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The new tentative three-year settlement with Verizon reached on Aug. 10 achieves CWA's goals of creating union jobs, securing fully paid health benefits for both active and retired workers and boosting wages and pensions for 65,000 workers in the northeast and mid-Atlantic. The settlement creates at least 2,500 new jobs by eliminating subcontracting in a number of job areas, converting 1,200 temporary and part-time jobs to permanent, and bringing additional FiOS jobs into the bargaining units. FiOS head end technicians for TV services are now represented and Verizon agreed that union techs will perform all installation.

In a breakthrough agreement, Verizon agreed to extend recognition to 600 former MCI techs at Verizon Business who have been seeking union representation for nearly two years, with strong support from CWA and IBEW members who have campaigned to "tear down the wall" between union and non-union parts of the company. The settlement also guarantees that medium and small business commercial work will be done exclusively by union members, and the company agreed to bring new Verizon Business work equivalent to 200 new jobs to union-represented locations.

Verizon agreed to meet with CWA and IBEW leaders at least three times a year to discuss jobs issues. "This is an important step," said CWA President Larry Cohen. "We're not going to wait around and just talk about all the changes and new technologies and job issues every three years. We're going to make this a meaningful ongoing process."

The settlement preserves fully-paid health care premiums for all active and retired workers over the course of the contract. For new hires, retiree health benefits will be covered by a new defined contribution plan with the amount of contributions to be negotiated in each future contract.

In addition, Verizon agreed to work with the unions in a joint effort to achieve national health care reform with universal coverage, and to provide $2 million a year to fund the project. Wages and pension bands will increase by 3.25 percent immediately, 3.5 percent the second year and 3.75 percent the third, delivering a compounded total of 10.87 percent. The pact includes a COLA effective Aug. 1, 2010, that would apply to wages if the CPI exceeds 3.75 percent between May 2009 and May 2010. The pension lump sum cashout remains in the contract with no change in the formula for calculating the amount.

"This is a breakthrough agreement in many ways," said Cohen. "It creates new union jobs including major growth areas like FiOS, it takes a big step forward on health care and brings hundreds of Verizon Business employees the union rights they deserve." He said the settlement "provides a framework for growth at Verizon and a good standard of living with careers for our members."

Members of the combined CWA-IBEW bargaining committee, speaking for regional bargaining teams in the northeast and mid-Atlantic, stated: "The involvement and mobilization of tens of thousands of our members made a huge difference in these negotiations. All of us together showed our strength, our commitment, our determination to get the best possible agreement."