The IBEW System Council T6 telephone locals in Massachusetts and Rhode Island and IBEW Local 827 representing Verizon workers in New Jersey have filed a position paper and comments with the Federal Communications Commission on Verizon’s recent ventures with the cable companies to purchase wireless spectrum licenses. The IBEW T6 & IBEW Local 827 do not believe that this transaction is in the public’s best interest. The unions have urged the FCC to evaluate whether this deal negatively affects the Verizon workers and the communities throughout the region currently served by Verizon. The unions believe this will create a disincentive to build FiOS telecom services across the region and also allow Verizon to continue to abandon the core copper networks. In addition, the unions believe that this deal raises significant concerns in regards to a potential collusive relationship between Verizon and the cable companies.
Ballots were mailed last week.All members in good standing should have received their ballots.If you have not received your ballot, please contact the Union Hall.
Please follow the instruction on the back of the ballot and remember to put your name and address on the return envelope.
Completed ballots must be received no later than Friday, June 1st by 9AM.
All ballots received after 9AM on Friday June 1st will not be counted.
If you have any questions about the ballot or the election process, please call the Union Hall and request to speak with the Election Judge.
Verizon Communications and AT&T together represent the largest providers of legacy copper wire landline phone service in the United States. Over the past ten years, the traditional landline business has taken a beating as consumers increasingly turn their backs on the technology Alexander Graham Bell helped invent more than 100 years ago. No utility service faces more customer defections than the phone company, and providers are increasingly rewriting their business models or lobbying to abandon unprofitable service areas altogether.
For some customers, investments in network improvements have brought advanced fiber optics straight to the home. But in smaller communities, customers are making due with a deteriorating network phone companies no longer want to maintain.
On Behalf of the Officers and Executive Board of Local 2321, we would like to congratulate the following winner of the 2012 Massachusetts AFL/CIO Scholarship Program:
·Dennis Case Memorial Scholarship: Tyler Morelli
·John Nicolini Memorial Scholarship: Alaina Warren
·Gerry Schiavo Memorial Scholarship: Leanne Jenkins
·Dana Perham Memorial Scholarship: Allyssa Furtado
·Charles Car Memorial Scholarship: Tyler Hanides
·Francis McKenney Scholarship: Kevin Saunders
We extend our best wishes for the future to these young scholars. Congratulations!
Verizon, AT&T push to end universal landline service
Reuters
David Cay Johnston
April 10, 2012
The guarantee of landline telephone service at almost any address, a legal right many Americans may not even know they have, is quietly being legislated away in U.S. state capitals. AT&T and Verizon, the dominant telephone companies, want to end their 99-year-old universal service obligation known as "provider of last resort." They say universal landline service is a costly and unfair anachronism that is no longer justified because of a competitive market for voice services.
The new rules AT&T (Dallas, Texas, USA) and Verizon (New York) drafted would enhance profits by letting them serve only the customers they want. Their focus, and that of smaller phone companies that have the same universal service obligation, is on well-populated areas where people can afford profitable packages that combine telephone, Internet and cable television.
Sprint (Overland Park, Kan., USA), T-Mobile USA (Bellevue, Wash., USA) and the cell phone divisions of AT&T and Verizon are not subject to universal service and can serve only those areas they find profitable.
Unless the new rules are written very carefully, millions of people, urban and rural, will lose basic telephone service or be forced to pay much more for calls.
Florida, North Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin already have repealed universal service obligations. No one has been cut off yet, but once almost every state has ended universal service it could mean that some parts of the landline system may shut down.
Years of subtle incremental legal changes have brought the telephone companies within sight of ending universal service, which began in 1913 when AT&T President Theodore Vail promised "one system, one policy, universal service" in return for keeping Ma Bell's monopoly.
AT&T wants universal service obligations to end wherever two or more voice services are available, said Joel Lubin, AT&T's public policy vice president. Verizon promotes a similar approach.
State capitals are seeing intense lobbying to end universal service obligations but with little public awareness due to the dwindling ranks of statehouse reporters.
The Utility Rate Network, a consumer advocate group, identified 120 AT&T lobbyists in Sacramento, one per California lawmaker. Mary Pat Regan, president of AT&T Kentucky, told me she has 36 lobbyists in that state working on the company's bill to end universal landline service.
People whose landline service ends would have three options. First would be a cell phone, a reasonable substitute in many areas. But cell phones do not work in many rural expanses. Cell phones cost at least $25 for limited minutes, while lifeline services - which the companies offer to low-income people - start at $2 and, with unlimited local calls, at about $10.
Second would be Internet calling. That requires broadband Internet service. Verizon charges $49.99, plus additional charges by unregulated calling companies like Vonage, whose rates start at $25.99. On top of this $75 expense would be taxes and the cost of buying and maintaining a computer, a device alien to many older and poor Americans.
Third would be satellite service. Thomas Hazlett, a George Mason University economist who studies rural phone costs, says satellite service is "the way to go for service in outlying areas." Although, satellite does requires a computer, costs at least $29.95 and many users have complained about unauthorized charges and connection problems.
