by other employers, and ignore extreme competition in the communications industry. Instead, the Union is trying to misdirect the public away from the real issues involved, which are legacy benefits put in place when this company operated as a monopoly.
R. Scott Simon
Executive Director — Corporate Communications
Hawaiian Telcom
See the original article at: KHON2 Local News