Verizon CEO Lowell C. McAdam doesn't quite have all of those SpectrumCo AWS licenses in his pocket just yet, but if he does get them he has a decidedly old school idea of what to flood the airwaves with: TV. The Wall Street Journal quotes him saying Verizon and its new cable friends could have "the beginnings of an integrated offering" out by the holidays, so pay-TV customers could watch video on their mobile devices. Even though many of the TV services are already streaming video to tablets, PCs and phones, currently most subscription services are limited to the space of the home's WiFi network, unlike the video on-demand seen above. According to McAdam the potential to negotiate rights for outside the home streaming and even busting open the bundles for à la carte programming exist -- provided the FCC and DOJ allow Verizon to complete the proposed $3.9 billion purchase. Of course, consumption based billing would still be on the table, so don't start planning your streaming schedule just yet. For now we'll wait and see if the pros of this arrangement outweigh the cons (and how its Redbox play is mixed up in this), or if the pie-in-the-sky NowTV-style elements of the plan are merely being floated to get the deal done.
We have seen an overwhelming amount of support from various union locals, businesses, community groups, and private individuals.To all those who have supported us so far, a big IBEW Local 2321 Thank You!Some notable groups to thank are:
Local 22 Laborers, who brought food and drinks to our Saugus line.
Not Your Average Joe’s Restaurant, who brought food to Methuen.
Tina Rainville, of Salem, NH who brought water and snacks to our lines near the NH Border
Lou Mandarini of the AFL-CIO who has delivered food to Danvers
Kate Glidden – Compass Point – donating food and supplies
Tony’s Pizza – Marblehead – 20 pizzas to Danvers Garage
Paul Labrie – donated Little Debbie’s snacks to the Union Office
IBEW 2320 Members at 879 Holt Ave, Manchester - Donated $300 to be dispersed to all picket locations
Andover Finest Painting Co – Mike Bouchard dropped 10 Pizzas and water off at Shattuck Rd in Andover.
Robert Sechrist of Sechrist Financial Services – delivering drinks to the line
Beverly Police Association – donated food- Danvers
Local 3 Bricklayers – supporting us in Andover
Thomas’s English Muffins – brought food to the Billerica line
Shaw’s Distribution Workers - on the line picketing with us every day in Methuen
NBPA Police Union – walking on the lines in Lowell
Dependable Masonry – 73 Concord St., North Reading, 978-664-5453, a small union shop that is letting us use their parking lot.
Tanya from Yellow Trucking on 80 Concord St., North Reading, dropped off a case of water and had Papa Gino’s deliver $100 worth of pizzas at the North Reading Garage… an unbelievable gesture!
CWA Local 6171 – dropped off Gatorade at Shattuck Rd in Andover
Gervais Lincoln-Mercury, Kia in Lowell for their kindness and generosity to all of our picketers at Crosspoint
Bricklayers Local 3 supporting us in Andover
Nolan, Perroni, and Harrington, LLP - Attorneys, 133 Merrimack St., Lowell MA
Joe Currao Landscaping brought coffee and donuts to Andover
Steve Morse, Business Rep, IUEC Local 4, Dorchester
Ed Adley, Business Agent, Teamsters Local 170, Worcester
Nick’s Place delivered pizza to Saugus
Heavenly Donuts Lawrence
Papa Gino’s delivered pizza to us at Saugus Wireless
Meaghan Pike donated to food bank
George K at Heavenly Donuts, Merrimack St., Methuen
Joan Norton, Financial Advisor, Woburn ice cream in Methuen
And our own Local 2321 Retirees, walking the lines with us, and bringing food and water
And these people refused to cross our picket lines:
DHL at Crosspoint Towers
UPS at Crosspoint Towers
A Cleaning Lady at the Dracut Garage
Dynamic Mobile Repair at the Saugus Garage
Carrier – Lawrence CO
FedEx in Dracut
Allied Waste – Dracut
GCR Fleet Services of Lowell - Dracut
Sullivan Tire - Danvers
Thank you for your support!We won’t forget!
Unfortunately, there are also those who must not understand why we are on strike, what we are fighting for, how they can support us, and what it means to respect a picket line.
Crossed our picket lines or would not support us:
AT&Tcrossed at Crosspoint Towers in Lowell
Poland Springs
Next Generation Vending
Balmoral Transportation
FedExat Crosspoint
Sal’s Pizza
East Pen Deco
Young’s Hottopwho harassed our picketers in North Reading
Iron Mountain Management Solutionsin Billerica
Equipneta Haverhill moving company removing equipment- Give them a call to let them know how you feel 888-371-6555!
Global Cleaningof Danvers – a worker would not cross but her manger forced her to go and drove her across our line
All Star Towingin Danvers
Air Technology– Danvers
Hector Beaulieu Trucking– Maine, 207-499-7870 – Dracut, picked up junk poles
